Evolution, Second Edition. Douglas J. Futuyma.

Abstract

We can to a certain extent understand how it is that there is so much beauty throughout nature; for this may be largely attributed to the agency of selection.    Charles Darwin, On the Origin of SpeciesDarwin's opus continues to be inspiration and catalyst for discovery of the myriad patterns and processes that distinguish life on Earth. So much has happened in the past 200 years to advance a science already standing on a sturdy foundation that evolution cannot be considered a modest topic to cover in a textbook, even one more than 600 pages long. Given the truth in Dobzhansky's assertion that nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution, a writer of a textbook on this subject is basically up against trying to present to students a work dealing with practically all of biology.