Naturehas 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 Treebrings together nineteen review articles written forNatureover 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 Treeis a one-stop resource for engaging overviews of the latest research in the history of life on Earth.
Henry Geeis a senior editor atNature. He is the author ofBefore the Backbone: Views on the Origin of the VertebratesandIn Search of Deep Time: Beyond the Fossil Record to a New History of Life the latter also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Introduction: Shaken and Stirred—Henry Gee
Part 1: Shaping the Tree: How to Create a Tree of Life
Punctuated Equilibrium Comes of Age —Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge
The Major Evolutionary Transitions —Eörs Szathmáry and John Maynard Smith
The Powers and Pitfalls of Parsimony —Caro-Beth Stewart
Part 2: Geoffroy’s Legacy: Development, Evolution and Paleontology
Homeotic Genes and the Evolution of Arthropods and Chordates —Sean B. Carroll
A Common Plan for DlE
![Shaking the Tree: Readings from Nature in the History of Life [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/2/6/0/2_7034862.jpg "Shaking the Tree: Readings from Nature in the History of Life [Paperback]")