The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries: The Evidence and the People Who Found It

by Donald R. Prothero

The theory of evolution unites the past, present, and future of living things. It puts humanity’s place in the universe into necessary perspective. Despite a history of controversy, the evidence for evolution continues to accumulate as a result of many separate strands of amazing scientific sleuthing.

In The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries , Donald R. Prothero explores the most fascinating breakthroughs in piecing together the evidence for evolution. In twenty-five vignettes, he recounts the dramatic stories of the people who made crucial discoveries, placing each moment in the context of what it represented for the progress of science. He tackles topics like what it means to see evolution in action and what the many transitional fossils show us about evolution, following figures from Darwin to lesser-known researchers as they unlock the mysteries of the fossil record, the earth, and the universe. The book also features the stories of animal species strange and familiar, including humans―and our ties to some of our closest relatives and more distant cousins. Prothero’s wide-ranging tales showcase awe-inspiring and bizarre aspects of nature and the powerful insights they give us into the way that life works.

Brisk and entertaining while firmly grounded in fundamental science, The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries is a captivating read for anyone curious about the evidence for evolution and what it means for humanity.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Evolution, Biology, History, Audiobook, Dinosaurs

1 pages, Audio CD

First published December 22, 2020

About the author

Donald R. Prothero is a Professor of Geology at Occidental College and Lecturer in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology. He teaches Physical and Historical Geology, Sedimentary Geology, and Paleontology. His specialties are mammalian paleontology and magnetic stratigraphy of the Cenozoic. His current research focuses on the dating of the climatic changes that occurred between 30 and 40 million years ago, using the technique of magnetic stratigraphy. Dr. Prothero has been a Guggenheim and NSF Fellow, a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and in 1991 received the Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society for outstanding paleontologist under the age of 40, the same award won by the renowned paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. He has authored or co-edited numerous books, including Horns, Tusks, Hooves and Flippers: The Evolution of Hoofed Mammals, the best-selling textbook from McGraw-Hill, Evolution of the Earth, Evolution: What the Fossils Say & Why it Matters, Bringing Fossils to Life, After the Dinosaurs, and the textbook Sedimentary Geology. He is also a Technical Editor of the Journal of Paleontology.

Reviews

[Stefan Mitev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Еволюцията е научен факт.

Още с излизането на "Произход на видовете" през 1859 г. еволюционната теория си печели много врагове. Ако смятате, че човекът е създаден от бог "по свой образ и подобие" може да спрете да четете нататък и да се върнете към удобните си илюзии. Еволюцията е неспирен процес, съществуващ още от възникването на първите живи организми. Дори сравнително образовани хора имат изцяло погрешни или напълно остраели и отхвърлени идеи за еволюцията. В книгата "История на еволюцията в 25 открития" се разбиват митове и се дават научни доказателства на разбираем за широката публика език.

Авторът Доналд Протхеро е професор по геология и водещо име в скептичната общност. Редовно публикува статии в списанията The Skeptic и Skeptical Inqiurer, които винаги чакам с нетърпение. Книгата е разделена на 25 глави, разглеждащи различни аспекти на еволюцията. Доказателствата са многобройни, разнообразни и категорични.

Припомних си важни научни концепции като хомоложни органи, аналогни органи, преходни форми. Разбрах, че терминът "липсващо звено" е тотално остарял, отхвърлен и лишен от биологичен смисъл. Прочетете книгата, за да разберете защо. Разликите между хората от различните раси са по-малки от разликите между горилите от централна и източна Африка. Всички съвременни хора произхождат от сравнително малобройна популация, живяла преди няколко десетки хиляди години. Това обяснява огромното сходство в ДНК, молекулярни механизми, анатомични и физилогични особености.

В книгата са изброени (дори прекалено подробно) преходните форми, довели до съвременните коне, жирафи и примати. Обяснено е защо еволюцията не е перфектен процес, а такъв, който е "достатъчно добър" за оцеляване и репродукция на индивида. Примерите за неоптимален "дизайн" при човека са многобройни - лесната ранимост на кръсните връзки в коляното, разположението на отворите на синусите, които често водят до възпаление, третият кътник ("мъдрец"), създаващ проблеми на много хора, промените в таза, които в миналото са водели до смърт при раждане, разположението на левия рекурентен ларингеален нерв, който се увива около аортата и много други.

Книгите за еволюцията не са всеки. Специално тази е по-трудна за четене от леките популярни четива. Но ако търсите научната истина, ще я намерите тук в най-чист вид.

[The Inquisitive Biologist · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries features well-written vignettes, though the secondary aim of combatting creationism leaves out many topics one would have expected. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2021...

[منوچهر محور]

بحث اصلی کتاب:
۱. کل حرف آفرینش‌گرایان این است که موجود زنده با این همه پیچیدگی که داره نمی‌تونه از مواد نازنده دربیاد و نظریه تکامل فقط با حدس و گمان فرگشت موجودات رو توضیح داده در حالی که برای خیلی از گام‌های تکامل هیچ فسیل یا نمونه زنده‌ای وجود نداره. نویسنده هم مرتب داره نشون میده که اتفاقا در فلان و بیسار مورد شواهد کامل وجود داره، اون مال ۱۰۰ سال پیش بود که شواهد به اندازه کافی نداشتیم ولی الان بیشتر مسیر تکامل رو میشه با نمونه نشون داد.
۲. موجودات زنده ارگانیسم‌های ایده‌آل یا بهینه نیستند هزار جور ایراد در ساختمانشان هست که می‌تونست بهتر و موثرتر باشه اما تکاملشون فقط تا این حد بوده که کارشون راه بیفته، کارشون هم چیزی نیست جز ادامه زندگی و تولید مثل
۳. یک سری تصورات درباره فرگشت موجودات زنده هم اصولا درست نیست، مثلا گردن زرافه بلند نشده که بتونه برگ درختا رو بخوره، حالا این که چرا بلند شده رو چندان مشخص نمی‌کنه

کتاب بدی نبود نبود فقط خیلی سعی داشت به آفرینش‌گراها ثابت کنه دارن اشتباه می‌کنن، آخه کدوم آفرینش‌گرایی این کتاب رو می‌خونه که شما نویسنده محترم انقدر سر این کار انرژی گذاشتی؟

P 76: Darwin continued to be staggered by the beauty and abundance of the Brazilian jungle. As he wrtoe in The Voyage of the Beagle (1836): It was impossible to with for any thing more delightful than thus so spend some weeks in so magnificent a country. In England any person fond of natural history enjoys in his walks a great advantage, by always having something to attract his attention; but in these fertiel climates, teeming with life, the attractions are so numerous, that he is scarcely able to walk at all.

P 332: They were also misled by "Piltdown Man," a hoax first announced in 1912 that was put together from the skull of a modern human and the jaw of an orangutan cleverly broken in the right places and stained to make them look nacient. The forger (amateur archeologist Charles Dawson and possibly some accomplices) knew exactly what British anthropologiests were expecting, so he used a large-brained medieval human skull and a modern orangutan jaw to make it seem plauscible to anthropologists if that tune. It was the pride of the British anthropological establishment for years, often proudly described as "the first Briton."The Piltdown forgery was exposed in 1953 as more and more discoveries from Africa showed that humans first evolved there, so Piltdown "fossil' no longer made sense.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you think that evolution is Darwin, you need to read this book.

Prothero is a lively and entertaining story teller. He really is trying to reach an audience that has just a grasp of evolution, or powerful misconceptions of it. I believe he succeeds well.

As physical scientist, I had a working knowledge of evolution, but Prothero brings out the key findings and the scientists who made them and presents them as a cohesive package. I applaud his style, his science and his no-nonsense approach to dealing with creationist garbage.

I will be reading more by Professor Prothero in the future for sure.

[John Martindale · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, I am quite put off by how bad philosophy is presented in books that are supposed to be about science. It is often repeated that the smallness of Earth shows the planet is insignificant; that it implies that there is no God, no meaning, and no ultimate value. But size does not necessarily mean something is insignificant. Many a woman would consider her wedding ring more valuable than a huge pile of horse dung. A human being is tiny compared to the sun, but this is a conscious person, and the sun is a burning ball of gas. We are writing about the vast spaces in the universe; those vast spaces are not writing about us. It is only conscious agents that can create meaning. Living beings alone ascribe value and make judgments.

I suppose what the author is suggesting is that if God existed and humans had any value, then either God would have had to make a super tiny universe—where humans were relatively large—or make humans the size of large suns or galaxies. But why? Why this implicit (and rather silly) theologizing in a book that is supposed to be on science? He should just straight out say, “If I were God and wanted to show humans had value, I would have made a small universe. As we see the Earth is small and the universe is vast, we thus see there is no God and humans have no significance or value.”

Next, Prothero assumes the Earth’s placement shows we are nothing special. Scientists proved that we are not the center, and that means we are an insignificant, meaningless nothing. Oh, how they delight in pointing this out (I have heard it again and again and again in audiobooks). But again, why? They are riffing on a current metaphorical understanding of “being the center.” It is assumed that Westerners once thought, “We are the center of the universe,” and needed to be knocked off their pedestal and taught some humility. Prothero's recycled "argument" is based on an anachronism and demonstrates ignorance of history.

From a variety of historians, I have learned that in the medieval mind, hell was the center; Earth (where humans lived) was only one step away from that, and the outer celestial rings became more and more perfect. Rather than the center being the best place, it was the lowest and worst place. Galileo was anathema to church men, not for displacing the earth from the meaningful center, but for introducing chaos in heavenly spheres.

Let’s suppose the trash dump was in the center of a village. We could imagine a metaphor arising where being in the center meant someone was trash. Modern readers could read someone from this village write “He is the center of everything,” and not realize they were saying he was garbage. Prothero (as well as seemingly every other science writer out there) latches onto the locution (center) and immediately assumes an illocution (being of significance), and that is anachronistic. Anyhow, this secular myth is repeated so often (it seems none of them ever think of fact-checking anything, and just repeat what they hear like children).

Now, Prothero continues, as if the placement of the Earth in the universe proves nihilism?! Like—what the hell? The significance of the Earth has nothing to do with its placement in the universe. Thinking this is just so stupid. I guess, again, it demonstrates implicit theologizing. He is like, “God, knowing that humans would eventually create a metaphor about being the center of things, knew that for man to have any meaning or value, He would have had to place the Earth in the exact center of the universe. And as the Earth is not in the center, we know there is no God and humans are insignificant.” Such reasoning is asinine, silly, and vacuous.

Interestingly, it also ignores the anthropic principle. The fine-tuning of the universe and the placement of the Earth are precisely what they must be for carbon-based life to be possible. Now, scientists are throwing Occam’s razor to the wind and multiplying universes to account for this Goldilocks planet—whatever it takes to not let that divine foot in the door. The deal is, regardless of size and placement in the universe, it is conscious human beings who are writing about it. Conscious life is categorically different from inanimate matter.

I wonder why it is that almost every science popularizer so quickly philosophizes and waxes on about issues that are outside the domain of science? Science can tell us about the age of rocks, but it should remain silent on the Rock of Ages. Yes, as we learn about the natural world via science, we learn that if there is a Ground to All Being, then this Being is down with long ages of time, delights in vastness, does not hold to scientists’ dumb understanding that something only has significance if it is Big and is in the center, enjoys delegating authority, and observes natural processes, etc. But still, there is no way for scientists to rule out that, at bottom, there is an intelligent mind and that perhaps, we are significant to his supreme Being.

It is interesting that Genesis does not even point to an origin of stuff. The grammar of Genesis 1:1–3 is best understood to suggest that when God began to create, the Earth (already) was a watery chaos. So it is curious that the reason the Big Bang was so upsetting was that scientists thought they had to propose an eternal universe—lest, gasp… they give room for creationists to suggest the Earth had a beginning. (Honestly, it is embarrassing that scientists act like modern Republicans who must be against whatever the Democrats are for, rather than being primarily committed to truth regardless.) But yeah, interesting—Genesis doesn’t even talk about the origin of matter. Even if scientists discover that the universe bangs and crunches in an eternal cycle, that itself wouldn’t rule out the God of the philosophers—the God who is the Absolute and Necessary Ground of Being, without which contingent matter could not be. But yeah, that moves into philosophy, and the beginning of this book shows how science writers cannot resist parroting bad philosophy in the wrappings of science, propagated ad nauseam in books like this.
Anyhow, oddly enough, the first few chapters on the story of evolution aren’t actually about evolution. He does eventually get around to the topic at hand.

Regarding the evolution observed on the Galápagos Islands, I recall hearing about the new data on finch beaks evolving there in real time—though I’ve forgotten from whom I first heard it. I believe even more recent data challenge his interpretation.

Oddly, Prothero finds the supposed similarity in appearance between embryos and fish to be powerful “evidence” that we evolved from fish. It is nice that he acknowledges the textbook images—intentionally and disingenuously altered to make embryos look alike—were fake and fudged. Yet even though they were made as propaganda, Prothero still finds them compelling. I don’t at all. I would think evolutionists would do well to shelve this argument. It seems far more like finding shapes in the clouds than anything else.

It took a long time, but Prothero finally presented a strong argument for evolution: the uniqueness and distribution of animals and birds on islands and how they differ from mainland creatures. He’s still too brief here; I recall more detail in Why Evolution Is True by Jerry Coyne. I do think it’s really strong evidence for evolution—so strong that, upon learning the data, it almost forces one to accept the evolutionary explanation, as the standard Young Earth Creation (YEC) claims for this data seem ludicrous. Maybe YEC proponents should beef up their hypothesis by saying that right after the original (6,000 or so) “kinds” stepped off the ark, God transformed these kinds into millions of species and then teleported them to these islands in such a way as to later tempt us into accepting the evolutionary explanation.

Okay, some of the following chapters were fine, and I was going to give it three stars. But the chapter on the origin of life was so mind-bogglingly bad (tempted to go into it, but this review is already too long), and the “Junk DNA” chapter was so crass and repugnant, that I just need to go wash myself.

He made wildly overconfident and absolute claims that rested on cherry-picked data, while mountains of suppressed evidence, if acknowledged, would expose Prothero's argument for what it is: disingenuous ideological propaganda. This guy has an axe to grind.

I mean, when I read folks from Answers in Genesis who think the Bible is inerrant and take a particular reading of Genesis as foundational for eternal salvation, then yes, I understand why they must filter the evidence, invent outlandish explanations, and ignore troves of data. But why on earth does Prothero need to take the same approach? In some of the chapters, He’s throwing in his lot with the New Atheists and taking the role of a spin doctor or ideologue blinded by his confirmation bias, rather than simply sharing the data, explaining the interpretation, and acknowledging the uncertainties that still exist.

I thought of an analogy that I think captures what is so off-putting about some of the chapters in this book. Let's take Michaelango's remarkable statue's David or the Pieta. It is like Prothero wants to claim it they are merely the result of wind and erosion, but instead of being like, WOW look at what wind and erosion can produce, he takes the opposite track and expressres absolute and utter contempt for the statues, and is like they are nothing but dumb and ugly rocks, with no beauty, no grace, no craftsmenship and littered with imperfections--I mean how could anyone have deemed this trash worth looking at! That is what Prothero does with his treatment of the simple cell and DNA, and the remarkable design and complexity found in the living world. For example, it's not just that most DNA is non-coding and thus "junk," but he pours contempt on all of it--leaving those of us who have studied it and marveled, deeply offended.

That said, in other chapters, he is reasonable enough. I appreciate that, unlike neo-darwinists, he seems okay with Evo-Devo

[JenniferAustin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so delighted to read this book! Donald R Prothero's mentor was the wonderfully insightful and entertaining Stephen Jay Gould. Prothero seems to have taken what Gould had to teach to heart. This book is fascinating.
I would, though, recommend that you either get a print copy, or do as I did, and get a copy of the ebook to supplement the audiobook. Whiile I enjoyed listening to this on walks and at the gym, I found myself going back to reread things in order to see important diagrams and illustrations. The audiobook I got did not come with a copy of those, and you will almost certainly want to see them.

[Guy Lenk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great rundown of the 'story of evolution'. It was full of information and a surprising/delightful engaging read. As an actual working molecular biologist I found that particular section of the book a little light in detail, but doubt most readers will find fault with it. Protehero even gets into the ENCODE project and other very current information/debates about genetics which I found quite admirable. In fact, the only fault is that, for a complete understanding, you will have to read other resources, which is something the author willing acknowledges throughout. I really liked this book and I recommend this book for anyone interested in biological science.

[Roberta Westwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creeped me out a bit

As I commented in my review of Prothero’s other book I listened to (The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks), I was disappointed there was no PDF accompaniment provided with The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries either).

This time, peeking at the Kindle book preview on Amazon only served to disappoint me. I wanted all those diagrams and photographs included! What possesses publishers to exclude this for the audiobook market is beyond me.

As to the content of the book, I guess I’m not keen on evolutionary biology.

There are some disgusting and creepy aspects of nature. I didn’t like part of Chapter 8 (Nature Is Not Moral), so skipped to the end… though wish I’d done it sooner. I also don’t like insects, so I skipped Chapter 9 (Jury-Rigged Contrivances). Then I skipped Chapter 10 (Vestigial Organs)…

… I think I figured out I don’t like biology at this level of detail. At this point, I began to wonder if I should continue listening… and I skipped part of 12 (Missing Links Found). Then I heard we still have the tail gene. Ew.

Eventually I gave up, and bailed.

To be clear, the book is still good, and if I did want to hear about these things, I’d pick this author.

Here’s the listener’s guide I created for myself (before I bailed). I find this way of organizing my thinking works getter, and it’s a handy reference. As the chapters are well labelled in the audiobook, you can jump between topics easily.

Origins: The Age of Everything
A Warm Little Pond — The Origins of Life (Ch. 17)
Everything Evolves — The Expanding Universe and Cosmic Change (Ch. 1)
The Abyss of Time — Earth’s Immense Age and the Fossil Record (Ch. 2)

Bodies: The Evidence Within
Embryos Tell the Story — Ontogeny and Recapitulation (Ch. 5)
Homology — The Blueprint of Shared Anatomy (Ch. 4)
Jury-Rigged Contrivances — Why Nature Isn’t Perfectly Designed (Ch. 9)
Vestigial Organs — Whales that Walked (Ch. 10)

Fossils: Stories Written in Stone
Amphibians on Land — Crawling Out of the Water (Ch. 11)
Birds with Teeth — The Dinosaur Connection (Ch. 13)
Missing Links Found — Transitional Fossils and Macroevolution (Ch. 12)
The Elephant’s Trunk — The Evolution of Proboscideans (Ch. 16)
The Evolution of Horses — Tracing Equine Adaptations (Ch. 14)
The Giraffe’s Neck — Lamarck, Darwin, and Nerves that Loop (Ch. 15)

Genes: Clues to Creation
Homeotic Mutants — Legs on Their Heads and the Birth of Evo-Devo (Ch. 19)
The Eyes Have It — How Vision Evolved (Ch. 20)
The Genetic Junkyard — Why Most of Our DNA Is Useless (Ch. 18)

Humans: Our Ongoing Experiment
Bones of Our Ancestors — The Human Fossil Record (Ch. 24)
The Ape’s Reflection — What Makes Us Human (Ch. 23)
The Flawed Design — Are Humans Well-Engineered? (Ch. 21)
The Once and Future Human — Are We Still Evolving? (Ch. 25)
The Third Chimpanzee — Our 99 Percent Similarity (Ch. 22)

Evolution: Understanding Change Itself
Biogeography — The Sinking of Noah’s Ark (Ch. 6)
Nature Is Not Moral — The Cruel Wasps and the Struggle for Life (Ch. 8)
The Branching Tree of Life — How Species Are Related (Ch. 7)
Transformation in Real Time — Observing Evolution as It Happens (Ch. 3)


Audiobook version details (as listed in my Audible library):

The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries: The Evidence and the People Who Found It
Written by: Donald R. Prothero
Narrated by: Tom Parks
RELEASE DATE 2020-12-22
FORMAT Unabridged Audiobook
LENGTH 10 hrs and 44 mins
PUBLISHER Tantor Audio

©2020 Donald R. Prothero (P)2020 Tantor

[STEPHEN PLETKO!! · Rating 5 out of 5]

XXXXX

NOTHING IN BIOLOGY MAKES SENSE EXCEPT IN THE LIGHT OF EVOLUTION

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"Like [Charles] Darwin [1809 to 1882] did in 1859 [with his book "On the Origin of Species"], I hope to convince you, the reader, of the reality of evolution by building the case one anomalous fact of nature at a time.

Each is clear evidence of evolution, and I hope you will be persuaded of the wonders of evolution just by the sheer overwhelming weight of he evidence."

The above (in italics) comes from this detailed, well-written book by Donald Prothero. He is a geology and paleontology researcher, teacher, and prolific author. Prothero is adjunct professor of geological sciences at California State Polytechnic University (Pomona) as well as research associate in vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Darwin's theory of evolution states that all species of animals and plants developed from earlier forms by hereditary transmission of slight variations in successive generations, and that natural selection determines which forms will survive.

The book itself is organized into five parts.

Part one describes how evolution is happening throughout the universe. The next part discusses Darwin's original main lines of evidence for evolution as well as the related discoveries that have happened since Darwin's time. Part three talks about the dramatic evidence from the fossil record illustrating how certain major groups of organisms evolved from something completely different. Part four, entitled "Eyes and Genes," describes the enormous volume of evidence from both genetic and molecular biology and it also deals with the famous conundrum of how a complex structure like the eye could actually evolve. The final part details the evidence supporting the idea that humans are apes and evolved (just like any other organisms), and, as well, discusses where future evolution might go (and probably will not go).

This book is a tour de force of science and reason that promises to enlighten even the crustiest skeptics to the theory of evolution. It debunks misconceptions galore along the way especially those conjured up by creationists and intelligent design theorists.

This book is loaded with illustrations (black and white pictures, diagrams, etc.). These add enormously to the main narrative and you are never lost.

The picture on this book's front cover shows the skeleton of the transitional fossil "Archaeopteryx" (shown above by Good Reads), about to take off for flight. This full skeleton emphasizes just how dinosaurian it really was.

Finally, the only thing I might add to this book is a glossary. Terms are defined in the main narrative but it might have been beneficial to have all technical terms defined in a single area for ease of access.

In conclusion, this is a captivating read for anyone curious about the evidence for evolution and what it means for all humanity. I would be remiss in not leaving you with the last sentence from Darwin's masterpiece "On the Origin of Species":

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to he fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."

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(2020; preface [xi to xii]; acknowledgments; 5 sections or 25 chapters; main narrative 340 pages; index)

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[Oli Wood · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book feels like it could be written by anyone. Clearly, the author is respected and productive in his field, but it doesn't feel like he's drawing on his expertise to support the book- in information or entertainment. I guess broadly, he's not- maybe his 25 Fossils book is better? I can't help but compare Prothero to two authors I've read lately who take on a similar topic/style of book with similar expertise- Stephen Jay Gould and Steve Brusatte. Both add so much of themselves to their books, it would not be the same if anyone else was writing it, because the text is so heavily supported by personal experience and knowledge. Not to say there's anything wrong with a pop science book by a layman. But Prothero isn't a layman, he's an eminent scholar; when I pick up his book, I anticipate for it to read as such.
The vignette style is not to the advantage of someone without the imaginative narrative abilities of Brusatte or the rhetorical abilities of Gould. The text is left without a cohesive argument or story. Sometimes, it feels like the author's debunking of creationism is meant to fill this gap, but creationists don't pick up a book called "The Story of Evolution", so it really just serves to annoy his audience with redundancy on an issue we expected to be able to take for granted.
With a commonly discussed topic but without an argument, without bringing a unique perspective or experience, I'm left wondering, why did you write this? What are you adding to the conversation?
All that said, I love evolutionary biology, and as such I found some strengths in this book.
This would be a good introduction for someone who hasn't taken a biology class that went over evolution / hasn't taken such a class recently. I could definitely see appreciating this as a middle or high schooler, and a middle aged or older adult who's not in biology could probably also enjoy it. That each chapter could be read separately might be an advantage to someone wanting to use parts of this book in a classroom. On that note, another strength is absolutely clear scientific communication. It leaves something to be desired in terms of writing style and engaging story-telling for sure, but it is 100% straightforward, with simple and easy to grasp explanations. Clarity and honesty in science is paramount, and Prothero definitely has this first step down- not everyone can say the same!
The latter half of the book gets a little deeper and can be interesting even for someone who already knows a bit about evolution. In my opinion, his best was the chapter on the evolution of eyes, and most of part III was at least alright. I also actually really enjoyed reading about the types of techniques used before DNA sequencing.
All that to say- I think I was maybe a bit outside of the intended audience, or at least the audience that I believe could get something out of of this book. That said, reading information you already know doesn't need to be boring, and this was quite boring at times. If you've taken a couple biology classes, I recommend skipping parts I and II. Although the conceptualization, structure, and writing abilities leave something to be desired, I did learn stuff and I did enjoy parts of the book.

[Craig Amason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am always interested in books on evolution and have read some classics through the years, a few of which Prothero refers to in this innovative approach to the topic. Using major evidentiary discoveries, some old and some recent, is a clever way to demonstrate how the case for Darwinian evolution is irrefutable to anyone with a critical and open mind. I like how Prothero mixes historic familiar discoveries from the 19th century with observable examples of evolution happening right now.

The middle chapters of the book get a little heavy for the average reader (like me), especially the explanations of evolutionary activity on the cellular, molecular and genetic levels. Still, the data are plentiful, and Prothero is generous with the details. He provides solid examples of how what happens under the microscope is exhibited in the macroscopic world we all observe.

The most entertaining parts of the book were his chapters focusing on the evolution of specific members of the animal kingdom, such as horses, elephants, and giraffes. Of special interest to me was his discussions of vestigial organs and diseases in humans, helping to dispel the notion of perfect design. The section on human origins, with a plethora of recent discoveries of our evolutionary ancestors, was a great refresher course for me. It has been years since I read anything about this subject, and there have been an amazing number of contributions to the scholarship on hominid development.

Of course, Charles Darwin is a key player in the evolutionary drama that Prothero produces here, but there are other less prominent figures to consider as well, along with many of the scientists working in the field today, including people like Richard Dawkins. Perhaps the real strength of the book comes from Prothero's willingness to take on evolution/science deniers by answering some of the more common challenges to the "theory" of evolution.

I think his most convincing argument is how evolution works more like a tree with many branches, limbs, twigs, etc., instead of the traditional but misguided metaphors such as ladders and chains. As Prothero explains, there is no "missing link" because there is no chain; there is no missing rung because there is no ladder. Evolutionary biology is not linear. It's a messy, tangled web with all kinds of missteps, errors, and engineering flaws that make the notion of divine creationism hardly worth considering at all.

[Urey Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Consistently fascinating, ever informative, and often tedious... this is a wonderful work in so many aspects. Prothero is excellent at distilling the histories of key discoveries in the evolution of the science of evolution. He takes the reader back in time, explaining early theories and beliefs and subsequent discoveries and altered thinking that has lead us to our current established knowledge of evolution. I loved these parts – it’s the lead-off narrative of each of his 25 chapters, from the Age of the Earth (Part I- three chapters )through Darwin’s Evidence for Evolution (Part II- seven chapters), Great Transitions in the History of Life – seven chapters), Eyes and Genes (Part III – four chapters) and finally Humans and Evolution (Part IV – four chapters). He is superb – and it makes for spell binding reading – in his expositions of examples and science – parasitic wasps, natural selection, genetic coding, development of individual species (horses, whales, giraffes, elephants, humans), great apes and our family relationships, and throughout the ever more compelling arguments for the validity of evolution as a whole. It’s wonderfully absorbing and interesting ...

The tedious aspect that I alluded to above is the regular recitation of the fossil record in all of its inexorable permutations and developments leading up to the subject of the chapter in hand. It is a laundry list of scientific names, one after other noting the development of features slowly forming into the modern species as we now know it. I suppose this is unavoidable to the topic, but to the extent it is engaged in this text, I found it tedious... certainly not a reason to skip the book though!! Please don’t do that... you would deprive yourself of a revelatory, fascinating and deeply instructive work of scientific writing, well worth the minimal time needed to work through the laundry list of species names and incremental features.

[Philip Froloshky · Rating 4 out of 5]

‎„The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries: The ‎Evidence and the People Who Found It“ by ‎Donald R. ‎Prothero – this book makes pleasant reading. I recommend it. I learned a lot of new ‎things from it, such as:‎

‎‏‎{SPOILER ‎ALERT} ‎

‎“Some of them were not entirely accurate and made the embryos look more fish-like ‎than they actually did. In one case, he used the same illustration to show a dog, a chick, and a ‎turtle embryo, making them appear identical; he later had to fix this mistake and show the real ‎embryos. They do look extremely similar, but Haeckel’s inaccurate drawings made the entire ‎argument look bad in retrospect. Anti-evolutionists have raised this criticism over and over ‎again, arguing that embryology does not support evolution. However, if you look at any good ‎series of images showing embryonic development of vertebrates, the evidence is obvious, no ‎matter what mistakes Haeckel may have made over 150 years ago.”‎

‎“Biologists quickly learned to see both sides of this picture and to recognize that nature ‎is more than pretty flowers or beautiful bird song. Life was not created simply to entertain us, ‎and each living thing has a specific (and sometimes not so benevolent) function. Poets and ‎painters marvel about gorgeous flowers (and we are still entranced by their appeal), but to a ‎biologist, a flower is a sex organ. Its structure and function serve one main purpose—to move ‎the male sperm in the pollen from one flower to reach the eggs in another flower, thereby ‎maintaining a healthy, less inbred gene pool. Every morning before dawn during the spring and ‎summer, I hear mockingbirds singing on and on for hours with their incredible variety of ‎birdcalls, some original to them, and some copied from other birds. To the naïve listener, the ‎birds twittering in the trees are a lovely serenade for humans to enjoy. But a biologist ‎recognizes that the function of singing these phrases over and over again is to issue a hostile ‎warning to other birds of their species: “This my territory. Stay out!”‎

‎“The first man to accept a commission to write one of the Bridgewater Treatises was ‎the Rev. William Buckland at Oxford University. He was not only an Anglican cleric (and later ‎Dean of Westminster) but also England’s first official academic geologist. He named and ‎published the first description of a dinosaur, Megalosaurus. Buckland loved animals so much ‎that he and his family took pride in eating nearly every kind of animal they could obtain.”‎

‎“Whales were a complete mystery with no good transitional fossils in 1980, but today ‎the origin of whales from land animals is one of the best documented evolutionary transitions ‎in the fossil record.”‎

‎“When someone asks me to show them a missing link, I reply that the concept is ‎outdated, misleading, and meaningless—but I am happy to show them lots of transitional ‎fossils that connect the major living groups of animals.”‎

‎“Fossils of elephants were known to the ancients, and their huge skulls with a central ‎nasal opening were mistaken for the eye openings of the giant one-eyed “Cyclops.” Their huge ‎bones were often collected when they were found, and the Roman emperor Augustus had a ‎collection of bones that were found near his villa in Capri (across the bay from Pompeii and ‎Naples). The Roman historian Pliny recorded huge pieces of ivory found in the ground, and ‎during the Middle Ages the huge bones were attributed to giant biblical humans in Genesis 6:4: ‎‎“There were giants in the earth in those days."‎

‎“One of the greatest biologists of all time, Baron Georges Cuvier. Cuvier became the ‎founder of comparative anatomy and of vertebrate paleontology, developing tremendous skill ‎in describing and recognizing the bones of vertebrates. He is most famous for his “law of ‎correlation of parts.” This was simply the observation that vertebrate anatomy has many ‎predictable patterns, depending on habitat and diet of the animal. For example, a predator not ‎only has sharp meat-cutting teeth but also sharp claws, whereas a herbivorous mammal usually ‎has grinding teeth and hooves. An apocryphal story claims that one night a prankster burst into ‎his bedchamber dressed as the Devil and told him that he would be eaten alive. Cuvier allegedly ‎replied, “You cannot eat me. You have horns and hooves, so you must eat plants."‎

‎“When humans don’t get enough vitamin C, they can get a nasty disease called scurvy. ‎Sailors used to suffer from bleeding gums, lost teeth, and many other symptoms of scurvy on a ‎regular basis because of their limited diet at sea, which did not include fresh fruit or vegetables. ‎The British Royal Navy eventually discovered that citrus fruits, such as limes, provided this ‎essential vitamin and routinely added them to sailors’ diets (which is why British sailors are ‎called “limeys”).”‎

‎“Since these discoveries, lots of animals, including gorillas and orangutans, capuchin ‎monkeys, baboons, and mandrills, have been discovered making tools of various kinds for a ‎wide variety of functions, including hunting food (mostly invertebrates and fish), collecting ‎honey, and processing fruits, nuts, vegetables, and seeds. Some tools are used to collect water ‎or to provide shelter, and yes, some primates use weapons during combat that they have ‎fashioned out of local objects. Warfare with weapons is not unique to humans. Both in the wild ‎and in captivity, chimps and other apes have the ability to solve complex problems such as ‎stacking up crates to reach bananas high in the cage or fashioning sticks into tools to retrieve ‎bananas beyond the cage bars. They are not doing this by trial and error but by insight, ‎planning, and problem solving—all skills that were once thought to be unique to humans.”‎

‎“She was also taught to listen to and recognize spoken words in English, and Koko ‎eventually learned to recognize about 2,000 words in addition to those she could sign. She used ‎displacement (the ability to communicate about objects that are not present at the moment), ‎recognized herself in the mirror, and reported personal memories.”‎

‎“There was also a racist bias among European scholars that the first humans had arisen ‎in Eurasia, not in the Dark Continent of Africa, where people have black skins. In contrast, ‎Darwin thought humans arose in Africa for the simple reason that our closest relatives, chimps ‎and gorillas, live there.”‎

‎“The great geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote in 1973, “Nothing in biology makes ‎sense except in the light of evolution.”‎

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tremendous tour of the evidence for evolution! The author takes you on a historical journey by focusing on the progress of discovery in each chapter. Having done his homework, the author guides you through 25 chapters, each starting with early discoveries and bringing you up to the modern-day state of the science.

The book is divided into 5 parts. A short "In the beginning" which sets the stage. The second section explores the evidence that Charles Darwin used and was familiar with. The third section take the reader on an exciting journey through major transitions in evolution. This section is, I feel, the strongest part of the book as the author lays out detailed transitional fossils one right after another. The fourth section focuses on some important genetic evidence, not the author's strength, but he still does really well int he few chapters he presents. The finals section focuses on human evolution and details many aspects from our human anatomy to the rich fossil record of human evolution.

The writing is clear and engaging. The author does very well at telling his stories, going into detail, but not getting bogged down. Many of the chapters are easily read in a short time and this is one book that you can keep with you and read whenever you have a spare moment. The author does get fairly technical, but I feel it is accessible to a broad audience, especially those interested in the subject.

[Roman Constantine · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the anti-evolutionists! read this book!


This book (in detail) explains the discovery of evotution and the evidence and the people who found it.
I have seen so many anti-evolution videos (I enjoy watching ignorance) explaining how protozoa had a goal to evolve into a quadreped, even though those things don't even think. They think evolution is improvment, it is, but just for their niche, "if you put me and a chimpanzee on the plains of africa, I will probably survive the longest, if you put me and a chimpanzee in the jungle, I would probably die"-Sapiens.

what I liked about the book was how it was evolution, I am a prehistoric nut and love books like this

what I didn't like was how it was complicated at times and totally did not understand it.

[Omarustwani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good book
1- it loses one star for the very long and basic introduction that goes into parts one and two, which is about 40% of the book then suddenly part 3 starts to become very informative. Every chapter start with a similar introduction that the author could easily do without. I recommend you start with part 3 from the get-go
2- the lack of kindle version or accompanied PDF to the audible makes it very difficult to follow especially when talking about transitional forms, unless you have a previous knowledge of the subject, it seems the book has more than 20 figures that are essential to understand the subject. One way around that is to either buy the paper book or Google the evolution of each of the subjects (amphibiens, whales, frogs, etc)

[Lynn Stegner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really not a handbook on how to persuade folks who don't believe in evolution. On the other hand, I don't think such a handbook could exist. You cannot use facts to persuade someone who is using beliefs. It's a short book but interesting. Prothero goes a level of detail explaining the bush (not tree) of life that only a true student of genetics, anthropology, or biology would be interested in. However, there are some not well-known nuggets and good explanations of new learnings in evolution. Worth a read, probably not a re-read.

[cara · Rating 1 out of 5]

”Before 1543, almost all humans thought the earth was flat [...]” uhhhh….the fuck they did not. This assertion is at complete odds with reality. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of... for some context around a silly and dangerous fallacy) Prothero is a laureled geologist! He has a PhD from Columbia! And somehow he doesn’t know the first thing about the history of his field! But he still goes to write a book about it! It’s the pop science genre in a nutshell. Is accuracy about the most basic and consequential things really too much to ask?

[Marijo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book delves deeper into the evolution process than most books written for non-biologists, offering meticulous explanations for a general audience. It dispels misconceptions about natural selection by presenting clear examples and supporting them with data. Each chapter explores a distinct line of evidence, requiring some time to navigate, yet its construction is brilliant. Beyond covering the fundamental aspects of natural selection, the book also emphasizes scientific reasoning and the role of predictions in model acceptance.

[Laura Madsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice summary of the evidence for evolution, including island populations, the panda’s “thumb” (radial sesamoid), steps of whale evolution from artiodactyls, Tiktaalik and friends, turtle shell evolution, the absurdity of Noah’s Ark (“Did the marsupials run straight from Mount Ararat toward Australia, but the placentals didn’t even try to get there?”), and octopus eyes, which are much more intelligently designed than ours!

[الشناوي محمد جبر · Rating 3 out of 5]

من بين الكتب العلمية صارت كتب التطور تستهويني
كتب تتحدث عن تاريخ قديييييم جدا للكوكب ومخلوقاته التي فنيت أو انتقلت في سلم التطور خطوات شاسعة
قصص غريبة جدا عاشها علماء اكتشفوا فيها أفكار محيرة
غيرت من فكر سكان الأرض
ونقلت فكرتهم عن الدنيا والأحياء فيها من مكان لمكان
من خلال عدد من الاكتشافات المتسلسلة نكتشف فيها حياة مخلوقات تعيش بيننا اليوم
لكن من خلال التاريخ التطوري لأسلافها
قصص شيقة جدا قراءتها ممتعة أحسد بشدة من عاشها علي الحقيقة.

[mahmoud · Rating 4 out of 5]

الكتاب مفيد وعرفني حاجات ما كنتش أعرفها، الترجمة كمان كويسة جدًا، كنت أتمنى يكون في هوامش لأسماء الحيوانات والحفريات المعرّبة تكون بالأصل الإنجليزي عشان لو حد حابب يدور ويشوف.

كمان الكتاب كان ممكن يكون أقصر، وكان في فقرات بيتكلم بشكل متخصص زيادة مش مناسب للقارئ العادي اللي زيي. بس غير كدا كتاب حلو وأنصح بيه جدًا.

بردو عجبني قوي في نهاية كل فصل الجزء بتاع قراءات إضافية، للي حابب يقرا أكتر عن موضوع الفصل.

[Hilary Currie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being… where I’m from… my knowledge of evolution is woefully inadequate, so I picked this up as sort of a primer. This book is filled with solid scientific theory that spans many species with specific examples, but does not lose a speck of wonder for the amazing world we live in. I did this as an audiobook, which was great, but I did a bunch of googling for the pictures that were described.

[Matthew Thurman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The structure of this book and its evidence makes it very easy to follow at the same time retaining interest throughout.
Even if you aren’t an evolution nerd like myself this is a great read to understand the nuance and evidence that went into and continue to build upon the FACT of the science that is evolution.

[Hashim Al-Jazzaf · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب غني جداً من الناحية العلمية في عرض أمثلة كثيرة من تطور الحيوانات و "الحلقات المفقودة" في تطورها، كالحصان والزرافة والفيل والطيور، لكنه افتقد القدرة على جذبي كقارئ غير متخصص في أجزائه الثلاث الأولى (التي تغطي ١٦ فصلاً)، بينما استعادها في جزئيه الأخيرين (التي تغطي الفصول التسعة الأخيرة) عندما ابتعد عن التفاصيل المملة.

[Tim Dugan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, fills in some details I didn’t know.

To me the title seemed a little misleading but not too bad.

The author has an odd definition of “redundant” in regards to “junk dna” and I thought “junk” is not really used anymore, but just “non coding”

[Jane Lisko · Rating 2 out of 5]

While there were interesting points made in this book, I was distracted by the author's need to indirectly poke fun at those of us who believe in God. Personally, I do not find the theories of evolution and the creation stories to be mutually exclusive.

[James S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A basic, somewhat pedestrian primer on evolution. It's apparently geared towards creationists, but I can't see a creationist actually reading this book, so it turns in to just preaching to the choir.

[Ted Manahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has lots of good information and interesting stories. It is generally well written, but it gets repetitive in parts.

Three stars for me, but five stars if you need to be convinced about evolution!

[Kevin Koppelmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the parts that explained the evolution of an animal from one stage to another. I did find it interesting that he found the evidence of no divine power of creation in the lack of perfection. I hate when people use the lack of evidence as evidence.