Over the last two decades, the study of speciation has expanded from a modest backwater of evolutionary biology into a large and vigorous discipline. Thus, the literature on speciation, as well as the number of researchers and students working in this area, has grown explosively. Despite these developments, there has been no book-length treatment of speciation in many years. As a result, both the seasoned scholar and the newcomer to evolutionary biology had no ready
guide to the recent literature on speciation--a body of work that is enormous, scattered, and increasingly technical. Although several excellent symposium volumes have recently appeared, these
collections do not provide a unified, critical, and up-to-date overview of the field. Speciation is designed to fill this gap.Aimed at professional biologists, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates, Speciation covers both plants and animals (the first book on this subject to do so), and deals with all relevant areas of research, including biogeography, field work, systematics, theory, and genetic and molecular studies. It gives special emphasis
to topics that are either controversial or the subject of active research, including sympatric speciation, reinforcement, the role of hybridization in speciation, the search for genes causing reproductive isolation, and
mounting evidence for the role of natural and sexual selection in the origin of species. The authors do not hesitate to take stands on these and other controversial issues. This critical and scholarly book will be invaluable to researchers in evolutionary biology and is also ideal for a graduate-level course on speciation.
Over the last two decades, the study of speciation has expanded from a modest backwater of evolutionary biology into a large and vigorous discipline. Thus, the literature on speciation, as well as the number of researchers and students working in this area, has grown explosively. Despite these developments, there has been no book-length treatment of speciation in many years. As a result, both the seasoned scholar and the newcomer to evolutionary biology had no ready
guide to the recent literature on speciation--a body of work that is enormous, scattered, and increasingly technical. Although several excellent symposium volumes have recently appeared, these
collections do not provide a unified, critical, and up-to-date overview of the field. Speciation is designed to fill this gap.Aimed at professional biologists, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates, Speciation covers both plants and animals (the first book on this subject to do so), and deals with all relevant areas of research, including biogeography, field work, systematics, theory, and genetic and molecular studies. It gives special emphasis
to topics that are either controversial or the subject of active research, including sympatric speciation, reinforcement, the role of hybridization in speciation, the search for genes causing reproductive isolation, and
mounting evidence for the role of natural and sexual selection in the origin of species. The authors do not hesitate to take stands on these and other controversial issues. This critical and scholarly book will be invaluable to researchers in evolutionary biology and is also ideal for a graduate-level course on speciation.
Introduction
1. Species: Reality and Concepts
2. Studying Speciation
3. Allopatric and Parapatric Speciation
4. Sympatric Speciation
5. Ecological Isolation
6. Behavioral and Nonecological Isolation
7. Postzygotic Isolation
8. The Genetics of Postzygotic Isolation
9. Polyploidy and Hybrid Speciation
10. Reinforcement
11. Selection versus Drift
12. Speciation and Macroevolution
Appendix: A Catalogue and Critique of Species Concepts
References
Author Index
Subject Index
The authors have collaborated since 1989, coauthoring a number of
research and review papers on speciation.
Jerry A. Coyne is Professor in the Department of Ecology and
Evolution at the University of Chicago. He earned his Ph.D.
(Biology) at Harvard University, followed by an NIH Postdoctoral
Fellowship in the Department of Genetics at the University of
California, Davis. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses
spanning a wide range of topics, including evolutionary biology,
speciation, genetic analysis, social issues and scientific
knowledge, and scientific speaking and
writing. Dr. Coyne was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 1989. He
has served as Vice President of the Society for the Study of
Evolution (1996) and as Associate Editor of Evolution (1985-1988;
1994-2000) and The
American Naturalist (1990-1993). His work is widely published, not
only in scientific journals, but in such mainstream venues as The
New York Times, the Times Literary Supplement, and The New
Republic. His research interests include population and
evolutionary genetics, speciation, ecological and quantitative
genetics, chromosome evolution, and sperm competition.
H. Allen Orr is Professor in the Department of Biology at the
University of Rochester, where he has taught courses in evolution,
quantitative and population genetics, evolutionary genetics, and
speciation. He completed his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution at the
University of Chicago and undertook postdoctoral study at the
University of California, Davis. Dr. Orr was awarded both the Young
Investigator Prize (American Society of Naturalists, 1992) and the
Dobzhansky Prize
(Society for the Study of Evolution, 1993). Other honors include
the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering
(1995-2000) and a Guggenheim fellowship (2000-2001). Dr. Orr has
served on the editorial
boards of Evolution (1998-2000) and Genetical Research
(1996-present), authored or coauthored numerous articles in
scientific journals, and been a frequent contributor of book
reviews and critical essays to such publications as The New York
Review of Books, The New Yorker, and Boston Review. His research
interests include population genetics, the genetics of speciation
in Drosophila, and the genetics of adaptation.
"Coyne and Orr have done the field a great favour by synthesising
so much research so comprehensively. I think the book will serve
its purpose of teaching upcoming (and existing) generations of
evolutionary biologists of what we do and do not know about
speciation. It will literally be the point of reference for the
next ten years."--Menno Schilthuizen, BioEssays
"Coyne and Orr's thorough and thoughtful review of speciation
ranges over the entire field and examines it dispassionately.
Theirs is a remarkable work of synthesis, and it belongs on every
biologist's bookshelf. On the whole, this book is a wonderful
resource and a fine example of what happens when clever scientists
take a clear and unbiased look at the evidence. It will, I predict,
join the pantheon of really important books about
evolution."--Christopher
Wills, Journal of Heredity
"I highly recommend this deeply insightful book. The field of
speciation research was in need of a sagacious update, and this
benchmark work will provide a solid foundation for further
scientific inquiry into what has been one of evolution's most
engaging and enduring mysteries."--John C. Avise, Perspectives in
Biology and Medicine
"Coyne and Orr's Speciation has been eagerly awaited. If its
messages are heeded, it will bring much-needed order and rigor to
the current burst of activity. Systematic and incisive analysis is
what makes the book so powerful. Coyne and Orr have done the field
a great service by providing such a clear analysis of the status
quo. Hopefully, a wide audience will read the book, apply similarly
rigorous arguments and direct their research efforts more
profitably as a result."--Roger K. Butlin, Evolution
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