Evolution and Escalation

Download or read book Evolution and Escalation written by Geerat Vermeij and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 547 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is one biologist's interpretation of the chronology of life during the last six hundred million years of earth history: an extended essay that draws on the author's own data and a wide-ranging literature survey to discuss the nature and dynamics of evolutionary change in organisms and their biological surroundings. Geerat Vermeij demonstrates that escalation--the process by which species adapt to, or are limited by, their enemies as the latter increase in ability to acquire and retain resources--has been a dominant theme in the history of life despite frequent episodes of extinction.