David Quammen examines the intricacies of evolution as illustrated by the study of islands. These isolated and unique environments provide us with a microscopic view of what happens to species as the evolve together over time.
Details
The Song of the Dodo was written by David Quammen and published by Touchstone, New York, 1997.Spanning eight years of explorations, The Song of the Dodo combines personal interpretation, scientific theory, and natural history into a text of deep texture and insight. Quammens colorful descriptive style offers you a true understanding of Island Biogeography, evolution, and extinction.
Excerpt
"Let's start indoors. Let's start by imagining a fine Persian carpet and a hunting knife. The carpet is twelve feet by eighteen, say. That gives us 216 square feet of continuous woven material. Is the knife razor sharp? If not, we hone it. We set about cutting the carpet into thirty-six equal pieces, total them up--and find that, lo, there's still nearly 216 square feet of recognizably carpet like stuff. But what does it amount to? Have we got thirty-six nice Persian throw rugs? No. All we're left with is three dozen ragged fragments, eac one worthless and comencing to come apart."
