Review by Choice Review
Fossil remains show that organisms have lived on earth for several billion years. Determining the absolute ages of fossils and of pivotal evolutionary events such as the origin of major groups of organisms is a key research challenge. Most efforts use radiometric dating, based on the known steady rates of isotopic decay. If genes are like isotopes and mutate at predictably constant rates, they could give independent estimates of evolutionary time. Advances in sequencing techniques have now brought this approach to the evolutionary research forefront. The "if" remains problematic, however, and the chapters of this symposium volume argue all sides of the controversy. The majority are detailed and technical (with jargon); they will most reward professionals and graduate students in paleobiology and phylogenetics. Five chapters address theoretical and general questions such as which among many genes provide the most reliable clocks, how to calibrate genetic differences from molecular analyses with morphological differences from paleontology, and whether protein sequences are more reliable than those from DNA. The remaining seven chapters compare molecular and paleontological analyses, their biases, and attempts to resolve discrepancies in the results from particular taxa, mainly land plants and the vertebrates and their ancestors. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Graduate students and above. A. J. Kohn emeritus, University of Washington
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
