Princeton Public Library

Evolution, text by Jean-Baptiste de Panafieu ; photographs by Patrick Gries ; translated from the French by Linda Asher

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 417-419) and indexes

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Evolution

bibliography

759925043

text by Jean-Baptiste de Panafieu ; photographs by Patrick Gries ; translated from the French by Linda Asher

Unprecedented in its approach, the number and diversity of the species presented, and the quality of the photographs, "Evolution" is" the" book on how we came to be what we are. Spectacular, mysterious, elegant, or grotesque, the skeletons of the vertebrates that inhabit the earth today carry within them the imprint of an evolutionary process that has lasted several billion years. This book is the result of a dual approach, scientific as well as aesthetic, rigorous yet accessible. Each chapter is made up of a short text that illuminates one theme of the evolutionary process--repetition, adaptation, polymorphism, sexual selection--and a series of exquisitely composed photographs of skeletons against a black background. Approximately three hundred photographs of whole skeletons or details have been made possible by the French National Museum of Natural History. The reader learns, by experiencing each text and photograph together, how the structure of every creature has been shaped by its environmental and genetic inheritance

Architecture -- The birth of species -- Seduction and selection -- Evolutionary tinkering -- The power of the environment -- Evolution and time