Unfinished Synthesis

This provocative study provides a stimulating critique of contemporary evolutionary thought. Written by an eminent evolutionary biologist, this controversial, highly readable book argues that only genes and organisms are taken as historic 'individuals' in conventional theory. Eldredge proposes that species, higher taxa, and ecological entities such as populations and communities should also be construed as individuals - an approach yielding the ecological and genealogical hierarchies that interact to produce evolution.