Philip Whitfield Books

A comprehensive look at the world of animals with more than 1,000 superb illustrations.

Is evolution a slow gradual process, or does it move in giant leaps and bounds? How should the fossil record be interpreted? What are the evolutionary - and ethical - implications of gene manipulation? how can evolution be observed and measured?Through a stunning series of sophisticated graphics and colour photographs Philip Whitfield addresses these and other fascinating questions as he traverses the aeons of the past. After re-examining Darwin's ideas about natural selection, he pinpoints and explains the crucial turning points of evolutionary history, resurrecting the bizarre but long-extinct creatures that once populated our planet. From the wonderful wealth of living things, from bat to beetle and from cuckoo to chimpanzee, he explains the changes in structure, biology and even behaviour that make them fit perfectly with their circumstances and environment. He also examines the complex biological processes of change that make evolution possible and probes the microscopic world of cells, genes and DNA, reaching out to the leading edge of scientific research.The Natural History of Evolution presents an imaginative modern casebook of evolutionary fact and thought, distilling lucid explanations of current theory and revealing the wonders of evolution in action in the world.