Why Evolution Is True by Jerry Coyne

[Galapagos]

Amazon.com: Why Evolution Is True: Jerry A. Coyne: Books

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Evolution-True-Jerry-Coyne/dp/0670020532

 

I just finished reading "Why Evolution Is True" by Jerry Coyne. I posted elsewhere that I would report back with a short review, so here we are.

Coyne did not disappoint. In this book, the reader really is shown why evolution is true; that the evidence for evolution is so variegated , robust, and overwhelming that we must necessarily accept it as a scientific fact. As Coyne states in the preface: "Evolution is a fact. And far from casting doubt on Darwinism, the evidence gathered by scientists over the past century and a half supports it completely, showing that evolution happened, and it happened largely as Darwin proposed, through the workings of natural selection.".

The book is college-level reading, but assumes little background in biology, and contains a short glossary, making it very accessible. It serves as a thorough introduction to key-terms and pivotal concepts in evolutionary theory, and would invaluably supplement any college level biology course.

The illustrations for this book were done by the artist Kalliopi Monoyios, and were wonderfully sketched(view a sample here). Besides the many different sketches, the book contains cladograms, various other graphs/charts, and photos of developing embryos and transitional fossils. The cladogram for whales is accompanied by sketches of the transitional forms, and is more complete than any of the comparisons in my college biology textbooks(although, it came out just a bit too early to contain the recently described Maiacetus innus).

The end notes are a trove of excellent web-links and youtube links, many of which now rest readily in my arsenal of citations.

Overall, this is a very readable introduction to evolution, and Coyne does exactly what he set out to do. The ability of creationists to delude themselves should not be underestimated, but I find it difficult to imagine someone reading this text and still not understanding why evolution is true. For those of us already familiar with evolutionary theory, this book is a light review sprinkled with unique bio-facts from a world class evolutionary biologist. Coyne's writing style is very readable, and I found just the images and links included to be more than worth the effort.

 

And, some additonal and very excellent news for those of you unfortunate enough to have not yet gotten your hands on a copy: Jerry Coyne now has a blog over at wordpress. Check out Why Evolution Is True:

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/

[Tormod]

Excellent review. Thanks!