The Origin Then and Now

Preface ix Acknowledgments xv Introduction: Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species 3 Michael Ruse Part One: Natural Selection Chapter 1: Preamble to Natural Selection 29 Chapter 2: Variation under Domestication 38 Chapter 3: Variation under Nature I 56 Chapter 4: The Struggle for Existence 66 Chapter 5: Natural Selection I 77 Chapter 6: Laws of Variation 102 Chapter 7: E volution Today: A Modern Perspective on Natural Selection 119 Part Two: Speciation Chapter 8: Preamble to Speciation 137 Chapter 9: Variation under Nature II 152 Chapter 10: Natural Selection II 164 Chapter 11: Hybridism 190 Chapter 12: E volution Today: The Mosquitoes of the London Underground 205 Part Three: Theory Chapter 13: Preamble: What Is a Theory? 219 Chapter 14: Difficulties on Theory 227 Chapter 15: Instinct 250 Chapter 16: Geology I: Background 264 Chapter 17: Geology II: On the Imperfection of the Geological Record 275 Chapter 18: Geology III: On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings 288 Chapter 19: Geology IV: Evolution Today 301 Chapter 20: Geographical Distribution 314 Chapter 21: Geographical Distribution, Continued 331 Chapter 22: Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs 346 Chapter 23: Recapitulation and Conclusion 381 Chapter 24: E volution Today: The Witness Has Been Found, Again and Again 401 Illustration Credits 417 Index 419

David N. Reznick is professor of biology at the University of California, Riverside.

"Reznick ... succeeds where others have failed?instead of annotating the dense, Victorian prose of the Origin or recasting it as a popular narrative, he paraphrases each chapter of the book, adding fascinating elaborations on why Darwin chose a certain phrase, where he turned out to be wrong, and how the intervening 150 years have changed our theories. His account is a welcome tool for those who'd like to hear evolution from Darwin himself but find the master impenetrable."--SEED Magazine "Books to Read Now" "During the past decade, a number of writers have hoped to rectify this situation with books that summarize, modernize, or otherwise elucidate this seminal work of evolutionary biology. Within this growing corpus of 'guides' and 'companions,' this new book by Reznick (Univ. of California, Riverside) occupies a place somewhere between the easygoing narrative of Darwin's Ghost by Steve Jones ... and the scholarly analysis of The Cambridge Companion to the Origin of Species, edited by Michael Ruse and Robert J. Richards... Major post-Darwinian concepts are discussed as needed to explain the modem repercussions of the Origin. Overall, this is a very readable and insightful guide that will provide readers with both the understanding and the motivation to tackle the original. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels of academic, public, and professional libraries."--Choice "David Reznick succeeds in producing a highly engaging and informative 'interpretive guide' to the original On the Origin of Species with an approach that will prove quite useful in different ways to different groups of readers. Those who have read Darwin but perhaps lack knowledge of contemporary evolutionary biology will find the case studies, examples, and discussion of modern context highly instructive; modern biologists will gain much insight into the state of evolutionary thinking at its genesis, ? la Darwin... I join Resnick in hoping that his interpretive guide will inspire readers to pick