Review by Choice Review
Although Charles Darwin concluded that embryos would provide the best evidence for the fact of evolution, embryos have not provided the best evidence for Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Population genetics, speciation, and life history theory have filled that role. Recently, embryos have returned to center stage in the evolutionary play, as researchers have realized that embryos and the processes of embryonic development hold vital keys to understanding how new cell types, tissues, organs, and types of organisms arise. This field of study--now known as evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo)--forms the central perspective of this important book on how people's views of embryos in evolution have changed over the past 200 years. Amundson (Univ. of Hawaii), a philosopher who has thought deeply about these issues, examines the origins of the evolutionary analysis of embryos in the 19th century, explores why embryology was omitted from the evolutionary syntheses forged in the 20th century, and discusses how embryos and evolution were reunited late in the 20th century. This is revisionist history at its best. The death of Ernst Mayr, the last surviving "father" of the modern synthesis, makes the publication of this important book all the more timely. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. B. K. Hall Dalhousie University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
