Abstract
After a brief introduction of the fundamental properties of life and of major paradigms of current evolutionary theory, this chapter presents the organization and main topics of the book. Box 1.1 introduces biological systematics in the historical context and illustrates the “molecular clock” approach.
Biology is an historical science. The further life diverges, the more its direction is determined by the accumulated quirks of past history.
Lineweaver and Chopra (2012)
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Ligrone, R. (2019). Introduction. In: Biological Innovations that Built the World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16057-9_1
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