Evolution continually shapes the world around us. The living world is reproducing and transmitting traits from ancestors to descendants, yet at the same time it is always changing. This book examines this duality of biodiversity, its past and its future within biological evolution.
Beginning with an examination of the origin of life’s diversity and ending with an analysis of the Anthropocene epoch, this book examines the evolution and biodiversity of organisms both at the molecular and organismic level and emphasizes the role of natural collections. This is an essential tool for anyone wanting to learn a valuable and ethical perspective on the natural world.
1. From Richard Owen to Charles Darwin: Understanding the Origin of Life’s Diversity, Claudine Cohen.
2. Life Engineering in an Evolutionary World, Thomas Heams.
3. The View of Systematics on Biodiversity, Philippe Grandcolas.
4. Which Model(s) Explain Biodiversity?, Guillaume Achaz.
5. Analysis of Microbial Diversity: Regarding the (Paradoxical) Difficulty of Seeing Big in Metagenomics,
Chloé Vigliotti, Philippe Lopez and Eric Bapteste.
6. Genetic Code Degeneracy and Amino Acid Frequency in Proteomes, Jean Lehmann.
7. Telomeres and Telomerases: Structural Diversity for the Same Role, Carole Saintomé.
8. Globalization and Infectious Diseases, Thierry Wirth.
9. Why are Morpho Blue?, Vincent Debat, Serge Berthier, Patrick Blandin, Nicolas Chazot, Marianne Elias, Doris Gomez and Violaine Llaurens.
10. Biodiversity in Natural History Collections: a Source of Data for the Study of Evolution, Romain Nattier.
11. Mice and Men: an Evolutionary History of Lassa Fever, Aude Lalis and Thierry Wirth.
12. Evolutionary History of Moles in Western Europe: One Mole May Hide Another!,
Violaine Nicolas, Jessica Martinez-Vargas and Jean-Pierre Hugot.
13. The Conoidea and Their Toxins: Evolution of a Hyper-Diversified Group, Nicolas Puillandre and Sébastien Dutertre.
14. The Anthropocene: a Geological or Societal Subject?, Patrick De Wever and Stan Finney.
Philippe Grandcolas is Senior Scientist and Head of the Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France. His main areas of expertise are systematics and evolutionary biology.
Marie-Christine Maurel is Professor at University Pierre and Marie Curie and researcher at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France. Her areas of expertise are molecular and structural archaeobiology, origins of life and heredity.