Evolution and ecology: the pace of life

The mechanisms of macroevolutionary change have long been a contentious issue. Palaeoecological evidence, presented in this book, shows that evolutionary processes visible in ecological time do not build up into macroevolutionary trends, contrary to Darwin's original thesis. The author discusse...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bennett, K. D. (Author)
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1997
Series:Cambridge studies in ecology
Subjects:
Online Access:BSB01
FHN01
Volltext
Summary:The mechanisms of macroevolutionary change have long been a contentious issue. Palaeoecological evidence, presented in this book, shows that evolutionary processes visible in ecological time do not build up into macroevolutionary trends, contrary to Darwin's original thesis. The author discusses how climatic oscillations on ice-age time-scales are paced by variations in the Earth's orbit, and have thus been a permanent feature of Earth history. There is, however, little evidence for macroevolutionary change in response to these climatic changes, suggesting that over geological time macroevolution does not occur as a result of accumulated short term processes. These conclusions are used to construct a post-modern evolutionary synthesis in which evolution and ecology play an equal role. Written by a leading palaeoecologist, this book will be of interest to researchers in both ecology and evolutionary biology
Item Description:Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015)
Physical Description:1 online resource (xviii, 241 pages)
ISBN:9780511608599
DOI:10.1017/CBO9780511608599