Tempo and Mode in Evolution: Genetics and Paleontology 50 Years After Simpson

by Walter M. Fitch (Editor), U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Francisco J. Ayala (Editor)

Since George Gaylord Simpson published Tempo and Mode in Evolution in 1944, discoveries in paleontology and genetics have abounded. This volume brings together the findings and insights of today's leading experts in the study of evolution, including Francisco J. Ayala, W. Ford Doolittle, and Stephen Jay Gould. It covers morphological and genetic changes in human populations, contradicting the popular claim that modern humans descend from a single woman.

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice content for the most part, but more general in scope than its supposed purpose, to reinterpret Simpson’s classic book in light of new data, would suggest. I suspect it is because PE insisting on stasis or leaps settled rather a chill over things. The pace of molecular evolution, more or less the topic of many chapters, is widely variable for many reasons and has nothing to do with PE. Gould’s chapter on Simpson is spiteful, no surprise, more of the false ‘hardening’ characterisations. Not nice to read, and truly unnecessary.