for researchers, a topic given little attention in
previous decades, are also discussed, both with
respect to caring for captive populations as well as
preserving pinned specimens. But perhaps most
importantly, the authors emphasize what to think
about before embarking on an insect conservation-
related project. This insightful approach, obviously
based on their wealth of personal experience, may
help others to avoid potential pitfalls and accomplish
the best outcome possible relative to the specific
conservation goals at hand. I heartily recommend
this volume.
Diane M. Debinski, Ecology, Evolution & Organ-
ismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
EVOLUTION
Darwinian Populations andNatural Selection.
By Peter Godfrey-Smith. Oxford and New York: Oxford
University Press. $49.95. ix
207 p.; ill.; index.
ISBN: 978-0-19-955204-7. 2009.
There is a long tradition of producing abstract
characterizations of natural selection. The two fo-
cal questions are (1) what is natural selection? and
(2) what entities does natural selection act on? The
common way to approach these questions is to
answer the first question before the second. How-
ever, the author holds that the two should be
answered in tandem, and proposes a “Darwinian
Population” (DP) as a framework to do so. For
Godfrey-Smith, a DP is a “collection of causally
connected individual things in which there is vari-
ation in character, which leads to differences in
reproductive output . . . and which is inherited to
some extent” (p. 39). Darwinian populations are
best envisioned within a multidimensional space,
whose core axes are H (fidelity of heredity), C
(smoothness of the fitness landscape), and S (de-
pendence of reproductive differences on intrinsic
character). Thus, some DPs are paradigm popula-
tions, with high reproductive fidelity, smooth fit-
ness landscapes, and fitness highly dependent on
intrinsic character, while others are marginal, with
organisms tending not to resemble parents, simi-
lar individuals lacking similar fitness values, or
traits not strongly linked with realized fitness.
Godfrey-Smith applies this framework to a variety
of biological examples and theoretical debates,
including the levels of selection controversy, the
nature of the distinction between natural selection
and genetic drift, and the applicability of natural
selection to culture.
Although we see the DP framework as an ad-
vance, we have some reservations. Mainly, is it truly
novel? A DP is defined in terms of variation, fit-
ness, and inheritance–the conditions for natural
selection classically described by Lewontin (1970.
Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 1:1-18). As
an exercise in showing the difficulty in applying
these conditions to the complexities of nature, the
DP framework is novel and illuminating, but as a
way of answering the first question mentioned
above, we have concerns. For example, it seems
that the DP framework loses the valuable distinc-
tion between natural selection and the evolution-
ary response to selection. Some of the dimensions
delimiting a DP have to do with selection (e.g., S
and C), while others have to do with responses to
selection (e.g., H). Although we applaud the au-
thor’s critiques of how genetic drift has been under-
stood, it is not clear that he provides a satisfactory
understanding of drift. He defines drift as the occu-
pying of one region of the DP space. Although he
claims to define what drift is, we see this as merely
answering the question of when drift is powerful.
He mentions in passing niche construction and
epigenetics, and spends one brief chapter on cul-
tural evolution. Topics such as these, which should
be test cases for a new Darwinian framework, were
treated with too little depth.
The book may have fallen short of its goals on
one level, but there is much to be recommended.
For a volume principally devoted to philosophical
thought, there is also a refreshing amount of in-
teresting biology. For example, Chapter 4 is an
excellent compilation of the variety of mecha-
nisms by which organisms propagate themselves
and explains well the impact this variation has on
the efficacy of natural selection (e.g., the distinc-
tion between ramets and seeds). The discussion of
individuality also emphasizes the way in which it
can be misleading to view organisms with a one-
size-fits-all mentality, justifying the proposal that
both philosophers and biologists should become
more self-conscious when considering evolution-
ary processes.
The strength of Darwinian Populations and Natu-
ral Selection is that it rightly warns us not to take for
granted basic concepts in evolutionary theory,
such as individual and descendant. The Earth is full
of species, from aphids to aspens, which leave us
wondering how best to carve the world at its joints.
Godfrey-Smith gives us a framework in which to
make sense of these cases; he encourages us to
keep an open mind to Darwinian processes, cajol-
ing us to “raise our glasses to mutations in ramets.
December 2010 499NEW BIOLOGICAL BOOKS

But we should raise them higher to mutations in
seeds” (p. 107). And we say, “hear, hear!”
Grant Ramsey, Hope Hollocher, Agustin
Fuentes, Charles H. Pence and Edwin Siu,
Evolution Working Group, University of Notre Dame,
Notre Dame, Indiana
Ancient Bodies, Modern Lives: How Evolu-
tion Has Shaped Women’s Health.
By Wenda Trevathan. Oxford and New York: Oxford
University Press. $34.95. vii
260 p.; ill.; index.
ISBN: 978-0-19-538888-6. 2010.
Recognizing the human species as a product of
evolution, anthropologists have come to ap-
proach modern diseases in an area of inquiry
now formally labeled “evolutionary medicine.”
Trevathan’s perspective on women’s health in-
corporates medical anthropology and human
biology. Through eleven chapters, the author
analyzes growing up and puberty, hormonal cy-
cles and ovulation, pregnancy, birth and the
neonate’s first hour, breastfeeding, and meno-
pause; the concluding chapter addresses women’s
health in the 21st century. Issues are analyzed at
several levels from the physiological to the cultural.
The strength of the book is its integration of re-
sults from many fields of research that any reader
will find informative, along with an invaluable bib-
liography.
Mother-infant interaction receives discussion in
two chapters that deal broadly with breastfeeding.
The dyad of female lactation and infant suckling,
which started over 100 million years ago with the
origin of placental mammals, has shaped both hu-
man females and their extremely dependent infants.
Breastfeeding promotes the infant’s immune system,
reduces infections, and lowers the risk for asthma,
type 2 diabetes, and the potential for becoming over-
weight. For women, life-long health benefits include
lower rates of breast cancer, infection, atherosclero-
sis, and type 2 diabetes. Postmenopausal women as
“grandmothers” can continue to contribute to the
younger members of society. Trevathan discusses
variation in cultural practices that reflect the flexibil-
ity of the human species. The success of the species
can be traced to mother-infant interactions that give
offspring a good sendoff, so they may survive to
maturity and have a healthy life, while at the same
time contribute to the mother’s well-being. The les-
son is plain why all societies and cultures need to
heed women’s health, for it translates into long-term
survival and well-being for all of its members.
Adrienne Zihlman, Anthropology, University of
California, Santa Cruz, California
Holocene Extinctions.
Edited by Samuel T. Turvey. Oxford and New York:
Oxford University Press. $99.00. xii
352 p.; ill.;
index. ISBN: 978-0-19-953509-5. 2009.
Although much media and scientific attention fo-
cuses on ongoing extinctions and on those of char-
ismatic megafauna at the terminal Pleistocene, less
appreciated is the scope and magnitude of ex-
tinctions during the intervening time period.
The Holocene (the past 11,500 years) is an ep-
och characterized by widespread, ongoing, and
accelerating extinctions. In just the past 400 years,
at least 485 animal and 585 plant species have
vanished (F. D. M. Smith et al. 1993. Nature 364:
494-496); a rate some argue approaches the “big
five” geologic extinctions when temporal scale is
considered (J. H. Lawton and R. M. May. 1995.
Extinction Rates. Oxford (UK): Oxford University
Press). Although there have been several excellent
books that deal with either end of the Holocene
(e.g., P. S. Martin and R. G. Klein. 1984. Quaternary
Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. Tucson (AZ):
University of Arizona Press; R. D. E. MacPhee.
1999. Extinctions in Near Time: Causes, Contexts, and
Consequences. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum
Publishers; T. F. Flannery and P. Schouten. 2001.
A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World’s Extinct Ani-
mals. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press), Holocene
Extinctions is the first comprehensive treatment
that focuses on extinctions during this underappre-
ciated epoch.
The volume includes theoretical and synthetic,
ecosystem, and taxonomic-based approaches. It
starts with an excellent overview of late Quaternary
climate and environment (An Introduction to Late
Glacial-Holocene Environments) by Mackay that in-
cludes a concise but good discussion of environmen-
tal proxies and methodologies. This is followed by
arguably the most valuable contribution–tables
complied by Turvey and Tyrberg (Chapters 3 and
4, respectively), which provide a comprehensive
global list of extinct mammal and birds with last
occurrence dates. This is a first, and will be of
considerable use to both paleoecologists and con-
servation biologists. Of course, estimating the time
of extinction from last occurrence data is not triv-
ial; along those lines I found a later chapter by
Collen and Turvey (Probabilistic Methods for De-
termining Extinction Chronologies) to be a help-
ful review of the literature on Signor-Lipps effects
and a pointed reminder that most taxa have too
few radiometric dates to estimate their actual ex-
tinction chronology with confidence. A minor
quibble: there is considerable variation in whether
radiometric or calendar dates are used within a
given chapter or table (sometimes which is re-
ported is unclear). It would have been much pref-
500 Volume 85THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY