Synopsis
Are there similarities between the ways the living and the non-living worlds function and evolve? This text seeks to break out of the traditional, focused analysis of evolution to find similar patterns of change and stasis across various scientific disciplines.
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Review
What drives biological evolution? Celebrated theorist Niles Eldredge shows us how the adaptation of organisms to their environments mirrors other natural processes in The Pattern of Evolution, and while he's at it gets in a few jabs at "ultra-Darwinians" like Richard Dawkins. The well-known theory of punctuated equilibrium, which Eldredge conceived and promoted with Stephen Jay Gould, holds that species remain stable for long intervals between literally earthshaking events that rewrite the evolutionary roster. Eschewing the traditional view differentiating between historical sciences like his beloved palaeontology and functional sciences like physics and chemistry, he proposes that evolutionary theory, by explaining patterns found in nature, can give us just as much "hard" knowledge as Newton's laws. His intriguing ideas are fleshed out with descriptions of illustrative sites (particularly the Puerto Rican rain forest) and dramatic arguments from before, during and after Darwin's publication of The Origin of Species. As much a pleasure to read as his better-known colleague Gould, Eldredge shares his passions with his readers and is one of the few writers who can make theory both accessible and engrossing. While not all readers will agree with his attitude towards the "selfish gene" model of evolution, few will argue that his arguments for interdisciplinary synthesis in The Pattern of Evolution are anything but necessary and profound. --Rob Lightner
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Pattern of Evolution
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W H Freeman & Co (edition ), 1998
ISBN 10: 0716730464
ISBN 13: 9780716730460
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The Pattern of Evolution
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ISBN 10: 0716730464
ISBN 13: 9780716730460
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The Pattern of Evolution
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ISBN 13: 9780716730460
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The Pattern of Evolution
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