pz

Write 'em down! I've already warned Rufus that I'm planning to give him a long list of evo-devo readings, and I think it would be great to have a long and nicely organized list. If nothing else, right now when a creationist comes along and starts whining about basic evolutionary ideas, we can ask him if he's read any of the listed introductory texts, and focus the conversation on real science rather than creationist misperceptions of science. A list of the classics would be handy to snap 'em back to reality when they start mumbling cluelessly about Simpson or Dobzhansky or Fisher or Wright or whoever.

Actually, one general thing we could think about is what categories would be useful. We've got one, introductory texts. What others would be good?

• Population genetics
• Evo-Devo
• Molecular Genetics
• Genomics/Proteomics
• Biogeography
• Fossil record
• Human evolution
• ...

You get the idea. Then we could tap into the expertise here and assemble more specific lists for each.

RufusAtticus

As someone who has read Dobzhansky, Fisher, and Ford, I couldn't agree more.

Dr.GH

The Fossil Trail: How we know what we think we know about human evolution, Ian
Tattersall. 1995, Oxford:Oxford University Press.


A good text well illustrated. A number of important finds have been reported in the last 7 years, but this is still a useful book.

RufusAtticus

The next step in the FAQ is to have people "sign up" to take a section and provide a list of books on the topic. We can get to websites later.

PZ has already claimed evo-devo.
I'm going to take pop-gen.

KC

Rufus,

If you haven't already, include this nice collection of Motoo Kimura's papers, with excellent commentary essays by Naoyuki Takahata and a foreward by James Crow:

Population Genetics, Molecular Evolution, and the Neutral Theory: Selected Papers (1994), University of Chicago Press

KC

Quetzal

The single best book I've ever read on evolution (and that's saying a lot) is E.O. Wilson's "Diversity of Life" (most recent edition). A genuine tour de force for the non-scientist covering everything from biogeography to mass extinction to the formation of ecosystems, it is the one book I invariably recommend to people interested in the evidence for the evolution of biodiversity. Highly readable, and has the additional advantage of providing a good rationale for conservation and preservation of biodiversity.

Oolon Colluphid

That’d be a job for Patrick and Jesse, though for starters you’d need Carroll (Vertebrate Palaeontology and Evolution, Patterns & Processes of Vertebrate Evolution), Benton (Vertebrate Palaeontology) and Clarkson (Invertebrate Palaeontology and Evolution). Is there a Burgess Shale book that isn’t Conway Morris or Gould -- ie a balanced one (other than Clarkson)? Anything for plants? [Edited to add: Cleal's Plant Fossils: The History of Land Vegetation would seem to be great, but appears to be OOP ]

That has got to be Ergaster. I could raise some useful titles -- Tattersall (Fossil Trail already mentioned; Extinct Humans has some wonderful pics of the actual fossils), Klein's Human Career, Aiello & Dean's Human Evolutionary Anatomy, Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Human Evolution, Larsen's Human Origins: The Fossil Record, Hartwig's The Primate Fossil Record (not that anyone can afford it! ) etc, but she’s the resident expert.

If you want one for ‘popular’ books -- introductions, easier reads etc, the Attenboroughs, Goulds, Dawkinses, Dennetts, Leakeys, Forteys and Ridleys, then I could manage that.

It might be worth having a list of general references for living things, books like MacDonald’s New Encyclopedia of Mammals, Barnes’s The Invertebrates, Kardong’s Vertebrates, Eckert’s Animal Physiology, Alcock’s Animal Behaviour, Raven’s The Biology of Plants, Brock’s Biology of Microorganisms, Bush’s Parasitism, a catch-all biology text like MBV Roberts, and so on. Erm, there ya go...

Anyone want to do an abiogenesis list?

Cheers, DT

Secular Pinoy

This book might be what you're looking for, with regards to the burgess shale, though I don't understand why you'd be averse to Gould's wonderful book. I think books for the popular level ought to be recommended before advanced books, as it is easier to grasp (we're not all evolutionary biologists here). That should be foremost on our minds when making the list. We can't expect creationists, for instance, to readily grasp the idea of evolution reading Futuyma.

Eldredge's The Patterns of Evolution, as well as his book on Fossils, are good books for the fossil lovers, and it's theoretical interpretation (particularly Eldredge's theory of Punk-Eek). Trilobite by Fortey is ok, too. This listmania list from Amazon has good recommendations. As for textbooks, the dated, but still useful book The Principles of Paleontology by Raup and Stanley is still good. See the review under that book in Amazon, as well as Donald Prothero's (of The Skeptic Society) remark: In 1971, David Raup and Steve Stanley published a radical new textbook entitled Principles of Paleontology. Unlike any paleontology text before (or since), it had no descriptions of fossil invertebrates; it was entirely focused on the theoretical issues of how we interpret the fossil record, and what we can (and can't) learn from it.

My reading on Human Evolution is limited, so I'll leave it to those who know better. On abiogenesis, a good popular book would be The Fifth Miracle by physicist Paul Davies, IMO. A wee bit skeptical of the current theories, the book is still very well written and informative. I'm going to read it again this week (just to reacquaint myself with abiogenetic theories). How about a booklist on Evo/Cre? From YEC to OEC and ID. On the top of my head I'd say The Triumph of Evolution by Eldredge, Abusing Science by Kitcher, Scientists Confront Creationism by Various Authors, Science on Trial by Futuyma, Finding Darwin's God by Miller, and Tower of Babel by Pennock. And The Blind Watchmaker, of course!

How about Philosophy of Biology? There's Ruse, Hull, Dennett and Kitcher.

manderguy

I’d recommend The Book of Life edited by Gould. It’s a good first take at the scope and patterns of the history of life on earth. It’s a bit dated, even though the second printing is rather new. Gould admits as much in his preface to the newer printing and supplements it with a bit of added material on whale and hominid evolution.

It’s nicely illustrated and written at a level non-scientists can easily grasp.

Ergaster

Well, you've hit on all the ones I would have mentioned (sniff...I feel so unneeded...). I'd only add:

The Encyclopedia of Human Evolution, 2nd Edition, edited by Ian Tattersall, Eric Delson, & John Van Couvering

From Lucy to Language by Don Johanson, photos (and *what photos!) by David Brill

Paleoanthropology (2nd edition) by Milford Wolpoff (ignore his wacky classification of Homo)

Primate Adaptation and Evolution (2nd Edition) by John Fleagle

and one of the best "personal view" books on the business itself:

Adventures in the Bone Trade by Jon Kalb