There is a mysterious force which affects everyliving thing on Earth-an unstoppable force, almost too slow to measure. Over billions of years, lifeforms into creatures as varied and spectacular as dinosaurs and humans.There over 200 beautiful colour photographs and illustrations,lively,and authoritative text by prize-winning author,all the latest information on this fast-moving branch of science and fact-filled reference section in this book.

Charles Darwin's giant leap ofunderstanding in the 19th centuryaltered forever our perceptionof the world, and humanity's placein it. Since then, the study ofevolutionary change-and thegenes that drive it onwards-hasadvanced with astounding speed.Today, this knowledge influencesareas as varied as new medicalresearch, genetic engineering andenvironmental studies.

The Kingfisher Book of Evolutionbrings this incredible subject tolife in six diverse sections, startingwith an account of the historicalrevolution in thought that led,eventually, to Darwin.The second section looks at howevolution works-at the secrets ofDNA and the formation of newspecies. Section three followsthe odyssey of life on Earth, fromits birth in the oceans to the agesof dinosaurs and mammals.

Section four looks at the amazingadaptations of behaviour inanimals today, while section fivecovers the evolution of the world'snew dominant species-humans.

The final section investigatespossible futures-from the threatof mass extinctions to glimpses ofbizarre new species millionsof years from now.

UNCOVERING EVOLUTION

 What is Evolution?

 The Ancient Greeks

 The Age of Christianity

 The Rise of Science

 Revolutionary Ideas

 Darwin and the Beagle

 The Origin of Species

 After Darwin

EVOLUTION EXPLAINED

 Principles of Heredity

 Variation

 Population

 Adaptation

 The Formation of New Species

 The Evolution of Sex

 Evidence for Evolution

 New Techniques

THE HISTORY OF LIFE

 How Life Began

 Life in the Sea

 Out of the Water

 Vertebrates on Land

 The Dinosaurs

 Life in the Air

 Mammals

 The Whole Story

THE EVOLUTION OF BEHAVIOUR

 Cooperation

 Reproduction

 Hunting and Feeding

 Aggression

 Migration

 Communication

THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANS

 On Being Human

 Upright Apes

 The First Humans

 The Rise of Homo sapiens

 The Neanderthal Mystery

 Why Humans are Successful

THE FUTURE OF EVOLUTION

 Genomes and Gene Therapy

 Cloning

 People and the World

 If Humans Die Out

 Future Humans

 Alien Evolution

REFERENCE

 Evolution Facts

 Glossary

 Index

 Acknowledgements