selection given idea anyone ever That selection natural by evolution of theory Darwin 9 Charles evolution has been called the best that had seems about right to me For that theory has us the correct explanation of our origins and by our I mean not just human beings but every species that ever lived Evolutionary biology tells us that we're related to greater or lesser degrees to every creature on Earth today to monkeys and apes to ferns to squirrels and even to tiny creatures that you can see only under the microscope And evolution explains all the marvelous adaptations of animals and plants the grasping trunk of the elephant the sturdy beak of the woodpecker the prickly spines of the cactus as the results of a very simple process natural The idea of evolution is not only one of the greatest triumphs of the human mind but it has become the central organizing idea of biology Whenever you look at any feature of an animal or plant whether it involves body structure behavior or biochemistry you can ask yourself Where did it come from How did it get there The answer is evolution and usually natural selection As the biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky once said Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution I was exposed to a lot of science when I was young By the time I was twelve years old I already had a big library of books about dinosaurs geology and all varieties of animals and plants But I didn't have any books on evolution because they weren't written for young people then And although I became an evolutionary biologist I still regret not having learned earlier how evolution ties biology together You are luckier for in your hands is the book I wish I had read when I was your age Laurence Pringle has written a wonderful account of evolution that does tie it all together He explains the modern scientific view clearly and summarizes all of the fascinating evidence that has convinced scientists as I hope it convinces you that evolution is true Enjoy JERRY A. COYNE PHD Professor of Ecology and Evolution University of Chicago Foreword
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Imagine a long time ago in your family Do you remember old photographs of your great grandparents Perhaps you have seen an ancestor's portrait that was painted even before photography was invented You may have studied a family tree that gives a few details about your relatives who lived a century or more ago It is probably hard to picture their day to day lives so long ago For humans both now and in the past just a thousand years seems like a vast stretch of time Most people who lived in the 1700s and early 1800s believed that Earth had existed for just a few thousand years Also they believed that the plants and animals they knew had always been the same A few people disagreed They found evidence that suggested that Earth might be many millions of years old They also learned that there had been great changes in Earth's life The evidence was in plain sight in the landscape and the rocks of Earth's surface Old family photographs remind us of past generations It is hard for humans to imagine life stretching back for many thousands or even millions of years 1 Imagine 11
