Author: Sean B. Carroll
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
"Every animal form is the product of two processes-development from an egg and evolution from its
ancestors, " writes Sean B. Carroll in his introduction to Endless Forms Most Beautiful. The
new science of "evo devo"-or evolutionary developmental biology-examines the relationships between those two processes, embryonic development and evolutionary changes, despite their radically different time scales. Carroll first offers a recap of how genes express themselves in a growing embryo, then peers into the life histories of real-life examples to explain how those genes have changed (or not changed) over millions of years of evolution. Paraphrasing Thomas Huxley, he asks us to consider evolution
Evo Devo consists of the merged sciences of evolution and embryology. The relationship between these two branches of science isn't new, but it has expanded hugely over the last several decades. Darwin
Here's the
short version: We have about 25, 000 genes. A large number of these are "tool kit" genes that evolved over 500 million years ago - even before the Cambrian explosion. Almost exact