Evolutionary Biology

Rating:
Summary: Tough to follow
Review: Being a Molecular Biology major, I decided to try out an Evolutionary Biology course. I came across the text book of Futuyma and I regret it. This text was very poorly written and my T.A.'s, as well as professors, always had to correct student's interpretation of what the book was trying to convey. In my opinion, for every 10 pages read, only one paragraph was coherent and useful. From my experience, including many others, this book was horrible and was sold quickly after the semester of Evolutionary Biology was done.

Rating:
Summary: Real Evolution
Review: As a teacher and an Evolutionary Biologist, it's disappointing that there aren't many textbooks or scholarly works, particularly in the field of evolution, that are both accessible and scientifically rigorous. Doug Futuyma has done an excellent job of making this work both.

Textbooks are unfortunately often written by professionals who seem more interested in impressing their colleagues with the elegance of their explanations than in presenting their material in an easy-to-understand way for students. What we teachers usually end up with in those cases are texts that make our job more difficult, forcing us to re-explain material that students have already paid lots of money to read. This book does a good job of keeping that to a minimum.

This is not an easy task with a subject like evolution. First, evolution is not simply "survival of the fittest". In fact, it's hardly that at all. It is vastly more complex; it is a very elegant process by which much of the complexity of our universe, particularly living systems, came to be.

Second, evolution has been so misunderstood, and misrepresented, both intentionally and unintentionally, for so long, that it is often difficult for the uninitiated to understand what biologists really mean when we talk about it. This is becoming even more of a problem as other fields of study, particularly the Social Sciences, see it's utility and begin using it without always understanding it completely. The result of all this is that the common view of evolution bears little, if any, resemblance to the scientific theory.

I used an earlier edition of this book in my first undergraduate class in the subject, and today as a professional Evolutionary Biologist I still keep it on the shelf over my desk as a reference and teaching aid. I recommend this book to anyone who seriously wants to understand evolution and why all modern biology is built upon this single theory.

Rating:
Summary: HUH?
Review: Evolution? This author only says 'what if' theories. The entire book holds no water since no archaeological evidence can support evolution. Science and archaeology as of late have disproven Evolution. This author doesn't present any facts.

Rating:
Summary: the best organized, most comprehensive text available
Review: I have been using Futuyma's Evolutionary Biology in various editions since 1983, when it was my undergraduate evolution textbook. Nowadays, I'm the professor. In my opinion, the 3rd edition is simply the best textbook for a college evolution course there is. It is organized in a logical manner, emphasizing conceptual issues and not marching up the geological timescale or across the phyla, or getting bogged down in lengthy case studies. I have considered other texts, including Ridley, Freeman and Herron, and Strickberger, each of which has some unique qualities, but Futuyma's book is scholarly, thoughtfully assembled, and provides as comprehensive a coverage of micro- and macroevolutionary ideas as is possible in a 700 page book.

The book could have more color pictures, and the coverage of systematics could be a bit more substantial (but as it is it is superior to alternatives).

Rating:
Summary: the best organized, most comprehensive text available
Review: I have been using Futuyma's Evolutionary Biology in various editions since 1983, when it was my undergraduate evolution textbook. Nowadays, I'm the professor. In my opinion, the 3rd edition is simply the best textbook for a college evolution course there is. It is organized in a logical manner, emphasizing conceptual issues and not marching up the geological timescale or across the phyla, or getting bogged down in lengthy case studies. I have considered other texts, including Ridley, Freeman and Herron, and Strickberger, each of which has some unique qualities, but Futuyma's book is scholarly, thoughtfully assembled, and provides as comprehensive a coverage of micro- and macroevolutionary ideas as is possible in a 700 page book.

The book could have more color pictures, and the coverage of systematics could be a bit more substantial (but as it is it is superior to alternatives).

Rating:
Summary: A textbook even a layman can love
Review: I'm not a biologist, or even studying biology, but I needed to find a good introduction to evolutionary biology. This textbook was recommended to me by several biologists, and I've found it to be both chock-full of information and engagingly written. Even a layman such as myself, with only a modest scientific background and whose last biology course was way back in high school, could pick this textbook up and follow along. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to know what biologists mean when they talk about evolution.

Rating:
Summary: Easy but profound
Review: This is certainly a must have book! First because it is extremely enjoyable and covers lots of topics. You can read for fun, but you can also work on it. In evolutionary biology I often see books that present the authors' personal view on the subject, many of them discussible and lacking of experimental support. I think that Futuyma is extremely careful and tries to be neutral, which makes this book a reference book on the topic, as it is rather safe.

Rating:
Summary: Simply the Best
Review: This is the most scholarly, logical, well articulated text I read as a Molecular Biology undergrad. Less than 3/4 of the text was assigned during the semester, but it was so engrossing, I read the whole thing twice after the semester was over. The book is far too lengthy to be covered in a one semester course, as Futuyma notes in the preface. Unlike any other text I have encountered on the subect, Futuyma juxtaposes fundamental Darwinism and Punctuated Equilibrium without showing bias to either one, giving them both fair and just treatment.

Great for biology students, readable for the layman, and oddly enough most difficult for the professors. Futuyma concludes each chapter with 10 "check for understanding" questions, of which a student may be assigned one or two on his/her own to do over a week. Many of the questions can take several hours to formulate a complete answer. However there is no teacher's edition with the answers, so the prof has a monumental task in deriving the answers the first year using the text. In all other respects, it is awesome.