Beyond Primates: New Essays on Darwin and Evolution

by Rebecca Coffey

For adult readers prone to marvel at the wonders of the natural world, fourteen essays about evolution and Charles Darwin's theories from science journalist and humorist Rebecca Coffey. Taking a fresh look at animal behavior research, at the reproductive talents of insects, birds, microorganisms, and mammals, and at Charles Darwin’s own marriage, BEYOND PRIMATES reveals how Darwin’s theories have fared over the years and throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. Do baby animals know mother love? Why do some male spiders try to die after sex? What about yeast procreation would have surprised Darwin? What does the fact that some wasps quickly evolved the ability to recognize each others’ faces suggest about human cognitive evolution? Are human couples who claim to be monogamous but “cheat” acting … hmmm … like swans and seahorses? How might Darwin’s own love life have tripped him up a bit in his scientific reasoning? In fourteen essays, Coffey examines aspects of evolutionary theory, some of them long forgotten.
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Genres: Science

136 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 15, 2023

About the author

By day Rebecca Coffey is a science journalist, contributing to Scientific American, Discover, and Vermont Public Radio. She also presents a weekly radio spot, Family Friendly Science, on the nationally syndicated show, Daybreak USA. By night she is a novelist and humorist. Hysterical: Anna Freud's Story is due out in May 2014 from She Writes Press. Nietzsche's Angel Food Cake: And Other "Recipes" for the Intellectually Famished was published in October 2013 by Beck & Branch.

Reviews

[John Thorndike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This engaging book is filled with unexpected facts. Page after page, the author drew me in, then surprised me. I had never heard, for example, that “early, bipedal people developed unusually large heads — far larger than the heads of people today.” Or that such “evolutionary bumbles” as those large heads, along with climate crises, at one point “reduced the entire hominin line to a few thousand people” on earth.

Whether it’s swans, humans or naked mole-rats, Coffey loves to talk about mating. Occasionally how it's done, but more so, the effect of mating habits on every species. Who would have thought that among forty-one animal species in West Africa, “monogamous mating is the second strongest factor driving animal species into extinction.” Or that among humans, “unmarried men between the ages of twenty-four and thirty-five are about three times more likely than married ones to murder another man.”

The topics range from wasps, sparrows and “Homo stupidus” to Darwin’s marriage to his first cousin. Coffey is both a focused and lighthearted researcher, and the facts she uncovers spill onto every delightful page.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewed for Foreword Books INDIES awards.

Rebecca Coffey provides short pop sci essays about evolution and related concepts. These essays are told briefly and punchily enough to keep the audience's attention, while still infusing enough scientific terminology and concepts to keep them educational. My only concern about this book is that most if not all of the essays have been previously published in other venues, meaning that this book doesn't really provide new content (especially given that the subtitle clearly states that these are "New Essays").