"This book introduces a new field that unites history and biology to create a fuller understanding of the past"-- "We tend to see history and evolution springing from separate roots, one grounded in the human world and the other in the natural world. Human beings have, however, become probably the most powerful species shaping evolution today, and human-caused evolution in other species has probably been the most important force shaping human history....

Details the evolutionary process and speciation as well as the continuing debates about evolutions inherent validity, this volume considers all aspects of this field of study.

"A fun, pocket-sized book presenting the remarkable dinosaurs and other creatures that roamed Earth billions of years ago"--

Presents the many threads of modern work in genetics, paleontology, geology, molecular biology, and anatomy that demonstrate the indelible stamp of the evolutionary processes first proposed by Darwin.

The study of human evolution is advancing rapidly. Newly discovered fossil evidence is adding ever more pieces to the puzzle of our past, whilst revolutionary technological advances in the study of ancient DNA are completely reshaping theories of early human populations and migrations. In this Very Short Introduction, Bernard Wood traces the history of palaeoanthropology from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to the very latest fossil finds....

"With predation and carnivory as catalysts, the first known eye appeared in a trilobite during the Cambrian explosion approximately 543 million years ago. This period was a crucible of evolution and teemed with anatomic creativity although the journey to formed vision actually began billions of years before that. The Cambrian period, however, spawned nearly all morphologic forms of the eye, followed by descent over hundreds of millions of years providing...

A renowned scientist examines the less than two percent of human genes that distinguish us from chimpanzees and that link human behaviors--such as genocide, drug addiction, and the extermination of other species--to our animal predecessors.