NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of the second edition of Carl Zimmer and Douglas J. Emlen's Evolution: Making Sense of Life (Roberts and Company, 2015). The preview consists of a part of chapter 14, "Macroevolution." "The history of biodiversity — the processes and patterns of originations, adaptations, and extinctions — is known as macroevolution," Zimmer and Emlen explain. "In this chapter, we'll look at some of the most important lessons that have emerged from the study of macroevolution — not just for understanding the deep history of biodiversity, but also for understanding its future."
"Exciting is a word not often used to describe a new textbook," wrote Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago in praise of the first edition of Evolution: Making Sense of Life. "But by using powerful examples, beautiful images, and finely wrought prose, Zimmer and Emlen have produced a book that not only conveys the explanatory power of evolution, but is also permeated with the joy of doing science. Their text can only be described as an exciting moment for our field: it is an important accomplishment for our students and for evolutionary biology at large."