- ホーム
- > 洋書
- > 英文書
- > Science / Mathematics
Full Description
Is evolution predictible? Taking into account the results of such diverse disciplines of natural sciences as e. g. genetics embryology, ecology, palaeontology on the threshold of the coming century, the authors stretch out their ideas for discussing this question. Charles Devillers, biologist, and Jean Chaline, palaeontologist and geologist, developed a new assessment of the historic framework of evolution, based on their longterm experiences in scientific research, also including philosophical aspects to life. They aimed the book at a publicreceptive to problems of the origin and evolution of life and especially of mankind to teachers and scientists of various topics in the sciences of life, Earth and the Universe.
Contents
The Theory of Evolution - The 19th Century Concepts.- I: Biological Evolution.- 1 What Is Biological Evolution?.- Development of the Concept of Evolution.- Defining Biological Evolution.- Is the Theory of Evolution a Scientific Theory?.- 2 The Modern Theory of Evolution: The Synthetic Theory.- Some Stages in the History of Evolution.- What Does the Synthetic Theory Tell Us?.- Artificial vs Natural Selection.- Artificial Selection: Man's Greatest Biological Experiment - From Wolves to Dogs.- How Do Natural and Artificial Selection Differ?.- Natural Selection at Work: Competition.- Selection and Chance in the Survival of Organisms.- II: The Message of Nature Today - The Evolutionary Mechanisms.- 3 Genetic Material and Programmes.- The Structure of the Genetic Material: DNA and Genes.- How Can the Genetic Material Change?.- The Neutralist Theory of Evolution.- Mutation and Chance.- Functioning of the Genetic Material.- Genetic Programmes in the Synthetic Theory.- The "New" Genetics.- Molecular Evolution.- 4 From Egg to Adult: Development.- Relationship Between Development of the Individual and Its Evolutionary History.- Is Development the Resume of Evolutionary History?.- Does Development Create Evolutionary History?.- Why Has the Synthetic Theory Not Taken the Development Data into Account?.- What is the Development of an Organism?.- What Is the Role of the Genes in Development?.- Is Development Controlled Only by Genes?.- Evidence for the Role of Genes in Development.- Atavism: The Reappearance of Lost Features.- How Does Development Intervene in Evolution? From the Genetic Programme.- Through Development to the Final Organism.- 5 Adaptation: The Driving Force or a Result of Evolution?.- What Is Adaptation? How Can Different Organisms.- Adapt to the Same Conditions of Life?.- Remarkable Adaptations.- "Quality" of Adaptations.- Adaptation Does What It Can.- 6 A First Resume: Organisms, Selection, and Adaptation.- Not Everything Is Possible in Evolution, Even with Time.- Genetic Programming Works Economically.- Genetic Programmes and Development.- Hierarchy in the Construction of Organisms.- How Does a Leg Form? A Classical Problem of Evolution.- Continuity or Discontinuity in Evolution.- III: The Message of Fossils from the Palaeontological Record.- 7 The Formation of Species.- The Street, an Observation Point for Variation.- What Is a Population or a Species?.- Are Two Species Easily Distinguished Between?.- The Domestic Mouse and the Field Mouse.- The Sibling Drosophilas of Central and South America.- What Is the Purpose of Reproductive Isolation?.- In Mice, Proliferation Outweighs Aggressiveness.- Variation Within Species.- Variation Between Individuals.- Variation Between Groups.- The Origin of Species.- Speciation by Geographical Isolation.- Speciation Without Geographical Isolation.- May We Observe Species Forming at Present?.- A Fundamental Concept, the Hierarchy of Organizational.- Levels in Organisms, the "Keyboard of Living Matter".- 8 The Historical Framework of Evolution.- What Are Time and Space for Biologists and Palaeontologists?.- A Thought Experiment.- The History of Life.- The Origin of Life on Earth.- 9 The Species in the Course of Geological Time.- What Makes Palaeontological Species Special?.- Species and the Continuity of Generations Through Time: The Lineage.- What Is the Life Span of a Lineage?.- A Special Model of Speciation by the "Bottleneck Effect".- What Will Become of Lineages After Their Formation?.- A Mechanism of Evolutionary Change: Chronological Shifts in Development.- A Global Species Concept.- 10 From Species to Body Plans.- How Did the Major Body Plans Form: By Micro- or Macroevolution?.- Chronological Shifts in Development: A Mechanism for Major Evolutionary Change.- Evolution Within the Major Body Plans.- 11 Is Evolution Continuous or Discontinuous?.- Do Species Form Gradually or by Abrupt Discontinuities?.- The Gradual Model of the Synthetic Theory: A Revision of Concepts.- Radiations and Extinctions.- Synthesis of Evolutionary Patterns: A Spatial and Temporal Model of Evolution.- 12 Is Evolution Predictable?.- Are There Any Laws of Biological Evolution?.- Does Chance Intervene in Evolution?.- Can We Talk About "Progress" in Evolution?.- 13 A Second Resume: From Speciation to the Formation of the Major Body Plans.- Redefining the Species Concept.- Reconsidering the Concept of Speciation.- The Models of Speciation.- Micro-, Macro-, and Megaevolution.- Determinism and Chance in Evolution.- IV: A New Approach to Human Evolution.- 14 A Particular Type of Evolution - Human Evolution.- "Man, This Unique Being".- "Renaturalized" Man.- Our Close Cousins in the Zoo.- What Do We Know About the Bipedal Apes?.- What Do We Know About the History of Man?.- What Are the Implications of Human History on the Theory of Evolution?.- What Are the Stages of Development of the Human Psyche?.- Is Man Continuing to Evolve?.- Are There Human Races?.- Can We Measure Human Intelligence?.- V: The Future of the Theory of Evolution.- 15 What Will Become of the Theory of Evolution in the Year 2000?.- 16 Epilogue: What Has Become of the History of the Giraffe and Its Neck?.- Appendices.
