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Despite the title, Darwin's Origin of Species doesn't really explain how new species are born. Scientists have been struggling with that thorny problem ever since its publication, and the recent revolution in molecular biology has turned up great piles of new evidence. Anthropologist Jeffrey H. Schwartz takes a close look at this evidence, as well as the more traditional paleontological material, in Sudden Origins: Fossils, Genes, and the Emergence of Species. He claims that the tide is turning in favor of "punctuated equilibrium"--the theory that species typically remain static for great lengths of time and then experience brief spurts of accelerated change--thanks in no small part to the discovery of homeobox genes.
These remarkable structures are the genetic equivalent of the proverbial butterfly wings that cause hurricanes halfway around the world--small changes can produce enormous effects. Homeobox genes regulate development and are remarkable similar between species and even between phyla--you share some with fruit flies, for example. By turning our attention toward embryology and development, Schwartz shows us that fossils can't tell the whole story, since much of it lies within the womb. He covers a lot of ground and stretches the reader's intellectual muscles; the scope of Sudden Origins and the greater understanding of Darwin's problem make the challenge well worth it. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
"Fascinating."-Nature
Finally a compelling answer to the question that has plagued scientists for centuries . . .
"A detailed and informative historical account."-Nature
"This is an intriguing and significant work."-Library Journal
"A provocative new theory to explain how species arise."-Scientific American
"A worthwhile attempt at bridging the new developments in how species may change and the evidence for the patterns of those changes."-American Scientist
Darwin may have argued that new species emerge through a slow, gradual accumulation of tiny mutations, but the fossil record reveals a very different scenario-the sudden emergence of whole new species, with no apparent immediate ancestors.
In this provocative and timely book, Jeffrey Schwartz presents a groundbreaking and radical new theory that explains exactly how evolution works. Turning to the marvels of genetics, paleontology, embryology, and anatomy, and introducing the recent discovery of an extraordinary type of gene, known as homeobox genes, Schwartz provides an evocative answer to the long-standing question: How do species emerge?
Writing with the expert knowledge only an insider can bring, Schwartz tells the intriguing history of the study of evolution, from the initial breakthrough discoveries to the famous Piltdown controversy up through the genetics revolution. Sudden Origins is a monumental book that ties together all the threads of evolutionary theory while providing a compelling answer to one of life's most enduring conundrums. This book is crucial reading for anyone who has ever pondered the mysteries of our evolutionary heritage.
Customer Reviews:
Hoxgenes to the rescue?.......2001-05-14
The first ten chapters is merely a historical survey of evolutionary discourse, and I shall not comment on them. It is the two final chapters that are supposed to offer a hopeful alternative to the beleaguered neo-Darwinian approach to evolution. Here the author relies on the role of homeobox genes, and highlights their effects on changes in morphology. His argument can be briefly summarised by referring to two of the examples he gives: the Rx gene in eye development, and the Manx gene in the development of the notochord during the larval stage of a species of tunicate.
Experiments with mice showed that individuals which carry a mutated (and therefore non-functioning) Rx gene failed to develop either an eye or its bony socket if the condition is homozygous, but individuals that are heterozygous in Rx undergo normal eye development. Schwartz argues that the reverse situation must have occurred in the past, i.e., a precusor mutated into the Rx gene. This was initially in the recessive state, as mutated genes generally are. This then spread widely through the population via heteroxygotes, until eventually homozygotes were produced in sufficient numbers to mate with each other. The mutant gene, i.e. Rx, was then expressed in the homozygotes, which developed eyes.
It is helpful to juxtapose the facts that the author appeals to, and the inferences he draws from them. The facts are that mutations in functioning genes render them non-functional - a loss of information. Schwartz turns this on its head and hypothesises that a mutation in a non-functioning DNA segment could render it functional - the emergence of novel information by natural processes.
One can get any complex multi-functioning mechanism, make a random change to one of its components, and render a part of the mechanism non-functional. It does not follow from this fact that the faulty component could have come about by chance, waiting for a random change to put it into working order. This is the kind of inverted logic employed above. The real world abounds in examples of natural processes producing degeneration, and causing malfunction in previously functioning mechanisms. The reverse process, however, has no basis in fact.
The case of the tunicate illustrates the importance Schwartz attaches to embryonic development in evolution. The homeobox gene, Manx, is responsible for the development of the notochord during the tunicate's larval stage. At a later stage the gene is deactivated and the adult tunicate does not possess a notochord. Schwartz hypothesises that at some point in the tunicate's evolution a mutation in some regulatory gene extended the duration of activation of the Manx gene, resulting in an adult with a notochord. This is a case of heterochrony, specifically paedomorphosis. Such a discrete change would be consistent with what one finds in the fossil record.
The author argues convincingly for the discrete nature of the fossil record, as many others have done before him. In doing so he poses an effective challenge to the neo-Darwinian model. But the substitute he offers is hardly able to provide the solution. Schwartz hypothesises on the possible discrete evolutionary changes that could be brought about by changes in the control genes, given a fully functioning genetic apparatus to start with. The real problem for evolution, however, is to explain how that fully functioning apparatus got there in the first place. Deactivation of a homeobox gene may possibly explain the reduction of a three-toed horse into a one-toed horse, as Schwaltz suggests, but it can hardly account for the origin of horses.
Since mutant genes are useless or lethal, it is hardly surprising that they are recessive rather than dominant. It is most reasonable to infer that this is part of life's defense mechanism, designed to protect the organism from potential damage from mutations.
Sits atop an important trend, but maybe too history-heavy.......2000-12-28
This is an excellent book that provides a reasonable introduction and much historical context to the concepts behind a class of theories of speciation that are gradually becoming less controversial.
The notion of cumulative gradual change in allele frequencies as the only source of variety has been a thorn in the side of serious biology for some time. Not least because it leaves the door open to claims that speciation itself is "improbable" in higher species. Richard Dawkins' brave attempts to rescue biology from "Mount Improbable" may very well turn out to be partly an exercise in futility.
Schwartz joins a number of recent authors and researchers to face head on the challenge of improving our understanding of evolutionary biology by recognizing that it makes perfect sense of much otherwise confusing data to allow for sudden "saltational" changes in species. As hard as it remains for many to swallow, S.J. Gould was probably right about much of this, and deserves credit for bucking the "received" view of Darwinism.
This book is disappointing however, in that it seems to revel in telling the history rather than describing the new concepts. There's just so much politics behind this issue that authors can't seem to avoid the temptation to add their own spin to the history in every book. But that part has been done already. Sterlny and Griffiths' "Sex and Death" does a great job of discussing all of the various chinks in the armor of the received view of how evolution works, without spending so much time interpreting intellectual history yet again.
The new part that is most exciting is the details of how regulatory genes work, their duplications and mutations, and the role they play in speciation. There is sadly relatively little of that in Schwartz's otherwise useful presentation.
A very recent release in the U.K. by Mark Ridley, "Mendel's Demon," looks like it handles similar deep questions but goes far more deeply into the genetics that forms the foundation for theories of sudden origins and other alternatives to simple cumulative gradual interpretations of Darwinism.
One point I wanted to make as a comment to a previous review. It was claimed at one point that this kind of theory is more congenial to the way many people view creation by God. That's something I think is a welcome sign. But they also commented that "creationists" is a meaningless label, and it seems to me that claim is simply nonsense. "Creationists" deny that speciation occurs at all, at least in the origin of humans. They don't argue that it could only occur suddenly. Whatever else they may accept or reject from evolutionary biology or genetics or paleoscience, it seems to me that they cannot accept that humans were not special creations of God separate from other animals. The United States is divided into those who find the close relationship of humans and apes ridiculous and those who pretty much take it for granted. That's not an easy line to cross, much less pretend it doesn't exist.
It would be very heartwarming and reaffirming to my faith in human reason of some people who consider themselves "creationists" were to find the theory of sudden origins in this book an acceptable version of evolutionary theory, but I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it to happen.
The difference is critically important scientifically because the power of evolutionary thinking is not in whether we happen to be related to apes, but in the value of being able to apply adaptational thinking to species characteristics and describe and predict how characteristics relate to environments. Creationist interpretations deny the central concept of evolutionary thinking, that natural selection explains adaptation. The details of how it works and where other explanations supercede adaptational ones is what is left to ongoing research to discover.
That's where Schwartz contributes best to the literature, by placing "sudden origins" into its rightful historical context, (though I don't agree with some of his intellectual history in the medieval period). This is not something that creationists can honestly take any credit for, or honestly use in support of their agenda it is a theory of speciation not a denial of speciation.
Hox genes, and the new origin of the species.......2000-12-24
This is a very important source of information both as to the history of the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis and the recent discoveries of regulatory hox genes and the light they throw on the riddles of speciation and large scale evolutionary change. The realization that major morphological changes do not in fact occur in the fashion of microevolution (as presented by traditional Darwinists), due to the effect of homeobox genes, is a revolutionary discovery and confirmation of the importance of the developmental tradition moving in parallel to standard Darwinism. This data creates a foundation for the various theories of macroevolution and punctuated equilibrium proposed almost a generation ago but still sidelined by the Darwinian mainline. The book contains an invaluable review of paleoanthropological theories, issues of neotonous evolution, and the various genetical theories of Mendelism, from de Vries and Bateson, to Haldane, Wright, and Fisher. The views of Goldschmidt, and his near miss of this new perspective, is also treated. This confusing history of Mendelism sorted out is invaluable, and shows how cogent (in part) where the intimations of Bateson and Morgan. The new perspective both confirms the concept of 'macroevolution' while suggesting this can be seen as a microevolution of regulatory genes, a point open to debate perhaps. The next mystery is the evolution of these complex sequences of development. But that does not distract from the great usefulness of this account. One can dispense with much of the erroneous literature on evolution, a great saving in brain space. The endless debate over the slow evolution of the eye, etc, that went on and on and drove all parties batty is hopefully over if we know the right combination of homeobox genes will control the development of this and other organs. Times are changing in Darwin land. Highly recommended.
A New Take on an Old Theory -- But Watch Out!.......2000-03-29
Evolution, let's face it, is a creation myth for a post-industrial age. At the time Darwin (and Wallace) re-created the theory, which itself was old as time, PROGRESS was idolized by a Victorian society with many manners and little religion. The Industrial Revolution had proved that progress was not only beneficial, but necessary, and so Darwin's myth was taken to people's hearts. He believed in gradual progression, and was certain the fossil record would bear him out.
In fact, it doesn't. Part of that is the nature of fossils. To become a fossil a plant or animal must get itself stuck in a tarpit or a mudslide, and then stay there a few million years until done. By their nature, fossils cannot provide a record without gaps. And with the recent "winged dinosaur" fossil proven a hoax or forgery, there remains little trace of progression.
To cling to evolution as a philosophical framework, one must move to what the fossil record does show: saltation! New species appear in spurts and jumps. And this is, in fact, what Jeffrey Schwartz attempts to accomodate in this interesting new book. It's clear he knows his stuff.
But it isn't clear he knows his history. My own field is mediaeval scholastic thought rather than natural sciences. It's amazing how little scientists know about their own history, regurgitating long-exploded myths to show how dumb mediaeval thinkers were. I suppose part of this is because evolutionists frankly don't know and don't care about the difference between Creationists and people who believe in creation, but lump them all together. Creation is a belief that G-d Created the Universe. He did so in millions of years (look at the jumps, like the jump in the fossil record, between Gen. 1:1 and Gen 1:2). "Creationism" is an attempt to sneak Creation by the p.c. thought police who are terrified that G-d might be mentioned in a public place, especially when it might open the eyes of schoolchildren to alternative possibilities.
But Schwartz, possibly in an attempt to keep himself from being written off as a "Creationist" but to salvage his reputation as a legitimate scientist who does have a very valid take on evolution, not only makes this confusion, but he himself shows an utter lack of grasp on the development of science.
For instance, he writes that the church had a "stranglehold" on learning, which is a myth or at best a misconstruction. Ancient learning was preserved from antiquity, from barbarian marauders who destroyed everything in their path, in monasteries. When the barbarians and later the Vikings were calmed by their own acceptance of Christ, a flowering of intellectual activity resulted, particularly in the twelfth century, where Cathedral schools welcomed an amazingly wide variety of thought (even the development of the mode of thought now called humanism). Oxford, Cambridge, etc. through Europe were fostered by the scholastics, who wanted the propagation of education.
True, there was no universal literacy, but before the invention of printing. There is the illusion that "the church" controlled learning, because that's where the books were -- not only ancient works but the burgeoning numbers of books on all subjects, including natural sciences, such as they were able to study with the instruments at their disposal. One took orders to join in the intellecutal advancement because the monasteries and cathedral schools were where books were painstakingly copied by hand, and usually where they resided as they weren't appreciated elsewhere.
Today, PhDs are rewarded by bright young persons spending ten years writing and defending a micro-study dissertation, usually hammered out between the student and a master professor. Some are very interesting and shed new light; others are relegated to minor publications or even see no more light than the stacks of the university library. These days Universities, invented by the scholastics, represent just the same sort of "stranglehold" as Schwartz purports the church to have had. A bright amateur, say an obscure German railway clerk, might produce a paper that gains some acceptance, but it's increasingly unlikely.
Schwartz also mentions, as does everyone, that before Copernicus it was thought the earth was the center of the universe. What he fails to follow up with was that after Copernicus and into the 20th century a science long divorced from the church taught that the SUN was the center of the universe.
Indeed, it's important to study our historical roots. Scientists may find the subject uninteresting, and one can't expect a natural scientist to understand scholasticism, just as some, seeing a mediaevalist writing on evolution may be dismissed as ignorant.
He even has the temerity to say Augustine believed the earth was flat. He didn't, nor did his great mentor, St. Ambrose. There never was any such teaching, because no one believed it except a few oddballs who had no schools in the west and no following. What Augustine did say was that the earth may be round, but it was irrelevant to him.
One more problem with his historical presentation: somehow he manages to present an absolutely opposite case from the fact. He presents Creation as somehow racist, when it proves, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, "all men are created equal." Where he got the idea he floats about anyone who believes in Creation -- or ever did -- thinks there was more than one Creation, I can't say. There's only one in my Bible, although it is reiterated. His take seems to be that if someone writes a biography of Napoleon and they refer more than once to some aspect of Napoleon's life, that aspect must have repeated itself like a fugue from Toulouse to St. Helena! The fact is, evolution is the theory that can be construed as racist, and that was another reason Victorians adopted it. It not only confirmed their belief in progress, but their belief in the superiority of the white race, which was the "most progressed".
I was fascinated by Schwartz's presentation of his exciting new take on evolution. A natural scientist is more qualified to discuss it than I, and I hope Schwartz knows it better than he does the history of his discipline! His is a beautiful addition to the evolutionary myth and I would hate to see it dismissed by his peers.
A Courageous Scientist and His Flawed Theory.......2000-03-29
Saltations have always been a problem for evolutionary theorists, and supporters of saltations have generally been dismissed highhandedly. So has anyone who has questioned the dogmas of evolution. Authors of any books or articles questioning the status quo, for whatever reason, are branded "creationists", though most of those who dismiss them don't seem to understand the difference in those who believe in Creation, and the small coterie who cover themselves with the flimsy and meaningless term "creationist", and who do not represent believers in Creation. Creation cannot be proven in a laboratory -- but unfortunately, neither can evolution. And though for more than a century the fossil record has been scrutinized for proof, the evidence, if it proves any evolutionary theory, tends to support saltation. Since most evolutionary scientists, by their attitude, seem to live in terror under the misapprehension that by admitting their own theories are somehow incorrect means yeilding to the tiny but vocal "creationists", any suggestion that the holy writ of evolution can be questions on the slightest jot or tittle brings the scorn of the establishment on the questioner's head.
With this threat in mind, the author of SUDDEN ORIGINS has risks his reputation to propose a sweeping new theory in evolution that would account for the fossil record's evidence of saltations.
The major plus in the book is the history of evolutionary squabbles past. Frankly, this is something that evolutionary scientists need to heed. I've read too many scientific books where the author, usually some respected PhD at a prestigious institution, seems to have no grasp at all of the history of his topic. Certainly this is the case in astronomy, where myths of medieval cosmology and compete misunderstandings and misconstructions of astronomical development (not to mention outright lies taken as gospel) find their way into print as truth. Scientists ignore their history at their peril (cf: George Santayana). And perhaps examinations of the bickerings of evolutionary scientists within "the family" can help them to stop being so rigid.
If the book remained a history of evolutionary problems, it would be a five-star book -- such a book, from a scientific perspective, is necessary, but scientists seem too timid to do it themselves (what they need is a Teilhard in their ranks who will risk excommunication by the scientific elite) and leave it to the "creationists", who, like some scientists (and Teilhard) and unlike most genuine Christians, are not above fudging facts to reach their conclusions.
But he goes on with his theory, which is very specialized and interesting, but rather rough going for the lay reader. I eagerly await the author's forthcoming book, which promises to build on the history presented here. Unfortunately, his theory, like the double-sun theory for our solar system presented a few years ago in a book called NEMESIS, will most likely prove an interesting but ultimately futile study.
Book Description
The origin of species has fascinated both biologists and the general public since the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859. Significant progress in understanding the process was achieved in the "modern synthesis," when Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ernst Mayr, and others reconciled Mendelian genetics with Darwin's natural selection. Although evolutionary biologists have developed significant new theory and data about speciation in the years since the modern synthesis, this book represents the first systematic attempt to summarize and generalize what mathematical models tell us about the dynamics of speciation.
Fitness Landscapes and the Origin of Species presents both an overview of the forty years of previous theoretical research and the author's new results. Sergey Gavrilets uses a unified framework based on the notion of fitness landscapes introduced by Sewall Wright in 1932, generalizing this notion to explore the consequences of the huge dimensionality of fitness landscapes that correspond to biological systems.
In contrast to previous theoretical work, which was based largely on numerical simulations, Gavrilets develops simple mathematical models that allow for analytical investigation and clear interpretation in biological terms. Covering controversial topics, including sympatric speciation and the effects of sexual conflict on speciation, this book builds for the first time a general, quantitative theory for the origin of species.
Customer Reviews:
Comprehensive survey of mathematical fitness landscape theory.......2006-01-06
Gavrilets' survey of fitness landscape models and their role in understanding the mechanisms and nature of speciation is indispensable to anyone (with a sufficient mathematical background) wishing to understand this relatively neglected area of population genetics. The text is thorough, well-organized, and well-written. It is a must-read for students of population biology.
Book Description
Featuring an introduction by Stephen Jay Gould, Genetics and the Origin of Species presents the first edition of Dobzhansky's groundbreaking and now classic inquiry into what has emerged as the most important single area of scientific inquiry in the twentieth century: biological theory of evolution.
Book Description
Combining insights from observation, experimentation, and theory, The Origin, Expansion, and Demise of Plant Species offers a broad overview of species as dynamic entities that arise, have unique evolutionary histories, and ultimately go extinct. It begins with a review of species concepts and the exposition of a new concept; it then addresses plant speciation, the expansion of species from their narrow centers of origin, intraspecific differentiation, and contact zones between differentiated population systems. Special attention is given to the breakdown of cohesion among populations by reproductive and spatial barriers. Also, the ecological and genetic properties of small populations and fragmented population systems are discussed with a focus on the role of hybridization in the demise of species. It ends with an exploration of the longevity of species and the tempo of diversification, contrasting different groups of plants in these respects as well as in rates of chromosomal differentiation. This book provides a new synthesis of evolutionary biology and ecology. It examines species from their origins, then follows them through their expansion, differentiation and loss of cohesion, and decline and extinction. The stages in the lives of species are viewed through ecological and genetic theory, and topics typically addressed independently are woven into a continuous fabric. As the first synthetic treatment of the stages through which plant species pass, this book is very useful for botanists, evolutionary biologists, conservation biologists, as well as all curious students of the biological sciences.
Book Description
This book is probably the only current volume to combine discussion of plant evolution with that of crop origins. The first edition was published in 1992 by Prentice-Hall, and has now been fully revised to reflect recent advances. Key features include: a description of the process of evolution in native and cultivated populations of plants; a review of when and where major crops were domesticated; discussion of the subsequent development of crops over time; and greater integration of the information on evolution and crop origins compared to the first edition. The book is aimed at advanced students and postgraduates.
Book Description
A departure from mainstream biology, the idea of symbiosis - as in the genetic and metabolic interactions of the bacterial communities that became the earliest eukaryotes and eventually evolved into plants and animals - has attracted the attention of a growing number of scientists.
These original contributions by symbiosis biologists and evolutionary theorists address the adequacy of the prevailing neo-Darwinian concept of evolution in the light of growing evidence that hereditary symbiosis, supplemented by the gradual accumulation of heritable mutation, results in the origin of new species and morphological novelty. They include reports of current research on the evolutionary consequences of symbiosis, the protracted physical association between organisms of different species. Among the issues considered are individuality and evolution, microbial symbioses, animalbacterial symbioses, and the importance of symbiosis in cell evolution, ecology, and morphogenesis.
Lynn Margulis, Distinguished Professor of Botany at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is the modern originator of the symbiotic theory of cell evolution. Once considered heresy, her ideas are now part of the microbiological revolution. René Fester is a graduate student in the biological sciences at Northern Arizona University.
Contributors: Peter Atsatt. Richard C. Back. David Bermudes. Paola Bonfante-Fasolo. René Fester. Lynda J. Goff. Anne-Marie Grenier. Ricardo Guerrero. Robert H. Haynes. Rosmarie Honegger. Gregory Hinkle. Kwang W. Jeon. Bryce Kendrick. Richard Law. David Lewis. Lynn Margulis. John Maynard Smith. Margaret J. McFall-Ngai. Paul Nardon. Kenneth H. Nealson. Kris Pirozynski. Peter W. Price. Mary Beth Saffo. Jan Sapp. Silvano Scannerini. Werner Schwemmler. Sorin Sonea. Toomas H. Tiivel. Robert K. Trench. Russell Vetter.
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Fundamentals of Biological Anthropology
John Relethford
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
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ASIN: 1559346671 |
Book Description
A brief introduction to contemporary biological (physical) anthropology, this text presents balanced coverage of the major components of the field: evolutionary theory and genetics; the biology, behavior, and evolution of the living primates; human evolution; and human variation. This is a shortened version of
The Human Species: An Introduction to Biological Anthropology, Third Edition.
Book Description
From one of the great iconoclasts of modern biology, an original, accessible work that sets out, for lay and scientific readers alike, a new theory of how species begin.
In this groundbreaking book, Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan present an answer to one of the enduring mysteries of evolution--the source of inherited variation that gives rise to new species. Random genetic mutation, long believed to be the main source of variation, is only a marginal factor. As the authors demonstrate in this book, the more important source of speciation, by far, is the acquisition of new genomes by symbiotic merger.
The result of thirty years of delving into a vast, mostly arcane literature, this is the first book to go beyond--and reveal the severe limitations of--the "Modern Synthesis" that has dominated evolutionary biology for almost three generations. Lynn Margulis, whom E. O. Wilson called "one of the most successful synthetic thinkers in modern biology," and her co-author Dorion Sagan have written a comprehensive and scientifically supported presentation of a theory that directly challenges the assumptions we hold about the variety of the living world.
Customer Reviews:
Not all it could be.......2007-09-24
As someone deeply suspicious of Richard Dawkin's 'Selfish Gene' theory of evolution, which is often put forward as THE theory of evolution which one must believe if one is not a creationist idiot, I was really looking forward to this book. Furthermore, I greatly enjoyed Margulis' earlier work Microcosmos. Nevertheless, I was somewhat disappointed by Acquiring Genomes. A number of the theoretical assertions--that evolution happens through symbiosis and the acquisition of genomes, rather than random mutation, that evolution is in line with the second law of thermodynamics because it reduces gradients, I found extremely provocative. But the book shifts gears too quickly between provocative theoretical postures and daunting technical language. As a reader of popular scientific journalism with no higher education training in biology, I found considerable chunks of the book incomprehensible. I think it would have been more effective if the authors had more slowly walked through several of the examples that support their theory. Perhaps I am not the ideal reader, but I would note that the publisher is named 'Basic Books', presumably to invite general readers.
A complement, not a critique of Darwinism.......2007-09-09
My review will take the form of a critique of an earlier review and then I will provide a couple comments thereafter.
An earlier reviewer erroneously states, "Lynn Margulis has joined the pack, attempting a direct refutation of Darwin's idea of evolution by natural selection. In her view, natural selection plays only a minimal role in the story of life."
She neither dismisses Darwinism nor Natural Selection. She actually questions Neo-Darwinism and her view strongly supports natural selection.
The authors question the Neo-Darwinist's over-reliance and exaggeration of gradual accumulation by random mutations (which they don't altogether dismiss). She raises the fact that most mutations are deleterious and neutral and do not provide evidential support for MOST/ALL speciation. She does provide abundant evidence that supports her idea of symbiogenesis as the driver of evolutionary novelty.
An earlier reviewer also points out,"Instead, like Gould, she demolishes not only "Origin," but all those scientists adhering to its tenets, as well."
Again she intends to complement Darwin and demonstrate the shortcomings of the Neo-Darwinian synthesis. Your critique clearly conflates the two.
I do agree with another reviewer that the book at times feel strangely disjointed at times (and why I gave it a 4). Even so the work provides some revolutionary concepts that are worth further investigation.
I also agree that the book at times feel polemical, but I think given the over dominant, current point of view that a few extremities might be useful in calling attention to the current view's shortcomings and the sublimity of their theory of symbiogenesis. I really don't care how polemical a work is as long as it supports itself with evidence and I think the authors do a fantastic job of doing so. Even if they turn out to be wrong about the tertiary role of mutations in speciation, their theory adds another layer of provable facts, namely speciation through symbiosis, to the overall Theory of Evolution.
Lastly, no Creationist can successfully hijack this book for their own agenda. To do so is an intellectual act of dishonesty and ignorance.
One-size-fits-all speciation.......2007-01-05
If you primarily present your theory by insultingly tearing down simplified misrepresentations of others' theories, as Margulis & Sagan constantly do in 'Acquiring Genomes', your theory is almost certainly suspect.
It's not clear why the authors find it necessary or even desirable to claim that speciation ALWAYS stems from symbiogenesis, especially when they've gone to great lengths to demonstrate the promiscuous opportunistic nature of Life. Why shoot down one less-than-fully-satisfactory engine of speciation -- random mutations naturally selected -- merely to erect another one-size-fits-all speciation engine?
A sampling of free insults: Neo-darwinists & evolutionary biologists are "entirely wrongheaded", "self-proclaimed", "confused and baffled", "ignorant of bacteria, fungi and...protists", understanding only "people, pets, and our zoo and food animals". Theirs is "an idiosyncratic belief system" [this from the people who helped bring you 'GAIA'!!!]. I could go on & on, but you get the point.
Far from being a brave & lonely Cassandra whose Voice of Truth is ignored by the persecuting multitudes of evolutionist sheeple as she depicts herself, Lynn Margulis is in fact a distinguished scientist highly honored by her peers, if not highly admired or liked for reasons of her own idiosyncracies, as made completely understandable by 'AG'. Many if not most of the ideas Margulis promotes are widely -- & in the case of mitochondria and chloroplasts, universally -- accepted by those she so freely castigates.
Are there evolutionists who believe that mutations are the sole driving force of evolution?--possibly a few. But hardly the 99.9% that Margulis & Sagan pretend. But accepting the evidence marshalled by Margulis' (& hundreds of other scientists) of symbiogenesis does not, & should not, perforce lead to believing that symbiogenesis is the sole mechanism of speciation, no matter how critical it may be as a means of forming eukaryotic cells where none existed before, or starting whole new kingdoms & phyla of plants, fungi & animals.
Is it sensible to invoke symbiogenesis, because it has given Life these vital giant leaps forward, as the only possible tool for differentiating, for example, the various species of finches on the various Galapagos islands? Do we really wish to claim that Darwin's finches hooked up with different bacteria on different islands in order to alter their beak sizes?
Margulis & Sagan would have us gloss over this question entirely by claiming that: 1) we can't observe Galapagos finches quite managing to speciate right now (though they come remarkably close some very wet or very dry years); 2) empty niches like the Galapagos aren't common or important on the global scale, & 3) we fixate too much on birds & mammals anyway, when we should all be focussing on bacteria.
But over geologic time, rarities become inevitabilities. Few niches may be empty now, but wait a few million years: things will change. When sealevel rises or falls, when temperature & rainfall patterns alter, the biosphere will be put into dynamic motion, with old niches closing & new niches opening up. And as this happens, it makes a good deal more sense to invoke geographic isolation as a mechanism of generating new species based on the beak size of finches or the number of pairs of compound eyes of trilobites, rather than calling for a new set of bacterial symbionts.
The essential insight of the theory of punctuated equilibria is that ecosystems -- & the species that compose them -- mirror the sedimentary systems that many of their fossils are encased in, with longterm stabilities (formations) separated by short-term drastic fluctuations. Which is something that geologists (of whom I am one) should have realized & argued for considerably before Stephen Jay Gould & Niles Eldridge did. And the typical macrofaunal speciation events -- which are of greater interest to us, bacteria or no -- in the rock record fit best into models of geographic isolation, as Eldridge has recently been arguing (without finding it necessary to insult his peers).
None of which should be construed as meaning that Margulis' ideas are not highly stimulating or worth reading, merely that it's unnecessary & unwise to stretch her big idea into a Complete Explanation of All Life, a la GAIA.
They almost had me fooled ..........2004-11-29
I was almost ready to seriously consider Margulis' and Sagan's revolutionary theory until I read Sagan's update, in which he writes "Because chromosome arrangements differ slightly in closely related mammal species (e.g., dogs and wolves) that no longer breed with each other ..."
Everybody knows that wolves and domestic dogs CAN breed. You can buy wolf/dog hybrids from breeders such as http://www.dogpage.us/wolfdogs.htm.
If one of the authors is this removed from common sense, I wonder about the rest of the theory. And I wonder if his mother knows what he's up to.
Skip the first 8 chapters!.......2004-11-10
In an earlier work Margulis, who is a distinguished scientist, recounted her struggles in getting a theory accepted which is now part of the orthodoxy: that the mitochondria and chloroplast organelles originated as separate organisms. Chapters 9-13 of Acquiring Genomes discuss more recent findings by her and others which point to the importance of saltatory (sudden) changes as contrasted to gradual evolution. In particular, there is evidence that radically different marine species, from different phyla, can very occasionally successfully mate, and that this may be the basis for the larval stages in so many animals. There is even more evidence that in one event, all the chromosomes in an animal can break in half without destroying the viability of the animal or its ability to mate with "normal" members of the species - although it is not discussed how exactly this leads to change. There is additional insight into how the nucleated cell was first formed. Unfortunately, Margulis did not have a collaborator who had the patience to expand on these chapters, providing more background, and making them more accessible to the layman. Chapters 1-8 of Acquiring Genomes should be SKIPPED, which means that if the reader does not have some comfort with Margulis' original ideas, the whole book should be skipped. These first chapters are bombastic, argumentative, repetitive, inaccurate, and have relatively little information of value. One idea I did get from these chapters (which I skimmed, not being a masochist) is that, in a sense, all bacteria are members of one species, since they all can interchange genes. Also, some bacterial symbionts are actually inherited, in that they are present in the egg or sperm, while not yet in the nucleus.
Amazon.com
Biologists have a dirty little secret: while practically everyone knows of The Origin of Species (and owes much to it), almost nobody has read it. British geneticist Steve Jones wants to make the arguments contained in that great text accessible to modern audiences, and succeeds with the delightful Darwin's Ghost. Approximating the structure of Darwin's opus, Jones uses the original chapter headings and summaries as a scaffolding to build an up-to-date demonstration of the power of a few simple ideas. Heredity, variation, and natural selection are all you need to infer evolution over time, and now that Jones can fill in the gaps in Darwin's pre-Mendelian understanding of genetics, the case becomes airtight.
More than a polemic, though, Darwin's Ghost is nearly as pleasurable a read as its ancestor is--one suspects that part of Jones's mission is to inspire today's readers to turn back to the grand but humble Origin of Species. While he may not be able to quite match Darwin's vast erudition or hawk's eye for detail, he still makes the theory of evolution shudder and breathe on the page. Dog breeding, mass extinctions, and weird fossils of tiny elephants all march to his drumbeat and--just when you least expect it--return to the main point that all living things share a common ancestor. Whether you're one of the elite who's had the pleasure of Darwin's literary company or you'd like a taste of what you're missing, Darwin's Ghost will bring the spirit of the great man back into your world of ideas. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
In Darwin's Ghost, Steve Jones has taken on the exciting challenge of rewriting the book of the millennium: Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species. Before The Origin, biology was a set of unconnected facts, but Darwin made it into a science, linked by the theory of evolution (the grammar of the living world). Darwin used the biology of the nineteenth century to prove his theory. Now, using the astonishing advances of the twentieth century, Steve Jones reargues the case. His "new version" of The Origin is a bold and fascinating tour of evolution's wonders, revealing ties between cancer and the genetics of fish, between brewing beer and inheriting disease, between the sex lives of crocodiles and the politics of Brazil.
Customer Reviews:
Not a good read........2006-03-28
I tend to agree with criticism presented in previous reviews.
I found "Darwin's Ghost" (my first attempt to learn more about Darwin and recent progress on his evolution theory) rather difficult to read. Certain fragments are very interesting and even shocking to the layman (just for example: Earth's history, details about bacterias, ants, bees and behavior of cuckoos and other birds/animals). And OK, I understand: there is no charity in Nature, everything comes down to DNA, its mobility, exchange, transmittance, etc.(meaning DNA science is a key in today's research on evolution). However I had to struggle quite often over many sections of this text. Swamped by chaos of too many examples, "Darwin's Ghost's" huge disadvantage is a lack of 'Glossary of Scientific Terms' - a MUST for any popular science book! I suspect that Richard Dawkins would be better pick, though on the other hand beware: he is focused too much on preaching atheism.
Dissapointing! Darwin's ghost must be feeling very uneasy..........2005-05-27
I expected to find an easy and enjoyable introduction to Darwin's original. I ended up reading only the extracts from Darwin's original. How much more rationally structured and carefully exposed were Darwin's ideas and how sad the contrast with Jones' clumsy arguments and unstructured accumulation of examples. I needed no convinving about evolution against creationism. I was looking though for an adequate exposition of the alternative theories of evolution. Jones takes adaptionist/genetically-determined evolution as the "truth" and he discards alternative views in a few sentences (in his view "punctuated equilibrium" theories have been rejected....I wonder what Gould would have to say about it...). And while rejecting both in the intro and the conclusions that biological evolution can be extrapolated into human affairs, the book is full of unfounded anthropomorphic examples (e.g. cities "struggling for survival", some surviving and others vanishing!). No doubt that the acknowledgement of Lewontin, a radical Harvard biologist, at the first page of the book was the one that fooled me. The book is a tribute to Dawkins' and Spencerian ideas of evolution, not the complex evolution that Lewontin, Gould, Eldrege and others write about.
The book is the perfect example of what popular science writing SHOULD NOT BE. In order to make science accessible to the public, contestable theories are presented as undoubted "truths" and long and complex scientific debates muted.
Dr Giorgos Kallis, University of California at Berkeley
a brilliant concept, brilliantly executed.......2005-04-15
This is a great book, an update of Darwin's THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, taking the structure of the revolutionary 1859 book and writing new chapters with the latest research findings, of course including modern genetics, which Darwin knew nothing about. The author, Steve Jones, is a genetics professor at University College London, so he is well qualified for this project. Every chapter is packed with fascinating examples of the mechanisms of "descent with modification through natural selection." While Jones makes clear where gaps have been filled in Darwin's theorizing, modern biology has mainly vindicated Darwin in every chapter, and has built on his amazing insights.
I thoroughly enjoyed Jones's style, which is infused with mordant wit. Over the years I have tried to read Darwin's great work more than once, and my eyes have glazed over. It is considered great literature by some, and I know it contains some beautiful phrases, but I found Jones to be far more entertaining. With DARWIN'S GHOST he joins Gould and Dawkins as one of the leading popularizers of biology of our times. This book claims a place on a very short list of essential books for any non-biologist who wants to gain a basic understanding of evolutionary biology in the early 21st century.
[NEWSFLASH -- the school board in Kansas is trying to downgrade evolution again -- it may be the Earth is flat, the sun revolves around the Earth, the Earth is only 6000 years old, and there is no such thing as evolution. It may also be the case that pigs can fly.]
No respect!.......2004-06-02
It is interesting to notice that while Charles Darwin remains the main reference in evolutionary theory, it is becoming more and more difficult to show respect for the ideas of a man that, besides being mentally sick, didn't really know what he was talking about. Since Darwin thought that the cell was just a little bit of indiferenciated protoplasm, it was fairly easy for him to come up with some just so stories about its hipothetical evolution out of nothing. Random mutations and natural selection have proved to be incapable of explaining evolution. Today, what we know about DNA and molecular machines is enough for us to conclude that there is no such thing as simple life and that we can hardly imagine how the complex specified information in the cell could be generated without the work of God, the Super Inteligent Designer. Besides, all the mutations that are generally presented as evidence of evolution has proved to be totally incapable to generate new DNA information. What is remarkable is how easily the intelectual community accepted Darwin's just so stories. But then again, if one thinks about how easily many intelectuals accepted Karl Marx's "scientific socialism" one just has to conclude that most intellectuals will readily accept all kinds of nonsense, as long as it keeps God out of the equation. They call this science, but for me it is just a (not that clever) form of self deceit.
An absolute Must read book!.......2004-03-06
A MUST READ for any lover of Darwin's works or evolution in general. If you are a believer in creationism, you may not like it, but then again, you would not like any book other than the bible anyway.
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