The smallest book on evolution asks big questions.

Anticipating the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species throughout 2009, Evolution explores the history of evolutionary theory from Lamarck to Darwin to today’s large questions about life in the universe. With sections on the causes of genetic variation and natural selection, the success in species of altruistic strategies, and why sharks are the same shape in different seas, and with a rich array of rarely published period illustrations and examples of the latest genetic research, this is a timely and thought-provoking book.