Narrow Roads of Gene Land The Collected Papers of W. D. Hamilton Volume 2: Evolution of Sex

by Hamilton, W. D.; Dawkins, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780198503361
• ISBN10: 0198503369
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-02-06
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

W.D. Hamilton is considered by many the most important theoretical biologist of the 20th century. He has made major discoveries in evolutionary biology, genetics, and social behavior, and his essays continue to exert tremendous influence throughout the discipline. This second volume of his collected papers focuses on his groundbreaking work on sex and sexual selection. It contains the 18 papers he published between 1980 and 1991, many of them examining the role of parasites and disease in promoting genetic diversity. For each paper, Hamilton has written an accessible introduction describing why the work was done, how the paper came to be written, and its eventual fate. An invaluable collection for biologists, this book also provides general readers with deep insights into the sometimes surprising mechanics of evolutionary processes.

Author Biography

W. D. Hamilton is one of the most influential biologists of the 20th century and is widely regarded as the most important theoretical innovator in the evolutionary study of behavior since Darwin. He is known throughout the world for his seminal work on social evolution (kin selection), sex ratio evolution and, more recently, for work on the involvement of parasites in sexual selection and on the evolutionary maintenance of sexuality. A Fellow of the Royal Society and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Hamilton is a Royal Society Research Professor in the Zoology Department at Oxford University. His awards include the Albert Wander Foundation Prize (Switzerland, 1992), the Crafoord Prize (Sweden, 1993), and the Kyoto Prize (Japan, 1993).

Table of Contents

Publisher's Note	ix
Foreword	xi
Preface	xxvii
Ghosts of the Museum
Fluctuation of environment and coevolved antagonist polymorphism as factors in the maintenance of sex	1	(50)
Messing the Plotter
Sex versus non-sex versus parasite	51	(42)
Unequal Cousins
Coefficients of relatedness in sociobiology	93	(24)
Best and Worst Hotels
The evolution of co-operation	117	(44)
`Sex Itself'
Pathogens as causes of genetic diversity in their host populations	161	(38)
Bright Birds
Heritable true fitness and bright birds: a role for parasites?	199	(32)
Man of the Sand-dune Tel
Parent-offspring correlation in fitness under fluctuating selection	231	(22)
At the World's Crossroads
Instability and cycling of two competing hosts with two parasites	253	(50)
Bishop Wykeham on Evolution
Discriminating nepotism: expectable, common, overlooked	303	(64)
Land of the Rising Sun
Kinship, recognition, disease, and intelligence: constraints of social evolution	367	(46)
Being Rare and Successful
Parasites and sex	413	(36)
The Hospitals are Coming
Sex and disease	449	(88)
Cited but Little Read
This week's citation classic	537	(8)
Wind in the Baobabs
Selfishness re-examined: no man is an island	545	(16)
Time Like a Dripping Tap
Memes of Haldane and Jayakar in a theory of sex	561	(40)
The Three Queens
Sexual reproduction as an adaptation to resist parasites (a review)	601
Uccello/Othello
Mate choice near or far	67	(658)
Health and Horsemen
The seething genetics of health and the evolution of sex	725	(68)
APPENDICES
Our Paper Then and Now
Appendix to Chapter six	793	(34)
Further Evidence
Appendix to Chapter sixteen	827	(26)
Credits	853	(2)
Name Index	855	(5)
Subject Index	860