1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910793751203321

Autore

Leigh Egbert Giles

Titolo

Nature Strange and Beautiful : How Living Beings Evolved and Made the Earth a Home / / Egbert Giles Leigh, Christian Ziegler

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, CT : , : Yale University Press, , [2019]

©2019

ISBN

0-300-24916-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (305 pages)

Disciplina

576.8

Soggetti

Evolution (Biology)

Instructional and educational works.

Matériel d'éducation et de formation

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- One. Introduction -- TWO. How We Approach the Problem -- THREE. Adaptation, Individual and Social -- FOUR. Life's Common Ancestry, and Its Origin -- FIVE. Diversification -- SIX. Integrating Diversity into Community -- SEVEN. Heredity, Natural Selection, and Evolution -- EIGHT. Organizing Genes for Adaptive Evolution -- NINE. The Processes of Evolution -- TEN. The Last Transition -- ELEVEN. What Have We Learned, and What Is Still Unknown? -- Bibliographic Essay -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

A beautifully written exploration of how cooperation shaped life on earth, from its single-celled beginnings to complex human societies In this rich, wide-ranging, beautifully illustrated volume, Egbert Leigh explores the results of billions of years of evolution at work. Leigh, who has spent five decades on Panama's Barro Colorado Island reflecting on the organization of various amazingly diverse tropical ecosystems, now shows how selection on "selfish genes" gives rise to complex modes of cooperation and interdependence. With the help of such artists as the celebrated nature photographer Christian Ziegler, natural history illustrator Deborah Miriam Kaspari, and Damond Kyllo, Leigh explains basic concepts of evolutionary biology, ranging from life's single-celled beginnings to the complex societies humans have formed today. The



book covers a range of topics, focusing on adaptation, competition, mutualism, heredity, natural selection, sexual selection, genetics, and language. Leigh's reflections on evolution, competition, and cooperation show how the natural world becomes even more beautiful when viewed in the light of evolution.