Animal Life Encyclopedia: Evolution, 4 Edition

Animal Life Encyclopedia is a 17-volume set, covering the entire animal kingdom, from protozoa to mammals.
Originally edited by the famous Frankfurt Zoo director and conservationist, Bernhard Grzimek, and translated into English in the early 1970s, the first English edition, consisting of 11 volumes, was published by Van Nostrand Reinhold in both England and the United States. That version was very popular, but after 30 years the series was in urgent need of updating. During that time, thousands of biologists, working in both the field and laboratory, had generated a tremendous amount of new information covering a wide range of species.

Recognizing an urgent need to include the new information, the entire collection was updated, reformatted, and completely rewritten by English-speaking experts from 2001 to 2003 under the direction of new owner and publisher, Gale.
However, the project was not complete, as the original series also included three additional topical volumes: Ethology (animal behavior), Ecology, and Evolution.

With the publication of Evolution, Second Edition, this topical volume has been now updated, completely rewritten, and reformatted. Yet despite the many scientific advances detailed in this book, the basic goals and perspective remain the same as those expressed by the editor of the 1976 first edition, Herbert Wendt, who said: “In the individual articles here the reader will find material he has not encountered in other works. However, science never comes to a standstill; it knows no final conclusion, and each new work brings forth new information compiled from the latest research in that field. . . . The reader can become acquainted with current theoretical thinking about evolution in reading this volume.” This volume is the next iteration in the continuing accumulation of knowledge about the origins and inner workings of our natural world.

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