The Origins of Evolutionary Innovations

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Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191621285
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

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Book Synopsis The Origins of Evolutionary Innovations by : Andreas Wagner

Download or read book The Origins of Evolutionary Innovations written by Andreas Wagner and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2011-07-14 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of life is a nearly four billion year old story of transformative change. This change ranges from dramatic macroscopic innovations such as the evolution of wings or eyes, to a myriad of molecular changes that form the basis of macroscopic innovations. We are familiar with many examples of innovations (qualitatively new phenotypes that provide a critical benefit) but have no systematic understanding of the principles that allow organisms to innovate. This book proposes several such principles as the basis of a theory of innovation, integrating recent knowledge about complex molecular phenotypes with more traditional Darwinian thinking. Central to the book are genotype networks: vast sets of connected genotypes that exist in metabolism and regulatory circuitry, as well as in protein and RNA molecules. The theory can successfully unify innovations that occur at different levels of organization. It captures known features of biological innovation, including the fact that many innovations occur multiple times independently, and that they combine existing parts of a system to new purposes. It also argues that environmental change is important to create biological systems that are both complex and robust, and shows how such robustness can facilitate innovation. Beyond that, the theory can reconcile neutralism and selectionism, as well as explain the role of phenotypic plasticity, gene duplication, recombination, and cryptic variation in innovation. Finally, its principles can be applied to technological innovation, and thus open to human engineering endeavours the powerful principles that have allowed life's spectacular success.

Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262132695
Total Pages : 482 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (326 download)

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Book Synopsis Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation by : Lynn Margulis

Download or read book Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation written by Lynn Margulis and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These original contributions by symbiosis biologists and evolutionary theorists address the adequacy of the prevailing neo-Darwinian concept of evolution in the light of growing evidence that hereditary symbiosis, supplemented by the gradual accumulation of heritable mutation, results in the origin of new species and morphological novelty.A departure from mainstream biology, the idea of symbiosis--as in the genetic and metabolic interactions of the bacterial communities that became the earliest eukaryotes and eventually evolved into plants and animals--has attracted the attention of a growing number of scientists.These original contributions by symbiosis biologists and evolutionary theorists address the adequacy of the prevailing neo-Darwinian concept of evolution in the light of growing evidence that hereditary symbiosis, supplemented by the gradual accumulation of heritable mutation, results in the origin of new species and morphological novelty. They include reports of current research on the evolutionary consequences of symbiosis, the protracted physical association between organisms of different species. Among the issues considered are individuality and evolution, microbial symbioses, animal-bacterial symbioses, and the importance of symbiosis in cell evolution, ecology, and morphogenesis. Lynn Margulis, Distinguished Professor of Botany at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is the modern originator of the symbiotic theory of cell evolution. Once considered heresy, her ideas are now part of the microbiological revolution. ContributorsPeter Atsatt, Richard C. Back, David Bermudes, Paola Bonfante-Fasolo, René Fester, Lynda J. Goff, Anne-Marie Grenier, Ricardo Guerrero, Robert H. Haynes, Rosmarie Honegger, Gregory Hinkle, Kwang W. Jeon, Bryce Kendrick, Richard Law, David Lewis, Lynn Margulis, John Maynard Smith, Margaret J. McFall-Ngai, Paul Nardon, Kenneth H. Nealson, Kris Pirozynski, Peter W. Price, Mary Beth Saffo, Jan Sapp, Silvano Scannerini, Werner Schwemmler, Sorin Sonea, Toomas H. Tiivel, Robert K. Trench, Russell Vetter

On the Origin of Products

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316947300
Total Pages : 327 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (169 download)

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Book Synopsis On the Origin of Products by : Arthur O. Eger

Download or read book On the Origin of Products written by Arthur O. Eger and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-02-15 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this new work, Arthur O. Eger and Huub Ehlhardt present a 'Theory of Product Evolution'. They challenge the popular notion that we owe the availability of products solely to genius inventors. Instead, they present arguments that show that a process of variation, selection, and accumulation of 'know-how' (to make) and 'know-what' (function to realize) provide an explanation for the emergence of new types of products and their subsequent development into families of advanced versions. This theory employs a product evolution diagram as an analytical framework to reconstruct the development history of a product family and picture it as a graphical narrative. The authors describe the relevant literature and case studies to place their theory in context. The 'Product Phases Theory' is used to create predictions on the most likely next step in the evolution of a product, offering practical tools for those involved in new product development.

The Origins of Evolutionary Innovations

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199692599
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (996 download)

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Book Synopsis The Origins of Evolutionary Innovations by : Andreas Wagner

Download or read book The Origins of Evolutionary Innovations written by Andreas Wagner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-07-14 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The theory can successfully unify innovations that occur at different levels of organization.

Evolutionary Innovations

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226586946
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (869 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolutionary Innovations by : Matthew H. Nitecki

Download or read book Evolutionary Innovations written by Matthew H. Nitecki and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1990-07-14 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolutionary innovations—the bony skeleton of vertebrates, avian flight, or the insect pollination system of angiosperms, for example—have in recent years become the focus of much fertile new research in evolutionary biology. Innovations may hold the keys to understanding why whole new groups of organisms evolve or, conversely, why groups of organisms become extinct. This volume brings together contributors from the fields of morphology, genetics, embryology, physiology, and paleontology to present research on evolutionary innovations and to suggest directions for further work. The topics covered include the plurality of evolutionary innovations, patterns and processes at different hierarchical levels, evolutionary genetics of adaptations, heterochrony and other mechanisms of radical evolutionary change in early development, developmental mechanisms at the origin of morphological novelty, the evolution of morphological variation patterns, functional design and its punctuated products, plausibility and testability in assessing the consequences of evolutionary innovations, paradigms and pitfalls of studying physiological evolution, polyphyletic constructional breakthroughs in fossil and extant species, ecology of evolutionary innovations in the fossil record.

Homology, Genes, and Evolutionary Innovation

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691180679
Total Pages : 494 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Homology, Genes, and Evolutionary Innovation by : Günter P. Wagner

Download or read book Homology, Genes, and Evolutionary Innovation written by Günter P. Wagner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-10 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major synthesis of homology, written by a top researcher in the field Homology—a similar trait shared by different species and derived from common ancestry, such as a seal's fin and a bird’s wing—is one of the most fundamental yet challenging concepts in evolutionary biology. This groundbreaking book provides the first mechanistically based theory of what homology is and how it arises in evolution. Günter Wagner, one of the preeminent researchers in the field, argues that homology, or character identity, can be explained through the historical continuity of character identity networks—that is, the gene regulatory networks that enable differential gene expression. He shows how character identity is independent of the form and function of the character itself because the same network can activate different effector genes and thus control the development of different shapes, sizes, and qualities of the character. Demonstrating how this theoretical model can provide a foundation for understanding the evolutionary origin of novel characters, Wagner applies it to the origin and evolution of specific systems, such as cell types; skin, hair, and feathers; limbs and digits; and flowers. The first major synthesis of homology to be published in decades, Homology, Genes, and Evolutionary Innovation reveals how a mechanistically based theory can serve as a unifying concept for any branch of science concerned with the structure and development of organisms, and how it can help explain major transitions in evolution and broad patterns of biological diversity.

On the Origin of Autonomy

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Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 331904141X
Total Pages : 302 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis On the Origin of Autonomy by : Bernd Rosslenbroich

Download or read book On the Origin of Autonomy written by Bernd Rosslenbroich and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume describes features of autonomy and integrates them into the recent discussion of factors in evolution. In recent years ideas about major transitions in evolution are undergoing a revolutionary change. They include questions about the origin of evolutionary innovation, their genetic and epigenetic background, the role of the phenotype and of changes in ontogenetic pathways. In the present book, it is argued that it is likewise necessary to question the properties of these innovations and what was qualitatively generated during the macroevolutionary transitions. The author states that a recurring central aspect of macroevolutionary innovations is an increase in individual organismal autonomy whereby it is emancipated from the environment with changes in its capacity for flexibility, self-regulation and self-control of behavior. The first chapters define the concept of autonomy and examine its history and its epistemological context. Later chapters demonstrate how changes in autonomy took place during the major evolutionary transitions and investigate the generation of organs and physiological systems. They synthesize material from various disciplines including zoology, comparative physiology, morphology, molecular biology, neurobiology and ethology. It is argued that the concept is also relevant for understanding the relation of the biological evolution of man to his cultural abilities. Finally the relation of autonomy to adaptation, niche construction, phenotypic plasticity and other factors and patterns in evolution is discussed. The text has a clear perspective from the context of systems biology, arguing that the generation of biological autonomy must be interpreted within an integrative systems approach.

Life Ascending

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Publisher : Profile Books
ISBN 13 : 1847652220
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (476 download)

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Book Synopsis Life Ascending by : Nick Lane

Download or read book Life Ascending written by Nick Lane and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2010 Royal Society Prize for science books Powerful new research methods are providing fresh and vivid insights into the makeup of life. Comparing gene sequences, examining the atomic structure of proteins and looking into the geochemistry of rocks have all helped to explain creation and evolution in more detail than ever before. Nick Lane uses the full extent of this new knowledge to describe the ten greatest inventions of life, based on their historical impact, role in living organisms today and relevance to current controversies. DNA, sex, sight and consciousnesses are just four examples. Lane also explains how these findings have come about, and the extent to which they can be relied upon. The result is a gripping and lucid account of the ingenuity of nature, and a book which is essential reading for anyone who has ever questioned the science behind the glories of everyday life.

The Origin of Higher Taxa

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022633595X
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (263 download)

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Book Synopsis The Origin of Higher Taxa by : T. S. Kemp

Download or read book The Origin of Higher Taxa written by T. S. Kemp and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text discusses whether the origin of radically new kinds of organisms - new higher taxa - are the result of normal Darwinian evolution proceeding, or whether unusual genetic processes and/or special environmental circumstances are necessary.

New Developments in Evolutionary Innovation

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198837097
Total Pages : 245 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (988 download)

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Book Synopsis New Developments in Evolutionary Innovation by : Gino Cattani

Download or read book New Developments in Evolutionary Innovation written by Gino Cattani and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolutionary thinking has had a profound impact on theories of technological innovation and strategy. This volume explores how significant advancements made in evolutionary biology since the 1970s influence evolutionary approaches to these areas, with an emphasis on the role of serendipity and unprestateability in innovation and novelty creation.

The Evolution of Technology

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316101584
Total Pages : 262 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (161 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolution of Technology by : George Basalla

Download or read book The Evolution of Technology written by George Basalla and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1989-02-24 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an evolutionary theory of technological change based upon recent scholarship in the history of technology and upon relevant material drawn from economic history and anthropology. It challenges the popular notion that technology advances by the efforts of a few heroic individuals who produce a series of revolutionary inventions owing little or nothing to the technological past. Therefore, the book's argument is shaped by analogies taken selectively from the theory of organic evolution, and not from the theory and practice of political revolution. Three themes appear, and reappear with variations, throughout the study. The first is diversity: an acknowledgment of the vast numbers of different kinds of made things (artifacts) that have long been available to humanity; the second is necessity: the belief that humans are driven to invent new artifacts in order to meet basic biological requirements such as food, shelter, and defense; and the third is technological evolution: an organic analogy that explains both the emergence of novel artifacts and their subsequent selection by society for incorporation into its material life without invoking either biological necessity or technological progress. Although the book is not intended to provide a strict chronological account of the development of technology, historical examples - including many of the major achievements of Western technology: the waterwheel, the printing press, the steam engine, automobiles and trucks, and the transistor - are used extensively to support its theoretical framework. The Evolution of Techology will be of interest to all readers seeking to learn how and why technology changes, including both students and specialists in the history of technology and science.

Evolutionaries

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Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062100602
Total Pages : 291 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (621 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolutionaries by : Carter Phipps

Download or read book Evolutionaries written by Carter Phipps and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-06-26 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Carter Phipps brilliantly expands our understanding of evolution by showing us that a new science is emerging—one that will holistically integrate our understanding of consciousness, cosmology, and evolution.” —Deepak Chopra Blending cutting-edge ideas with incisive spiritual insights, Evolutionaries is the first popular presentation of an emerging school of thought called “evolutionary spirituality.” Carter Phipps, the former executive editor of EnlightenNext magazine, asserts that evolution is not only a scientific but also a spiritual idea in a book whose message has the power to bring new meaning and purpose to life as we know it. Readers will be fascinated and enlightened by Evolutionaries, a book which Deepak Chopra, the world-renowned author of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroes, Jesus, and Buddha, says “is going to help create a worldview that will influence our vision of the future direction of evolution and also our role in consciously participating in it.”

Plant Evolution

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022634228X
Total Pages : 590 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (263 download)

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Book Synopsis Plant Evolution by : Karl J. Niklas

Download or read book Plant Evolution written by Karl J. Niklas and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-08-12 with total page 590 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although plants comprise more than 90% of all visible life, and land plants and algae collectively make up the most morphologically, physiologically, and ecologically diverse group of organisms on earth, books on evolution instead tend to focus on animals. This organismal bias has led to an incomplete and often erroneous understanding of evolutionary theory. Because plants grow and reproduce differently than animals, they have evolved differently, and generally accepted evolutionary views—as, for example, the standard models of speciation—often fail to hold when applied to them. Tapping such wide-ranging topics as genetics, gene regulatory networks, phenotype mapping, and multicellularity, as well as paleobotany, Karl J. Niklas’s Plant Evolution offers fresh insight into these differences. Following up on his landmark book The Evolutionary Biology of Plants—in which he drew on cutting-edge computer simulations that used plants as models to illuminate key evolutionary theories—Niklas incorporates data from more than a decade of new research in the flourishing field of molecular biology, conveying not only why the study of evolution is so important, but also why the study of plants is essential to our understanding of evolutionary processes. Niklas shows us that investigating the intricacies of plant development, the diversification of early vascular land plants, and larger patterns in plant evolution is not just a botanical pursuit: it is vital to our comprehension of the history of all life on this green planet.

Arrival of the Fittest

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Author :
Publisher : Current
ISBN 13 : 1617230219
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (172 download)

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Book Synopsis Arrival of the Fittest by : Andreas Wagner

Download or read book Arrival of the Fittest written by Andreas Wagner and published by Current. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Wagner draws on over fifteen years of research to present the missing piece in Darwin's theory. Using experimental and computational technologies that were heretofore unimagined, he has found that adaptations are not just driven by chance, but by a set of laws that allow nature to discover new molecules and mechanisms in a fraction of the time that random variation would take"--Amazon.com.

The Origin and Evolution of Cultures

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0195347447
Total Pages : 465 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (953 download)

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Book Synopsis The Origin and Evolution of Cultures by : Robert Boyd

Download or read book The Origin and Evolution of Cultures written by Robert Boyd and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-01-20 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oxford presents, in one convenient and coherently organized volume, 20 influential but until now relatively inaccessible articles that form the backbone of Boyd and Richerson's path-breaking work on evolution and culture. Their interdisciplinary research is based on two notions. First, that culture is crucial for understanding human behavior; unlike other organisms, socially transmitted beliefs, attitudes, and values heavily influence our behavior. Secondly, culture is part of biology: the capacity to acquire and transmit culture is a derived component of human psychology, and the contents of culture are deeply intertwined with our biology. Culture then is a pool of information, stored in the brains of the population that gets transmitted from one brain to another by social learning processes. Therefore, culture can account for both our outstanding ecological success as well as the maladaptations that characterize much of human behavior. The interest in this collection will span anthropology, psychology, economics, philosophy, and political science.

The Princeton Guide to Evolution

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 069117587X
Total Pages : 886 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis The Princeton Guide to Evolution by : David A. Baum

Download or read book The Princeton Guide to Evolution written by David A. Baum and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 886 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essential one-volume reference to evolution The Princeton Guide to Evolution is a comprehensive, concise, and authoritative reference to the major subjects and key concepts in evolutionary biology, from genes to mass extinctions. Edited by a distinguished team of evolutionary biologists, with contributions from leading researchers, the guide contains some 100 clear, accurate, and up-to-date articles on the most important topics in seven major areas: phylogenetics and the history of life; selection and adaptation; evolutionary processes; genes, genomes, and phenotypes; speciation and macroevolution; evolution of behavior, society, and humans; and evolution and modern society. Complete with more than 100 illustrations (including eight pages in color), glossaries of key terms, suggestions for further reading on each topic, and an index, this is an essential volume for undergraduate and graduate students, scientists in related fields, and anyone else with a serious interest in evolution. Explains key topics in some 100 concise and authoritative articles written by a team of leading evolutionary biologists Contains more than 100 illustrations, including eight pages in color Each article includes an outline, glossary, bibliography, and cross-references Covers phylogenetics and the history of life; selection and adaptation; evolutionary processes; genes, genomes, and phenotypes; speciation and macroevolution; evolution of behavior, society, and humans; and evolution and modern society

Origination of Organismal Form

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262134194
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (341 download)

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Book Synopsis Origination of Organismal Form by : Gerd B. Muller

Download or read book Origination of Organismal Form written by Gerd B. Muller and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2003-01-03 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A more comprehensive version of evolutionary theory that focuses as much on the origin of biological form as on its diversification. The field of evolutionary biology arose from the desire to understand the origin and diversity of biological forms. In recent years, however, evolutionary genetics, with its focus on the modification and inheritance of presumed genetic programs, has all but overwhelmed other aspects of evolutionary biology. This has led to the neglect of the study of the generative origins of biological form. Drawing on work from developmental biology, paleontology, developmental and population genetics, cancer research, physics, and theoretical biology, this book explores the multiple factors responsible for the origination of biological form. It examines the essential problems of morphological evolution—why, for example, the basic body plans of nearly all metazoans arose within a relatively short time span, why similar morphological design motifs appear in phylogenetically independent lineages, and how new structural elements are added to the body plan of a given phylogenetic lineage. It also examines discordances between genetic and phenotypic change, the physical determinants of morphogenesis, and the role of epigenetic processes in evolution. The book discusses these and other topics within the framework of evolutionary developmental biology, a new research agenda that concerns the interaction of development and evolution in the generation of biological form. By placing epigenetic processes, rather than gene sequence and gene expression changes, at the center of morphological origination, this book points the way to a more comprehensive theory of evolution.