The evolution of adaptive systems - Brock, James P. (Academic, 2000)
Includes bibliographical references and index
Adaptation and the adaptive system -- Spatial structure of the adaptive niche -- Dynamics of the adaptive niche -- The selection interface -- Adaptive equilibrium -- The cladogenetic selection interface -- Adaptive potential, biophysical paradigms, and the selectional attractor -- Evolutionary mode -- Structural paradigms of development -- Adaptive capacity and potential in the mechanisms of development -- Developmental genetics, adaptive capacity, and potential -- Mutation and realization of adaptive potential -- Chromosome structure and adaptive topography -- Evolutionary impediments and the adaptive substrate for evolutionary change -- Darwinian versus Thompsonian factors in evolution -- The morphogenetic topology of evolutionary change -- Architecture of the phyletic lineage -- Evolutionary rate and episodic evolution -- Stasis and the adaptive substrate -- Extinction : lineage to clade -- From lineage to taxon
The data of evolutionary biology have changed in a very radical way in recent years, the most significant input to this revolution being the advances made in developmental genetics. Another recent development is a noticeable shift away from extreme specialization in evolutionary biology. In this, we are perhaps to be reminded of George Gaylord Simpson's comments: "evolution is an incredibly complex but at the same time integrated and unitary process." The main objective of this book is to illustrate how natural adaptive systems evolve as a unity--with the particular objective of identifying an