Böcker av Peter R. Grant

An important look at a groundbreaking forty-year study of Darwin's finchesRenowned evolutionary biologists Peter and Rosemary Grant have produced landmark studies of the Galapagos finches first made famous by Charles Darwin. In How and Why Species Multiply, they offered a complete evolutionary history of Darwin's finches since their origin almost three million years ago. Now, in their richly illustrated new book, 40 Years of Evolution, the authors turn their attention to events taking place on a contemporary scale. By continuously tracking finch populations over a period of four decades, they uncover the causes and consequences of significant events leading to evolutionary changes in species.The authors used a vast and unparalleled range of ecological, behavioral, and genetic data-including song recordings, DNA analyses, and feeding and breeding behavior-to measure changes in finch populations on the small island of Daphne Major in the Galapagos archipelago. They find that natural selection happens repeatedly, that finches hybridize and exchange genes rarely, and that they compete for scarce food in times of drought, with the remarkable result that the finch populations today differ significantly in average beak size and shape from those of forty years ago. The authors' most spectacular discovery is the initiation and establishment of a new lineage that now behaves as a new species, differing from others in size, song, and other characteristics. The authors emphasize the immeasurable value of continuous long-term studies of natural populations and of critical opportunities for detecting and understanding rare but significant events.By following the fates of finches for several generations, 40 Years of Evolution offers unparalleled insights into ecological and evolutionary changes in natural environments.

"The extraordinary life story of the celebrated naturalist who transformed our understanding of evolution Enchanted by Daphne is legendary ecologist Peter Grant's personal account of his remarkable life and career. In this revelatory book, Grant takes readers from his childhood in World War II-era Britain to his ongoing research today in the Galâapagos archipelago, vividly describing what it is like to do fieldwork in one of the most magnificent yet inhospitable places on Earth. This is also the story of two brilliant and courageous biologists as they raised a family together while balancing the demands of professional lives that would take them to the far corners of the globe. In 1973, Grant and his wife Rosemary embarked on a journey that would fundamentally change how we think about evolution. Over the next four decades, they visited the Galâapagos every year to observe Darwin's famous finches on the remote, uninhabited island of Daphne Major. Documenting how eighteen species have diversified from a single ancestral species, they demonstrated that we could actually see and measure evolution in a natural setting. Grant recounts the blind alleys and breathtaking triumphs of this historic research as he and Rosemary followed in Darwin's footsteps-and ushered in a new era in ecology. A wonderfully absorbing portrait of a life in science, Enchanted by Daphne is an unforgettable chronicle of the travels and discoveries of one of the world's most influential naturalists"--

Charles Darwin's experiences in the Galapagos Islands in 1835 helped to guide his thoughts toward a revolutionary theory: that species were not fixed but diversified from their ancestors over many generations. This book explains what we have learned about the origin and evolution of new species.

After his famous visit to the Galapagos Islands, Darwin speculated that "e;one might fancy that, from an original paucity of birds in this archipelago, one species had been taken and modified for different ends."e; This book is the classic account of how much we have since learned about the evolution of these remarkable birds. Based upon over a decade's research, Grant shows how interspecific competition and natural selection act strongly enough on contemporary populations to produce observable and measurable evolutionary change. In this new edition, Grant outlines new discoveries made in the thirteen years since the book's publication. Ecology and Evolution of Darwin's Finches is an extraordinary account of evolution in action.Originally published in 1986.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.