Evolution since Darwin: The First 150 Years

Evolution since Darwin: The First 150 Years comprises twenty-two chapters and eight shorter commentaries that emerged from a symposium held in November 2009 at Stony Brook University. Thirty-nine authors from twenty-two universities and two museums in five countries wrote on areas of evolutionary biology and related topics on which their research focuses. Their essays cover the history of evolutionary biology, populations, genes and genomes, evolution of form, adaptation and speciation, diversification and phylogeny, paleobiology, human cultural and biological evolution, and applied evolution. The volume is intended to summarize progress in major areas of research in evolutionary biology since Darwin, to review the current state of knowledge and active research in those areas, and to look toward the future of the broader field.

The editors are members of the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University. Among them, they have more than 150 years of experience in evolutionary biology. Bell studies the evolution of stickleback fish, ranging from molecules to fossils, and he co-edited The Evolutionary Biology of the Threespine Stickleback. Futuyma is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and author of the textbooks Evolutionary Biology and Evolution. He studies coevolution of insects and plants. Eanes studies the molecular and population genetics of Drosophila and is interested in the interface of metabolism and life history adaptation. Levinton has a long interest in macroevolution, and wrote Genetics, Paleontology, and Macroevolution. He also studies the ecology and evolution of marine and aquatic invertebrates and has authored the textbook Marine Biology: Function, Biodiversity, Ecology and co-edited The Hudson River Estuary.