Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree
Buy at: University of California Press | Amazon
Adaptive radiation, which results when a single ancestral species gives rise to many descendants, each adapted to a different part of the environment, is possibly the single most important source of biological diversity in the living world. One of the best-studied examples involves Caribbean Anolis lizards. With about 400 species, these lizards have played an important role in the development of ecological theory and have become a model system exemplifying how ecological, evolutionary, and behavioral studies can be combined to understand evolutionary diversification. This major work, written by one of the best-known investigators of Anolis, reviews and synthesizes an immense literature. Jonathan B. Losos illustrates how different scientific approaches to the questions of adaptation and diversification can be integrated and examines evolutionary and ecological questions of interest to a broad range of biologists.
Praise for the book
“This book is destined to become a classic. It is scholarly, informative, stimulating, and highly readable, and will inspire a generation of students.”
— Peter R. Grant, author of How and Why Species Multiply: The Radiation of Darwin’s Finches
“This engaging book makes a wonderful example of an adaptive radiation accessible to all, and the lavish illustrations, especially the photographs, make the anoles come alive in one’s mind.”
— David Wake, University of California, Berkeley
“A rich compendium of information by an extraordinarily insightful biologist.”
— Rosemary Gillespie, Science
“Lucid language and simplicity in writing [create] magic throughout the book. … This book will stimulate the biologists and ecologists to … save these beautiful creatures.”
— Environment and Ecology
“Stands among the most informed and engaging accounts ever written on the ecology and evolution of a group of organisms in nature. … This wonderful book will appeal to all ecologists and evolutionary biologists interested in the causes of species diversity. It is so well written that interested undergraduates and nonprofessionals will also find it useful and inspiring. When you buy it, guard your copy well.”
— Dolph Schluter, Trends in Ecology & Evolution
“This book is a celebration of the people working in this incredible system and insights they have produced … by one of its foremost researchers.”
— Steven Vamosi, Evolution
“Accessible, interesting, and broad in scope. … Indispensable.”
— Jerry Husak, Quarterly Review of Biology
“In a book both beautifully illustrated and deeply informative, Jonathan Losos, a leader in evolutionary ecology, celebrates and analyzes the diversity of the natural world that the fascinating anoline lizards epitomize. Readers who are drawn to nature by its beauty or its intellectual challenges—or both—will find his book rewarding.”
— Douglas J. Futuyma, State University of New York, Stony Brook
