Research Catalog

Nature strange and beautiful how living beings evolved and made the earth a home

Title
Nature strange and beautiful [electronic resource] : how living beings evolved and made the earth a home / Egbert Giles Leigh, Jr., Christian Ziegler.
Author
Leigh, Egbert Giles, Jr., 1940-
Publication
New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2019]

Available Online

Available from home with a valid library card

Details

Additional Authors
Ziegler, Christian.
Description
1 online resource (xii, 258 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations (some colour), maps.
Summary
In this rich, wide-ranging, beautifully illustrated volume, Egbert Leigh explores the results of billions of years of evolution at work. Leigh, who has spent five decades on Panama's Barro Colorado Island reflecting on the organization of various amazingly diverse tropical ecosystems, now shows how selection on "selfish genes" gives rise to complex modes of cooperation and interdependence. With the help of such artists as the celebrated nature photographer Christian Ziegler, natural history illustrator Deborah Miriam Kaspari, and Damond Kyllo, Leigh explains basic concepts of evolutionary biology, ranging from life's single-celled beginnings to the complex societies humans have formed today. The book covers a range of topics, including adaptation, competition, mutualism, heredity, natural selection, sexual selection, genetics, and language. Leigh's reflections on evolution, competition, and cooperation show how the natural world becomes even more beautiful when viewed in the light of evolution--
Uniform Title
Nature strange and beautiful (Online)
Alternative Title
  • Nature strange and beautiful (Online)
  • How living beings evolved and made the earth a home
Subject
  • Evolution (Biology)
  • Biodiversity
  • Biotic communities
  • Evolutionary genetics
  • Nature (Aesthetics)
  • Human evolution
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-241) and index (pages 243-258).
Access (note)
  • Access restricted to authorized users.
Contents
Introduction -- How we approach the problem -- Adaptation, individual and social -- Life's common ancestry, and its origin -- Diversification -- Integrating diversity into community -- Heredity, natural selection, and evolution -- Organizing genes for adaptive evolution -- The processes of evolution -- The last transition -- What have we learned, and what is still unknown? -- Bibliographic essay.
LCCN
2019931653
OCLC
ssj0002440706
Author
Leigh, Egbert Giles, Jr., 1940-
Title
Nature strange and beautiful [electronic resource] : how living beings evolved and made the earth a home / Egbert Giles Leigh, Jr., Christian Ziegler.
Imprint
New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2019]
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-241) and index (pages 243-258).
Access
Access restricted to authorized users.
Connect to:
Available from home with a valid library card
Added Author
Ziegler, Christian.
Other Form:
Electronic version: Leigh, Egbert Giles, Jr., 1940- Nature strange and beautiful. New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2019] (DLC) 2019931653 (OCoLC)1111971036
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