Shaking the Tree: Readings from Nature in the History of Life (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780226284972)

Nature has published news about the history of life ever since its first issue in 1869, in which T. H. Huxley ("Darwin's bulldog") wrote about Triassic dinosaurs. In recent years, the field has enjoyed a tremendous flowering due to new investigative techniques drawn from cladistics (a revolutionary method for charting evolutionary relationships) and molecular biology.

Shaking the Tree brings together nineteen review articles written for Nature over the past decade by many of the major figures in paleontology and evolution, from Stephen Jay Gould to Simon Conway Morris. Each article is brief, accessible, and opinionated, providing "shoot from the hip" accounts of the latest news and debates. Topics covered include major extinction events, homeotic genes and body plans, the origin and evolution of the primates, and reconstructions of phylogenetic trees for a wide variety of groups. The editor, Henry Gee, gives new commentary and updated references.

Shaking the Tree is a one-stop resource for engaging overviews of the latest research in the history of life on Earth.

Author: Henry Gee
ISBN-10: 0226284972
ISBN-13: 9780226284972
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 05/01/2000
Pages: 418
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 8.99h x 6.02w x 0.99d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 04/17/2000 pg. 61
Scitech Book News 09/01/2000 pg. 48