Suggested Additonal Reading

Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species. This is a timeless classic and a marvelous example of a beautifully written scientific argument in Victorian times. It had an enormous impact immediately upon its publication in 1859, one that reverberates to this day. Darwin's main contribution was not the idea of evolution, of the modification of organisms throughout geological time; this was an old idea and was written about by his grandfather Erasmus Darwin. Instead, Darwin's brilliant insight provided an elegantly simple mechanism by which evolution might proceed. It doesn't really matter which edition of Origin of Species you read but if you can, read both the first edition and a much later one in which he attempts to answer the many criticisms that contemporaries made about his ideas. Curiously enough, the origin of species is not dealt with in the Origin of Species!

Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker. In your authors opinion, this is the second most important book on evolution that he's come across. This is an exegesis (or what used to be called an «apology») of evolution by natural selection to a modern day lay audience. Dawkins sweeps nothing under the rug as he explains in very clear, easily read language how natural selection and evolution work. An old argument against evolution, one still popular today, is the Argument from Design. Dawkins thoroughly refutes this attractive but misguided notion and demonstrates that any evidence of design in the anatomy and physiology of organisms arises from non-teleological (i.e.. non-purposeful) mechanisms; these mechanisms being the blind watchmaker of the title. If you were to read only one of the books in this list, it should be this one.

Dawkins has several other books, some of which are aimed a at professional audience (e.g.. The Extended Phenotype) and are quite controversial. One of these other books, The Selfish Gene, is more accessible to a lay audience and describes his point of view that the gene, not the individual organism, is the unit of natural selection and is what evolutionary mechanisms are actually operating on. This interpretation has been labelled ultra-Darwinism and is quite controversial amongst research workers in evolution. (Dawkins did not found the ultra-Darwinian school though he is a major proponent of it.)


Daniel Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Dennett is not a biologist, rather he is a philosopher of science. In «Darwin's Dangerous Idea», he explores the idea that evolution by natural selection is but one manifestation of a much broader principle, one that is literally universal in scope. This book is very thought provoking but is not light reading.


Steven Jay Gould has published many wonderful books, most being collections of essays he writes for Natural History magazine on a monthly basis; almost all his essays describe some curious corner of evolution. With regards to animal diversity and a different way of looking at how diversity came about, I strongly recommend his book Wonderful Life. This is not an essay collection, rather it describes the impact that the reinterpretation of pre-Cambrian fossils collected from the Burgess Shale is having upon biological thought. These fossils (and this book) are particularly relevant to BC as the Burgess Shale formation is located in Yoho National Park, just outside Field, BC.

After reading Gould's Wonderful Life you will undoubtedly want to see some of the fossils yourself. Unfortunately, the Royal BC Museum in Victoria does not have any (though it is worth visiting for other reasons). The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta does have some Burgess Shale specimens on display. Also, the Tyrrell is devoted to an exhibition of evolution and animal diversity and is best known for their dinosaur displays and research. It is well worth going out of your way to spend 2 days there; your author makes a pilgrimage to the Tyrrell at every opportunity he has.


 

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