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Ericb
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
648 Posts |
 Posted - 03/31/2009 : 06:18:00 AM
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I really think the best way to approach this subject is to go to the sources of our knowledge of biology. The best way to get this is by accessing the primary literature on the subject. Unfortunately much of this is too specialized for the general reader (lots of details of mulecular processes or the minutia of skeletal structures) so for most of us the best alternative is to go to the seconday literature (books written for the general public but containing references to the original reasearch on which the ideas in the books are based). Movies, TV documentaries, popular magazine and newspaper articles and unannotated popular books may be fun but one often gets a distorted view of the subject from them. I find popular polemics on the subject kind of annoying even when I agree with the point of view being expressed.
I'd recommend the following books:
For a summary of how current research on embryology and genetics has influenced the current view of evolution, especially in regard to the Cambrian Explosion I'd recommend this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393060160
For a good introduction on how paleontologies work and arrive at their theories I'd recommend Extinction by Douglas Erwin. It not a summary of paleontology in general but instead focusses on the end-Permian mass extinction but in the process it shows what evidence there is and how it is often interpreted:
http://www.amazon.com/Extinction-Earth-Nearly-Ended-Million/dp/0691136289/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238505228&sr=1-1
Neither of these is a polemic that tries to beat you over the head to accept some theory, rather they are well annotated introductions to how scientiets actually work.
"I am Temujin ... Barbarian ... I fight! I love! I conquer ... like a Barbarian!" |
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