Why Evolution Is True

Why Evolution is True

Weaves together the many threads of modern work in genetics, palaeontology, geology, molecular biology, anatomy and development that demonstrate the processes first proposed by Darwin and to present them in a crisp, lucid, account accessible to a wide audience.

Summary of Jerry A. Coyne's Why Evolution Is True

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The argument that nature is the work of a watchmaker, and that all organisms are well-adapted, is both commonsensical and ancient. It was most famously expressed by the eighteenth-century English philosopher William Paley. #2 The modern theory of evolution is easy to understand. It states that life on earth evolved gradually beginning with one primitive species that lived more than 3. 5 billion years ago. The mechanism for most evolutionary change is natural selection. #3 The third part of evolutionary theory is the idea of gradualism. It takes many generations to produce a substantial evolutionary change, such as the evolution of birds from reptiles. #4 The evolutionary tree shown in figure 1 illustrates the relationships between birds and reptiles. When the common ancestor of these two groups split, two populations of a single reptilian species began to evolve slight differences from each other. These differences grew larger over time, and the two populations evolved sufficient genetic difference that they could not interbreed.

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