Origination of Organismal Form: Beyond the Gene in Developmental and Evolutionary Biology

Bys: Gerd Müller and Stuart Newman

A more comprehensive version of evolutionary theory that focuses as much on the origin of biological form as on its diversification.

The field of evolutionary biology arose from the desire to understand the origin and diversity of biological forms. In recent years, however, evolutionary genetics, with its focus on the modification and inheritance of presumed genetic programs, has all but overwhelmed other aspects of evolutionary biology...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262134195
• ISBN13: 9780262134194
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Bradford Book
• Length: 342 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.1" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Documents the major problems with neo-Darwinism

Origination of Organismal Form: Beyond The Gene In Developmental And Evolutionary Biology is a collection of excellent essays by scientists who assume Darwinian evolution, but whose work reveals various major evidential and conceptual problems with the theory. They are part of a growing number of scientists who find major problems with Darwinism but are not any type of creationist. The problems with Darwinism are usually buried deep in technical publications but they are there if one looks. Anyone with the training and inclination to read this book could benefit greatly from it. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in evolutionary biology. We can no longer ignore these problems. They are too great and must be dealt with. This book is an excellent introduction to these problems. A must read book!!!

In Search of a Theory of Evolution

The public Darwin debate doesn't really match the progress of biological research. And experts in the field seem reticent to point to the limits of the standard theories. Here we are told plainly, Darwinism has no theory of the generative. And the breakthroughs in developmental genetics fail to explicate the sources of organismic form. The text acknowledges that concern with the gene has overshadowed all other aspects of the discussion. This highly interesting, not too technical, work explores the work being done on evolutionary innovation. A theory of evolution should explicate both innovation and diversification.But natural selection can only explain how what already exists is maintained or transformed in the process of ecological survival. The standard explanations of variation and natural selection do not really explain this 'source of form' aspect of evolution, and we are presented with ambiguous statements about an evolutionary toolkit, in the developmental version, whose origins could not spring from the processes described in the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis. It seems an advance that a technical work by experts in the field would point this out. This is a very useful glimpse of the real work needed in biology, and should prove a useful refuge from the confusing public discourse on evolution that is generally less than helpful.