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'Carroll... writes in a lively style, peppering the book with endlessly fascinating examples' Scientific American.
'Impressively skilful first book' Independent.
'Provides an essential glimpse into both the creation of life and the excitement of scientific discovery' Sunday Telegraph.
'Makes Evo Devo accessible to a wider readership ... Carroll does it splendidly' Guardian.
'Sean B. Carroll is the ideal author to lead the curious on this intellectual adventure - he is the acknowledged leader of the field' Lewis Wolpert.
'A first-rate introduction to Evo Devo' Nature.
'Impressively skilful first book' Independent.
'Provides an essential glimpse into both the creation of life and the excitement of scientific discovery' Sunday Telegraph.
'Makes Evo Devo accessible to a wider readership ... Carroll does it splendidly' Guardian.
'Sean B. Carroll is the ideal author to lead the curious on this intellectual adventure - he is the acknowledged leader of the field' Lewis Wolpert.
'A first-rate introduction to Evo Devo' Nature.
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We not only share nearly 99% of our genes with chimps, we also have some 35% in common with daffodils. Throughout much of the animal and even plant kingdoms, almost the same ancient genes code for almost the same proteins. And further, to everyone's astonishment, the genes involved in making the complex eyes of fruitflies are close matches to those involved in making the very different eyes of octopuses and people. So what leads to the nature's 'endless forms most beautiful'? The key to this mystery is being unravelled by 'Evo Devo' or the new science of evolutionary development biology. By looking at how a single-celled egg gives rise to a complex, multi-billion celled animal, Evo Devo is illuminating exactly how new species - butterflies and zebras, trilobites and dinosaurs, apes and humans - are made and evolved. The key, it turns out, is all about location and timing... For anyone who has ever pondered 'where did I come from', Endless Forms Most Beautiful explores our history, both the journey we have all made from egg to adult, and the long trek from the origin of life to the very recent origin of our species.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
We must move away from thinking of evolution (and teaching it) as 'the changes in frequency of genes in genomes'. At worst, this is incomplete and misleading. At best, it is boring an uninformative. Instead, evolution is about changes in an organisms' form over (usually vast) time, brought about through changes in embryology. Furthermore, form is not moulded by changes in genes, per se, but more by alterations in how genes are utilised during development. We have pretty much the same repertoire of genes as worms and flies, yet the differences in form between us and them is obvious. It is changes in gene expression, in time and space, resulting from natural selection, that truly drives evolutionary adaptation. This is the core of Carroll's argument.
For too long the sciences of 'genetics' and 'developmental biology' were separated. 'Evolutionary developmental biology' or 'Evo-Devo' brings them back together with embryology as a central focus. Carroll is unquestionably a world leader in this relatively new field, and so is well positioned to write such a book.
The book is split broadly into two sections. First, Carroll describes the development of organisms. This makes readers familiar with genes, gene expression, and gene regulation. He introduces 'tool-kit' genes; those which do specific jobs during development, and then explains how changing when and where they are expressed can change the final developmental outcome. The context of gene expression is all important. In the second part of the book, Carroll moves into proper evolutionary biology but always from an Evo-Devo angle. He talks about changes in limb structures, segmentation, and butterfly wing patterns - all of which are neatly explained by changing the patterns of expression of 'tool-kit' genes.
I still meet people who consider themselves well versed in evolutionary biology but who don't know the first thing about developmental biology. Evolution is the change in development over time. Having one without the other is like being a physicist without knowing any maths - it's just silly. This book, more than other popular science evolution texts (I'm thinking Dawkins, Gould, Zimmer... the list is long) really brings development into focus and keeps it there as a central theme. For that reason, this is an important book and not just another evolution pop-sci.
For too long the sciences of 'genetics' and 'developmental biology' were separated. 'Evolutionary developmental biology' or 'Evo-Devo' brings them back together with embryology as a central focus. Carroll is unquestionably a world leader in this relatively new field, and so is well positioned to write such a book.
The book is split broadly into two sections. First, Carroll describes the development of organisms. This makes readers familiar with genes, gene expression, and gene regulation. He introduces 'tool-kit' genes; those which do specific jobs during development, and then explains how changing when and where they are expressed can change the final developmental outcome. The context of gene expression is all important. In the second part of the book, Carroll moves into proper evolutionary biology but always from an Evo-Devo angle. He talks about changes in limb structures, segmentation, and butterfly wing patterns - all of which are neatly explained by changing the patterns of expression of 'tool-kit' genes.
I still meet people who consider themselves well versed in evolutionary biology but who don't know the first thing about developmental biology. Evolution is the change in development over time. Having one without the other is like being a physicist without knowing any maths - it's just silly. This book, more than other popular science evolution texts (I'm thinking Dawkins, Gould, Zimmer... the list is long) really brings development into focus and keeps it there as a central theme. For that reason, this is an important book and not just another evolution pop-sci.
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