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Trees of Life

A Visual History of Evolution

Theodore W. Pietsch

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Honorable Mention, Biological Sciences, 2012 PROSE Awards

For the past 450 years, tree-like branching diagrams have been created to show the complex and surprising interrelationships of organisms, both living and fossil, from viruses and bacteria to birds and mammals. This stunning book celebrates the manifest beauty, intrinsic interest, and human ingenuity of these exquisite trees of life.

Theodore W. Pietsch has chosen 230 trees of life—from among thousands of possible contenders—dating from the sixteenth century to the present day. His arrangement gives readers a visual sense of the...

Honorable Mention, Biological Sciences, 2012 PROSE Awards

For the past 450 years, tree-like branching diagrams have been created to show the complex and surprising interrelationships of organisms, both living and fossil, from viruses and bacteria to birds and mammals. This stunning book celebrates the manifest beauty, intrinsic interest, and human ingenuity of these exquisite trees of life.

Theodore W. Pietsch has chosen 230 trees of life—from among thousands of possible contenders—dating from the sixteenth century to the present day. His arrangement gives readers a visual sense of the historical development of these diagrams and shows how, in Darwin’s words, "from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."

Pietsch’s brief, accessible prose accompanies the diverse trees to fully reveal the engrossing history of human theories of evolution. Over the centuries, trees of life appeared in a wide variety of forms; some were revered as iconic while others incited intense controversy. The earliest examples were meant to portray the imagined temporal order in which God created life on Earth. More recent scientific trees represent hypothetical histories of life.

Never before has the full spectrum of trees of life been brought together in a single volume. Pietsch has spent decades collecting and researching the origin and meaning of these evolutionary trees and presents a visually breathtaking and intellectually brilliant history of the form.

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Reviews

For those with an interest in the history of evolution.

Trees of Life is the sort of book that instantly fascinates... This exemplary work is an important contribution to the history of evolution.

Better than any work before it... Anyone interested in the history of phylogenetics and the study of evolutionary relationships should certainly pick up this wonderful book. In a field advancing as quickly as systematic biology, it is nice to look back at the past once in a while.

Trees of Life is a beautiful book, and the diversity of beautiful images within its pages should be of interest to historians of science, biologists, folks working at the intersection of science and art, and, honestly, anyone with a genuine interest in science and the study of the natural world. This is a taxonomy of trees of life, if you will.

Evolution is often visualized as a branching tree, with the format depending on what the author desires to show. Evolutionary biologist Pietsch is more interested in the history of such trees as art.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
8
x
10
Pages
376
ISBN
9781421411859
Illustration Description
5 halftones, 226 line drawings
Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Brackets and Tables, Circles and Maps, 1554–1778
Early Botanical Networks and Trees, 1766–1815
The First Evolutionary Tree, 1786–1820
Diverse and Unusual Trees of the Early Nineteenth

Preface
Introduction
Brackets and Tables, Circles and Maps, 1554–1778
Early Botanical Networks and Trees, 1766–1815
The First Evolutionary Tree, 1786–1820
Diverse and Unusual Trees of the Early Nineteenth Century, 1817–1834
The Rule of Five, 1819–1854
Pre-Darwinian Branching Diagrams, 1828–1858
Evolution and the Trees of Charles Darwin, 1837–1868
The Trees of Ernst Haeckel, 1866–1905
Post-Darwinian Nonconformists, 1868–1896
More Late Nineteenth-Century Trees, 1874–1897
Trees of the Early Twentieth Century, 1901–1930
The Trees of Alfred Sherwood Romer, 1933–1966
Additional Trees of the Mid-Twentieth Century, 1931–1943
The Trees of William King Gregory, 1938–1951
Hints of New Approaches, 1954–1970
Phenograms and Cladograms, 1958–1966
Early Molecular Trees, 1962–1987
Notable Trees of the Past Four Decades, 1970–2010
Primeval Branches and Universal Trees of Life, 1997–2010
Glossary
Notes
References
Index

Author Bio
Theodore W. Pietsch
Featured Contributor

Theodore W. Pietsch, Ph.D.

Theodore W. Pietsch is Dorothy T. Gilbert Professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and Curator of Fishes at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including The Curious Death of Peter Artedi: A Mystery in the History of Science and Oceanic Anglerfishes: Extraordinary Diversity in the...
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