Hi!
I am looking for core books/papers on evolutionary mechanisms, specially in natural selection (directional, disruptive, stabilizing natural selection). I'm a physical anthropologist and I would like to reference important works on them. I have search but I have mostly found studies in very specific cases, and I am interested mainly in the broader concepts that I can use in my thesis.
I am aware of On the origin of species of course :) anything more recent?
Thank you in advance
Ana,
The major books on evolutionary biology that I could recommend you for reviewing the main evolutionary concepts, in my opinion, are the following:
- Futuyma, Douglas J. (2013) Evolution. 3rd edition. Sinauer Associates Inc
- Price, Peter W. (2001) Biological Evolution. 2nd edition. Brooks Cole
- Ridley, Mark. ed. (2004) Evolution. 2nd edition. OUP Oxford
- Ayala, Francisco J and Avise, John C. (2014). Essential readings in Evolutionary Biology. John Hopkins Univ. Press
I think with these 4 books you've got covered (and updated) the whole conceptual body of evolutionary biology.
I hope you find these suggestions useful.
Best regards
Ana,
have a look also on this one:
Fares, Mario A. (2014) Natural Selection: Methods and applications. CRC Press, ISBN-13: 978-1482263725
Beatriz
Try this website: https://www.frozenevolution.com/evolutionary-biology. There is a section dedicates to different selection (https://www.frozenevolution.com/iv62-stabilizing-disruptive-and-directional-selection-determine-direction-which-quantitative-trait-e). Could also try this book--Selection: The Mechanism of Evolution 2nd Edition by Graham Bell
Though written long ago, I would recommend George Williams "Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Biology.
More recently: see attached review paper by Lynch, et al.and the cited literature therein.
A newer wonderful paper. Attached
Any thing by John Maynard Smith, Jon Seger, William Hamilton,
Avoid David Sloan Wilson and Wynne-Edwards. Or at least read George Williams before you do.
Also an excerpt from a recent review by the fine evolutionary biologist James Bull about Williams:
How “Adaptation and Natural Selection” Changed Two Lives
So, re-reading ANS was a bittersweet experience for two grizzled old evolutionary biologists. When we first encountered the book in 1973, it revolutionized our conceptual worlds and showed us a way of thinking that we could (and did) apply to systems from bacteria to cane toads. Re-reading the book is like re-reading “The Origin of Species”, or watching a Star Wars movie for the third time. Once you already know what the author is getting to, and you accept the validity of his argument, it’s easy to become frustrated at the volume of background material that the author has (very properly) provided when making that argument to a skeptical audience for the first time. The intellectual achievement is remarkable, but no longer surprising.
The field of evolutionary biology has changed enormously in the last 50 years. One of the most fundamental changes has been the widespread adoption of the intellectual framework that Williams laid out in ANS. That framework now permeates the wider field so thoroughly that it is difficult to read the book now and comprehend its originality or even sense the emotional and intellectual impact it had when it was first published – or first experienced by two naïve young graduate students seven years later. This small book by George Williams changed the ways that biologists view natural selection and adaptation. George could not have dreamed of a more successful outcome.
We're developing, a slow determined biological and psychological development, but we can't evolve into other species or have a DNA different from the one of our species....as u know there's also no DNA link between homo sapiens and homo sapiens sapiens. This is biological evolution or biological development instead of evolution. They are different concepts. Evolution means we evolve and we may show sudden changes like mutation...etc. but biological development is something scientific and natural happening in the world and the first polymath who analyzed it was Al Jahiz in his encyclopedia The Book of Animals of better yet, The Book of Living. He analyzed that biological development is called biological determinism because: 1 the development is determined, ie: don't expect humans to have wings or so...it would be a logical, calculated, anticipated development, and 2: it is determined by natural processes, the most important of which are a: Environmental determinism (eg: u move to a hot environment it influences ur physiology and psychology, or eg: a village that drinks polluted water it's people develop skin abnormalities. ..etc.), b: Struggle for Existence ( eg: a strong lion develops strong biological characteristics based on his engagements in fights when it lives with multiple other predators for example, and the lion transmits these biological characteristics to its offspring), c: Defense Mechanisms ....there's also lifestyle and so on. U can relate to these more with AL-JAHIZ AND THE RISE OF BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
by Dr. Mehmet BAYRAKDAR and Jim Al Khalili' s researches on Al Jahiz's The Book of Animals, there's also
Lunde, Paul. ‘‘Science, The Islamic Legacy: The Book of Animals
Sultan Shah, Muhammad. “Pre-Darwinian Muslim Scholars’ Views on Evolution
Tschanz, David W. ‘‘Al Jahiz, the First Islamic Zoologist’’
Friedrich Dieterici 's Der Darwinismus im X und XIX Jahrhundert (Darwinism in the 10th and 19th Century)
And E. Wiedemann in his Darwinistisches bei Gahiz (Darwinism by Al Jahiz)
What I'm trying to say is that what u may call evolution, biological evolution or biological development of course exists, but certain scientists use it to prove creationism as they do with Natural Theology and the watchmaker analogy...because it's a defined exact scientific calculated expected natural process...so after all, 1- not all evolutionists are atheist, and 2- the defined determined methodological process of evolution proves the existence of God, not negates it...
Hope u can find something interesting in these ideas...
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