Concepts of Symbiogenesis: A Historical and Critical Study of the Research of Russian Botanists (Bio-Origins Series) - Hardcover

Khakhina, Liya Nikolaevna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300048165 ISBN 13: 9780300048162

Publisher: Yale University Press, 1992

Synopsis

Symbiogenesis, a term first coined by the Russian botanist K. S. Merezhkovsky in the late nineteenth century, is the evolution of new life forms from the physical union of different, once-independent partners. In this book Khakhina traces the development of the concept in Russian and Soviet scientific literature, reviewing the contributions of Merezhkovsky, A. S. Famintsyn, B. M. Kozo-Polyansky, and other prominent Russian scientists to theories of the role of symbiosis as a source of evolutionary information.
This book provides new information for English-speaking scientists. The evolutionary implications of symbiosis have only recently been acknowledged by western scientists, and the sophisticated analysis by Russian biologists described by Khakhina is largely unknown. Lynn Margulis and Mark McMenamin have written an introduction to Khakhina's book (Published in the Soviet Union in 1979). The appendix by Donna C. Mehos describes the American anatomist Ivan E. Wallin, whose theory of symbionticism - species origin by the acquisition of microbial symbionts - was definitively rejected by his peers. The book is essential for anyone wishing to understand a topic of overwhelming importance for evolutionary biology and the history of science.

About this title

Language Notes:

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0300048165
• ISBN 13: 9780300048162
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160
• Editor: Coalson Robert, Margulis Dr. Lynn, McMenamin Professor Mark