Download or read book Developmental Plasticity and Evolution written by Mary Jane West-Eberhard and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-04-10 with total page 820 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: West-Eberhard is widely recognized as one of the most incisive thinkers in evolutionary biology. This book assesses all the evidence for our current understanding of the role of changes in body plan and development for the process of speciation. The process of evolution is systematically reassessed to integrate the insights coming from developmental genetics. Every serious student of evolution, and a substantial share of developmental biologists and geneticists, will need to take note of this contribution. The timing is clearly ripe for the synthesis that this work will help bring about.