Evolution and Ecology
Evolution and Ecology
The mechanisms of macroevolutionary change are a contentious issue. Paleoecological evidence, presented in this book, shows that evolutionary processes visible in ecological time cannot be used to predict macroevolutionary trends, contrary to Darwin's original thesis. The author discusses how climatic oscillations on ice-age timescales are paced by variations in the Earth's orbit, and have thus been a permanent feature of Earth history. There is, however, little evidence for macroevolutionary change in response to these climatic changes, suggesting that over geological time, macroevolution does not occur as a result of accumulated short term processes. These conclusions are used to construct a postmodern evolutionary synthesis in which evolution and ecology play an equal role. Written by a leading paleoecologist, this book will be of interest to researchers in both ecology and evolutionary biology.
- New perspective on a controversial area of evolution by a leading palaeoecologist
- First work to look at evolutionary change over all timescales
- Synthesis bringing ecology and evolution together using fossil record of the ice ages
Reviews & endorsements
"...I strongly recommend this book to the audience Bennett aims at--evolutionary biologists and ecologists as well as anyone working in the Earth Sciences. Conservation biologists and even policy makers should also find this book interesting, as it provides a helpful temporal perspective on anthropogenic change." The Quarterly Review of Biology
"...this is a succinct, readable volume with a straightforward message. It touches on a pivotal scale of paleontogical data that has rarely, if ever, been synthesized in this fashion, and merits the attention of anyone interested in relationships among evolutionary patterns and processes at different spatio-temporal scales." Arnold I. Miller, Complexity
Product details
December 1996Paperback
9780521399210
260 pages
229 × 152 × 15 mm
0.39kg
90 b/w illus. 8 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Development of ideas
- 3. Orbital-forcing of climatic oscillations
- 4. Geological evidence for orbital-forcing
- 5. Biological response: distribution
- 6. Biological response: evolution
- 7. Biological response: extinction
- 8. Evolution and ecology: synthesis
- References
- Index.
