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ISBN:	0465020518 (ISBN13: 9780465020515)
Edition Language:	English

The Monkey's Voyage: How Improbable Journeys Shaped the History of Life

Alan de Queiroz

Hardcover | Pages: 368 pages

Rating: 3.7 | 280 Users | 54 Reviews

Point Of Books The Monkey's Voyage: How Improbable Journeys Shaped the History of Life

Title	:	The Monkey's Voyage: How Improbable Journeys Shaped the History of Life
Author	:	Alan de Queiroz
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 368 pages
Published	:	January 7th 2014 by Basic Books (first published September 21st 2013)
Categories	:	Science. Nonfiction. Biology. Natural History. History. Environment. Nature. Evolution

Interpretation Toward Books The Monkey's Voyage: How Improbable Journeys Shaped the History of Life

Throughout the world, closely related species are found on landmasses separated by wide stretches of ocean. What explains these far-flung distributions? Why are species found where they are across the Earth?

Since the discovery of plate tectonics, scientists have long conjectured that plants and animals were scattered over the globe by riding pieces of ancient supercontinents as they broke up. In the past decade, however, that theory has foundered, as the genomic revolution has made reams of new genetic data available. And the data has revealed an extraordinary, stranger-than-fiction story that has sparked a scientific revolution.

In The Monkey's Voyage, biologist Alan de Queiroz introduces a radical new theory of how species as diverse as monkeys, baobab trees, and burrowing lizards made incredible long-distance ocean crossings: pregnant animals and wind-blown plants rode rafts and icebergs and even stowed away on the legs of sea-going birds to create the map of life we see today. In other words, these organisms were not merely victims of continental fate; they were masters of their geographic destiny. And as de Queiroz shows, the effects of oceanic dispersal have been crucial in generating the diversity of life on Earth, from monkeys and guinea pigs in South America to beech trees and kiwi birds in New Zealand. By toppling the idea that the slow process of continental drift drove odd distributions of organisms, this new theory highlights the dynamic and unpredictable nature of the history of life.

In the tradition of John McPhee’s Basin and Range, The Monkey's Voyage is a beautifully told narrative of a profound investigation into the importance of contingency in history and the nature of scientific discovery.

Rating Of Books The Monkey's Voyage: How Improbable Journeys Shaped the History of Life

Ratings: 3.7 From 280 Users | 54 Reviews

Evaluate Of Books The Monkey's Voyage: How Improbable Journeys Shaped the History of Life

I think someone studying biology would get more out of this than the average reader. It wasn't exactly scholarly but definitely had a more academic bent. I kept wondering when he was going to get around to the monkeys of the title which made the run-up to that section feel like a VERY long preface. What I enjoyed most were the parts that were more personal and anecdotal rather than the dry descriptions of various theories and schools of thought on the subject of historical biogeography. There is

How is it that similar species can be found as far away as Africa and South America? This question has been raging at least since Charles Darwin. Until then, the generally accepted answer was God. Darwin, on the other hand, believed that it was caused by dispersal seeds and insects carried on birds feet or on floating debris or even icebergs in the ocean and experimented with radish seeds and sticks to prove his theory. That theory was fine for small insects and plants over short distances but

This addresses a question that I never really thought about, and Im grateful to the author for introducing it to me, and describing it (and the history of the various theories) in a readable way: We know lots about evolution going back hundreds of millions of years. We also know lots about the shape of continents going back hundreds of millions of years. So surely where land (or water) is connected has affected how life evolves. Ostriches and kiwis and emus and rheas are related. There are,

Insightful overview of the current best theories in biogoegraphy.

I had to read this book for my evolutionary biology class. I have to say as a person new to the field, this book provided wonderful insight to understand the basics of evolution. I would say that this book is bias in many cases and the beginning was kinda dull, but that could be a bias opinion of my own opinion. I have to say the author is wonderful with lightening the mood and has done a very good job providing support for his claims.

A really dry book that sadly does not live up to the exciting title. De Queiroz looks at how biologists have arrived at explanations for populations of sameness and diversity across the planet and places them in historiographical context. In the end I skimmed it looking for anything interesting and found myself unable to finish the book.

The Hawaiian Islands are 2400 miles from north America the nearest continent to this Pacific Chain. The Islands emerged from the sea only a few million years ago. They are full of plants and animals that have been there for millions of years as well. How did the animals and plants get there? To travel across 2400 miles of pacific ocean to colonize a pacific island may be easily imaginable for a bird but what about a rabbit. How about the recently extinct Moas how did they get to New Zealand.