Frogs, Flies, and Dandelions: The Making of Species

by Menno Schilthuizen

The earth is home to a wild proliferation of species, millions of life-forms that come in a spectacular--and often bizarre--array of sizes, shapes, and colors. But what triggers this fantastic explosion of life? How does one species split into another? Even Charles Darwin was baffled before such questions, calling them "The Mystery of Mysteries."
In this fascinating, witty, and vividly written book, Menno Schilthuizen illuminates these questions, showing how biologists and zoologists over the last two centuries have responded to them, assessing our current knowledge of species, and proposing his own solution to Darwin's mystery. Using the sometimes-vicious academic debates and the powerful personalities of scientists as background, Schilthuizen explores the meandering path of species research and sets it out in the clearest possible terms. From looking at how we define a species, to exploring how geographical isolation and sexual selection contribute to making new species, to showing how species may appear gradually or instantaneously, Frogs, Flies, and Dandelions offers a comprehensive account of this evolutionary drama. Along the way, we get to know a remarkable cast of characters from the plant and animal kingdoms, from the copper-loving monkey flower to sockeye salmon, fire-bellied toads, lyrebirds, apple maggot flies, and many others. Most important, we get a clear picture of all the conditions necessary for one species to give birth to another.
Written with engaging panache, and illuminating an area of study intensely relevant to any assessment of the earth's biodiversity, Frogs, Flies, and Dandelions will appeal to everyone--scientist and layperson alike--curious about nature and animal behavior.

Genres: Science, Biology, Evolution, Nonfiction, Popular Science

254 pages, Hardcover

First published February 26, 2001

Reviews

[Zoe (Zthecapybara) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very academic book, full of theorists and their opinions. The geographical seperation theory is key in this book for a lot of its topics but many discoveries are very interesting and full of discussion.

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Menno Shilthuizen explores what drives speciation by examining some specific cases and highlighting the historical debate. Allopatric (separated by geographical barrier) vs sympatric (not separated), natural selection vs sexual selection as well discussions about the effects of ecotones (areas in which the ecology of an area quickly changes) are major concepts debates as drivers of speciation. Sympatric and sexual selection have been concepts slowly embraced as evidence from multiple species, particular fruit flies, cichlids and others have shown that a species can diverge even when living in the exact same area and therefore exposed to the same environmental pressures. One of the more enjoyable discussions of the book in my opinion was Schilthuizen's discussion of sexual selection and the historical debate around it.

[Devon DeRaad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little cheesy and outdated at this point. I think it fills a strange niche where it is too specific to be interesting to a popular audience, but is too hand-wavey to be considered an academic reference. Worth a read if you study ecology/evolution

[Geoff Winston Leghorn Balme · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book got me through my PhD orals (insect phylogenetics) some years ago. Brilliant book.

[John Old · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviews the state of speciation as of 1999. Allopatric speciation occurs when a species is split into populations by geographic barriers, like when the Panama isthmus arose and split the ocean. Mayr thought allopatric was the only way. Sympathies speciation occurs when gene flow between populations is ended through some other mechanism. Change in environment opens new niche (hawthorn bugs discover apple trees, differences in flowering date drive changes in life cycle of bug). Sexual selection can drive differences (cichlids can only see red and blue, reddest and bluest males are attractive, then because different colors of light reach to different depths, red and blue populations hang at different depths. Also, speciation at ecotones (borders between habitats). Plant species tolerant of heavy metals grow at the site of ancient mine waste, related non tolerant species grow nearby.

[Sze Huei (Zoe) · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good. Wrote a book review on my personal blog: https://www.scihealthnews.com/the-que...

[Rowan Benda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mad enlightening. Funny seeing how Dr Schilthuizens interest remain pretty similar throughout each book

[Zhelana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not exactly sure what to say about this book. It wasn't what I asked for when it was recommended - an intro to evolution for a complete newbie to the subject. It assumed you had too much vocabulary without explaining it, and I couldn't make heads or tails of most of it.