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About this book
Contents
Biography
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About this book
Provides an overview of the general theory of evolution from the standpoint of the dynamic behaviour of natural adaptive systems. Brock intrigates the Darwinian and structuralist theories into a single unified theory by drawing on examples from a large range of organisms from many different habitats and niches where interesting adaptations have evolved.
Contents
Foreword. Preface. 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. Epilogue: An Overview of the General Theory. Glossary. Bibliography. Index.
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Biography
Dr. James P. Brock is presently Keeper of Natural History at the Horniman Museum in London. A Fellow of both the Linnean Society of London and the Zoological Society of London, he developed his primary research interest, evolutionary theory, with a Ph.D. from Imperial College, after earlier posts working at the University Museums of Glasgow and Oxford where he explored related interests in insect taxonomy before expanding into the theory and practice of phylogenetics.Dr. Brock has published a number of seminal papers and book contributions, and continues to pursue long term interests in evolutionary theory - evolution in higher groups in Lepidoptera Ditrysia, and taxonomy of parasitic wasps, among others.