The Great Dinosaur Debate: New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction

How the Mind Works

Steven Pinker · 661 pages

"Presented with extraordinary lucidity, cogency and panache...Powerful and gripping...To have read [the book] is to have consulted a first draft of the structural plan of the human psyche...a glittering tour de force" - Spectator "Why do memories fade? Why do we lose our tempers? Why do fools fall in love? Pinker's objective in this erudite account is to explore the nature and history of the human

Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles

Robin Baker · 358 pages

"Using a series of fictional scenes involving some form of sexual contact, followed by an interpretation of the behavior from the viewpoint of an evolutionary biologist," the author explains how the "old programming [prompts] sexual behavior that is often in conflict with ... rational plans."--Jackets.

The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

Charles Darwin · 373 pages

Bully for Brontosaurus

Stephen Jay Gould · 540 pages

Essays from the author's column This view of life, published in Natural history.

Trilobite: Eyewitness to Evolution

Richard Fortey · 302 pages

"With Fortey's expert guidance, we begin to understand how trilobites reveal the pattern and mechanism of evolution through their fossil legacy in the rocks. Through the eyes of trilobites, he allows us glimpses of former worlds as foreign in their geography as in their life forms. Altogether, he provides a unique picture of our geological past, which in turn provides us - scientist and layperson

When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time

Michael J. Benton · 336 pages

WTF, Evolution?!: A Theory of Unintelligible Design

Mara Grunbaum · 272 pages

Here to question the intelligence in intelligent design, WTF, Evolution!? features more than 100 of the most ridiculous-looking wacky creatures on earth, with accompanying hilarious commentary. We all have our off days. Why should Evolution be any different? Maybe Evolution got carried away with an idea that was just a little too crazy like having the Regal Horned Lizard defend itself by shooting

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True

Richard Dawkins · 272 pages

What are things made of? What is the sun? Why is there night and day, winter and summer? Why do bad things happen? Are we alone? Throughout history people all over the world have invented stories to answer profound questions such as these. Have you heard the tale of how the sun hatched out of an emu's egg? Or what about the great catfish that carries the world on its back? Has anyone ever t

Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease

Sharon Moalem · 279 pages

Survival of the Sickest: The Surprising Connections Between Disease and Longevity is a 2007 New York Times Bestselling science book by Sharon Moalem, an evolutionary biologist and neurogeneticist, and Jonathan Prince, senior advisor and speechwriter for the Clinton administration. It was originally titled, Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease.

The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry

Bryan Sykes · 319 pages

"In 1994 Professor Bryan Sykes, a leading world authority on DNA and human evolution, was called in to examine the frozen remains of a man trapped in glacial ice in northern Italy. News of the discovery of the Ice Man and his age, which was put at over five thousand years, fascinated the world. But what made the story particularly extraordinary was that Professor Sykes was also able to track down

The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates

Frans de Waal · 304 pages

A renowned primatologist argues that ethical behavior witnessed in animals is the evolutionary and biological origin of human fairness and explains that morality has more to do with natural instincts than with religion.

The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution

David Quammen · 304 pages

"Charles Darwin was by nature a homebody, a breeder of pigeons, a close student of barnacles--in short, a cautious and deeply shy man. Yet he found himself burdened with a profoundly radical insight. This elusive character, whose theories have had such a revolutionizing impact on our understanding of nature, remains as misapprehended as his most wondrous, frightening idea: "natural selection," the

Why We Run: A Natural History

Bernd Heinrich · 304 pages

In Why We Run, biologist, award-winning nature writer, and ultramarathoner Bernd Heinrich explores a new perspective on human evolution by examining the phenomenon of ultraendurance and makes surprising discoveries about the physical, spiritual -- and primal -- drive to win. At once lyrical and scientific, Why We Run shows Heinrich's signature blend of biology, anthropology, psychology, and philos

My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs

Brian Switek · 264 pages

Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence

Richard W. Wrangham, Dale Peterson · 350 pages

Whatever their virtues, men are more violent than women. Why do men kill, rape, and wage war, and what can we do about it? Drawing on the latest discoveries about human evolution and about our closest living relatives, the great apes, Demonic Males offers some startling new answers. Dramatic, vivid, and firmly grounded in meticulous research, this book will change the way you see the world.

The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor

Colin Tudge, Josh Young · 267 pages

For more than a century, scientists have raced to unravel the human family tree and have grappled with its complications. Now, with an astonishing new discovery, everything we thought we knew about primate origins could change. Lying inside a high-security vault, deep within the heart of one of the world's leading natural history museums, is the scientific find of a lifetime - a perfectly fossiliz

Multiplicity

Telmo Pievani

The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Today

Rob Dunn · 304 pages

The Malay Archipelago

Alfred Russel Wallace · 515 pages

The wisdom of peace and the absurdity of fighting are demonstrated in seventeen stories and poems by outstanding authors of today such as Jean Fritz, Milton Meltzer, and Nancy Willard, illustrated by famous illustrators such as Paul Zelinsky, the Dillons, and Maurice Sendak.

The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life

Robert Trivers · 406 pages

Explores the author's theorized evolutionary basis for self-deception, which he says is tied to group conflict, courtship, neurophysiology, and immunology, but can be negated by awareness of it and its results.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari · 456 pages

From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.” One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What hap

The Co-Creation

Olivia Judson

Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution

Rebecca Stott · 396 pages

Christmas, 1859. Just one month after the publication of On the Origin of Species, Darwin received a letter that deeply unsettled him. He had expected criticism. Letters were arriving every day like swarms, some expressing praise, most outrage and accusations of heresy. But the letter from the Reverend Powell was different.

The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism

Michael J. Behe · 320 pages

Draws on new findings in genetics to pose an argument for intelligent design that refutes Darwinian beliefs about evolution while offering alternative analyses of such factors as disease, random mutations, and the human struggle for survival.