Cover: Evolution, 4th Edition by Douglas Emlen; Carl Zimmer

Evolution

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Fourth  Edition©2026  Douglas Emlen; Carl Zimmer

ISBN:9781319613235

ISBN:9781319496586

ISBN:9781319496548

ISBN:9781319245580

ISBN:9781319616328

ISBN:9781319616342

About

Emlen and Zimmer’s Evolution: Making Sense of Life, Fourth Edition brings the science of evolution to life with vivid storytelling and real-world relevance. From tracking virus mutations to understanding animal behavior, this book helps you see how evolution affects the world around you. With clear explanations, updated research, and access to digital tools in Achieve, it supports your success in any evolutionary biology course.

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Table of Contents

1 The Whale and the Virus: How Scientists Study Evolution  
2 From Natural Philosophy to Darwin: A Brief History of Evolutionary Ideas 
3 What the Rocks Say: How Geology and Paleontology Reveal the History of Life 
4 The Tree of Life: How Biologists Use Phylogeny to Reconstruct the Deep Past 
5 Raw Material: Heritable Variation Among Individuals 
6 The Ways of Change: Drift and Selection  
7 Beyond Alleles: Quantitative Genetics and the Evolution of Phenotypes  
8 The History in Our Genes 
9 From Genes to Traits: The Evolution of Genetic Networks and Development  
10 Natural Selection: Empirical Studies in the Wild  
11 Sex: Causes and Consequences 
12 After Conception: The Evolution of Life History and Parental Care 
13 The Origin of Species 
14 Macroevolution: The Long Run 
15 Intimate Partnerships: How Species Adapt to Each Other 
16 Brains and Behavior 
17 Human Evolution: A New Kind of Ape 
18 Evolutionary Medicine 

Douglas Emlen

Douglas J. Emlen is a professor at the University of Montana. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the U.S. Pres- idential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. In 2014 he was awarded UM’s Distinguished Teaching Award and in 2015 the Carnegie/CASE Professor of the Year Award for the state of Montana. His 2014 book Animal Weapons: The Evolution of Battle won the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, and he recently starred in documenta- ries about his work on BBC (Nature’s Wildest Weapons) and NOVA (Extreme Animal Weapons).

Carl Zimmer

Carl Zimmer is one of the country’s leading science writers. A colum- nist for the New York Times, he is the author of 15 books, including She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Poten- tials of Heredity, which The Guardian named the best science book of 2018. Zimmer is professor adjunct at Yale University, where he teaches science writing. Among his many honors, Zimmer has won the Stephen Jay Gould Prize, awarded by the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the National Association of Biology Teachers Distinguished Service Award.