The Evolutionary Biology of Extinct and Extant Organisms offers a thorough and detailed narration of the journey of biological evolution and its major transitional links to the biological world, which began with paleontological exploration of extinct organisms and now carries on with reviews of phylogenomic footprint reviews of extant, living fossils. This book moves through the defining evolutionary stepping stones starting with the evolutionary changes in prokaryotic, aquatic organisms over 4 billion years ago to the emergence of the modern human species in Earth’s Anthropocene.
The book begins with an overview of the processes of evolutionary fitness, the epicenter of the principles of evolutionary biology. Whether through natural or experimental occurrence, evolutionary fitness has been found to be the cardinal instance of evolutionary links in an organism between its ancestral and contemporary states. The book then goes on to detail evolutionary trails and lineages of groups of organisms including mammalians, reptilians, and various fish. The final section of the book provides a look back at the evolutionary journey of "nonliving" or extinct organisms, versus the modern-day transition to "living" or extant organisms.
The Evolutionary Biology of Extinct and Extant Organisms is the ideal resource for any researcher or advanced student in evolutionary studies, ranging from evolutionary biology to general life sciences.
1. Introduction: Missing link: When an “outmoded term” holds “in-between features” between the ancestors and its descendants - p. x 2. Chapter 1 The transitional features of “missing link” illuminate the molecular nuts and bolts of biological evolution - p. 1 3. Chapter 2 If and when evolution is the ultimate essence of life - p. 19 4. Chapter 3 Walking with Cynodont to explore the uncharted evolutionary trail of mammalian lineage diverged out of reptilian - p. 30 5. Chapter 4 One small step for amphibious fish, one evolutionary leap for moving tetrapods on Earth - p. 41 6. Chapter 5 Evolutionary origin of amniotic egg - p. 52 7. Chapter 6 When contemporary discoveries pushes the bony fish to ancestral or evolutionary back seat and discreetly pushes cartilaginous fish in the advanced or front seat - p. 66 8. Chapter 7 Hemichordates - p. 81 9. Chapter 8 Cambrian evolution of Onychophorans - p. 94 10. Chapter 9 The extent of Ctenophore uniqueness—distinctly recognized to be “quasi-Cnidarians” or “stunted Bilaterians” - p. 108 11. Chapter 10 The Protistan link in transition - p. 122 12. Chapter 11 Evolutionary mysticism of Euglena - p. 136 13. Chapter 12 Virus - p. 152 14. Chapter 13 Once there was an ancestor between humans and apes - p. 166 15. Chapter 14 Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam on planet Earth - p. 187 16. Conclusion: Missing link: In search of our distant cousins footprints, a quest for our evolutionary journey to the past - p. 203 17. References - p. 209 18. Index - p. 238
The Evolutionary Biology of Extinct and Extant Organisms offers a thorough and detailed narration of the journey of biological evolution and its major transitional links to the biological world, which began with paleontological exploration of extinct organisms and now carries on with reviews of phylogenomic footprint reviews of extant, living fossils. This book moves through the defining evolutionary stepping stones starting with the evolutionary changes in prokaryotic, aquatic organisms over 4 billion years ago to the emergence of the modern human species in Earth’s Anthropocene.
The book begins with an overview of the processes of evolutionary fitness, the epicenter of the principles of evolutionary biology. Whether through natural or experimental occurrence, evolutionary fitness has been found to be the cardinal instance of evolutionary links in an organism between its ancestral and contemporary states. The book then goes on to detail evolutionary trails and lineages of groups of organisms including mammalians, reptilians, and various fish. The final section of the book provides a look back at the evolutionary journey of "nonliving" or extinct organisms, versus the modern-day transition to "living" or extant organisms.
The Evolutionary Biology of Extinct and Extant Organisms is the ideal resource for any researcher or advanced student in evolutionary studies, ranging from evolutionary biology to general life sciences.
1. Introduction: Missing link: When an “outmoded term” holds “in-between features” between the ancestors and its descendants - p. x 2. Chapter 1 The transitional features of “missing link” illuminate the molecular nuts and bolts of biological evolution - p. 1 3. Chapter 2 If and when evolution is the ultimate essence of life - p. 19 4. Chapter 3 Walking with Cynodont to explore the uncharted evolutionary trail of mammalian lineage diverged out of reptilian - p. 30 5. Chapter 4 One small step for amphibious fish, one evolutionary leap for moving tetrapods on Earth - p. 41 6. Chapter 5 Evolutionary origin of amniotic egg - p. 52 7. Chapter 6 When contemporary discoveries pushes the bony fish to ancestral or evolutionary back seat and discreetly pushes cartilaginous fish in the advanced or front seat - p. 66 8. Chapter 7 Hemichordates - p. 81 9. Chapter 8 Cambrian evolution of Onychophorans - p. 94 10. Chapter 9 The extent of Ctenophore uniqueness—distinctly recognized to be “quasi-Cnidarians” or “stunted Bilaterians” - p. 108 11. Chapter 10 The Protistan link in transition - p. 122 12. Chapter 11 Evolutionary mysticism of Euglena - p. 136 13. Chapter 12 Virus - p. 152 14. Chapter 13 Once there was an ancestor between humans and apes - p. 166 15. Chapter 14 Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam on planet Earth - p. 187 16. Conclusion: Missing link: In search of our distant cousins footprints, a quest for our evolutionary journey to the past - p. 203 17. References - p. 209 18. Index - p. 238
