My first book of evolution

By Sheddad Kaid-Salah Ferron & Eduard Altarriba
Button books www.buttonbooks.co.uk
ISBN 978-1-78708-130-7 £12.99

It is 99 years since the ‘Scopes Monkey trial’ in the USA in which the defendant was found guilty of teaching evolution in a state school. How the times have changed over the last century where Evolution has now become accepted in a majority of countries in the West.

This book is an introduction – hence the title ‘my first book’ and doesn’t get involved in the religious/political arguments that surround doctrine but instead lays out how the various forms of life from mammals and reptiles down to plants and bacteria have changed over millions of years to become what they are today. It also looks at the mass extinctions that have cut off promising lines and allowed lesser ones to come to the fore. It is, surprisingly, a giraffe that is used as an example, and we are shown a Palaeotragus which eventually becomes a Bramatherium until finally a recognisable Giraffe. This is then taken to the natural selection filter to show how traits are developed.

All of this has been the result of much study by scientists and Charles Darwin has a couple of double page spreads as he builds upon the work of others and we see that this is not all down to him, though others have largely been forgotten.

There is a big disclaimer that advises that not all changes are examples of evolution, but part of a natural cycle.

LUCA is given a big spread and 350 proteins found in current species are derived from a common ancestor at least 4 billions years old.

One fact that is always a shocker is that 99% of the species throughout the earth’s history are no more and be it from climate change, human actions (pollution/hunting) and mass extinction events such as vulcanism and asteroids there is no guarantee that things will stay as they are at the present.

Throughout there are drawings and charts, but no photographs. The graphics are excellent and the colour coding subtle but helpful and this is the work of Altarriba which shows just why he won an award for his work on ‘My first book of Quantum Physics.

Although under 50 pages this hardback pulls a lot in and is definitively worth the investment and may get some enquiring minds interested in biology.