Speciation

The origin of species has spawned much interest and much literature in evolutionary biology over the past two decades, but no book-length account of the new findings and theories. Coyne (U. of Chicago) and Orr (U. of Rochester) set out to fill that gap. They see the current wave of research as a third phase after Darwin and his immediate successors' notion of gradual speciation due to ecological isolation or other factors, and the later emphasis on sudden speciation due to mutation. They begin with the reality and concepts of species and the methods of studying speciation. Then they describe the many varieties of speciation and isolation, reinforcement, selection versus drift, and macroevolution. The volume is of exceptionally high quality. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)