At Oxford University, Richard Dawkins holds the Charles Simonyi Professorship for the Understanding of Science and is the writer of numerous books, including The Selfish Gene and Climbing Mount Improbable.

The foundational book for modern understanding of evolution is The Blind Watchmaker. Theologian William Paley created the well-known creationist metaphor of the expert watchmaker in the eighteenth century. Richard Dawkins creates a sophisticated counterargument in The Blind Watchmaker to demonstrate that the intricate process of Darwinian natural selection is unconscious and automated. If natural selection is the equivalent of a blind watchmaker in nature, it does so without intention or foresight.

Dawkins demonstrates how simple organisms gradually evolve over time to produce a world of incredible complexity, diversity, and beauty in an articulate and singularly persuasive exposition of the principle of natural selection.

Theologian William Paley, who lived in the eighteenth century, claimed that just as a watch is too intricate and useful to have come into existence by chance, so too must all living things, with their vastly greater intricacy, have been purposely constructed. Charles Darwin's remarkable discovery proved these claims to be false. But only Richard Dawkins could have come up with such a powerful rejoinder to creationists. Darwin's discovery of natural selection, an unconscious, automated, blind, yet fundamentally nonrandom process, has no intended goal. If anything can be claimed to serve as nature's watchmaker, it is the blind watchmaker. The Blind Watchmaker, widely regarded as the most influential book on evolution produced in this century, provides a fascinating and approachable introduction to one of the most significant scientific discoveries ever.

Author: Richard Dawkins

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Watchmaker-Evidence-Evolution-Universe/dp/0393351491/

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 1509 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #70,539 in Books

#6 in Creationism
#45 in Genetics (Books)
#4,048 in Reference (Books)

The Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Geology at Harvard University was Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002). He authored almost twenty novels, won the MacArthur Fellowship, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Mismeasure of Man, which was first published in 1981, was immediately praised as a masterpiece and the resounding rebuttal to those who sought to categorize and rank people in accordance with their alleged genetic strengths and limitations.

However, the notion that biology determines one's fate persists, as evidenced by the attention given to The Bell Curve, whose arguments are here so deftly anticipated and comprehensively refuted. Stephen Jay Gould has added a major new preface to this edition explaining how and why he created the book as well as chronicling the history of the innateness debate from its inception to The Bell Curve. Additionally, he has included five pieces on issues related to The Bell Curve, racism, and biological determinism in general. These features support the book's assertion that it is "a substantial contribution toward deflating pseudo-biological 'explanations' of our present social ills," in the words of Leo J. Kamin of Princeton University.

Author: Stephen Jay Gould

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393314251/

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 413 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #92,031 in Books

#786 in Sociology (Books)
#1,607 in Biological Sciences (Books)
#46,647 in Literature & Fiction (Books)

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County's Vertebrate Paleontology Research Associate is Donald R. Prothero. He has spent the last 40 years instructing college students in geology and paleontology at schools like Columbia University, Vassar College, Knox College, and Pierce College. Currently, he teaches at Cal Poly Pomona. He worked for 27 years as a lecturer in geobiology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and a professor of geology at Occidental College in Los Angeles. He graduated from Columbia University with an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in geological sciences. He has written more than 30 books on geology, paleontology, and evolutionary biology in addition to over 300 scientific publications that have been published in prestigious journals.

Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters by Donald R. Prothero is a fascinating and thorough history of the transitional forms and series discovered in the fossil record. Among the best books on evolution, the book has been widely used in classes that teach the nature and importance of fossil evidence for evolution due to its compelling narrative of scientific discovery and well-grounded analysis. Systematics and cladistics, rock dating, neo-Darwinism, and macroevolution are all topics covered by evolution. It goes into great detail about the evolution of the backbone, the primordial soup, invertebrate changes, the reign of the dinosaurs, and the transition from early hominid to modern human. The book also discusses the numerous supposed "missing links" in the fossil record, as well as some of the most recent findings that fill in the gaps in the fossil timeline and the course of evolution.

With vivid descriptions of such unusual creatures as the Odontochelys, or "turtle on the half shell," fossil snakes with legs, and the "Frogamander," a novel example of amphibian transition, Prothero describes new transitional fossils from various periods in this second edition. More historical examples and a comprehensive analysis of the "experiments" and observations that creationists use to discredit solid science instruction are included in Prothero's presentation of the arguments for intelligent design. Prothero reframes creationism as a case study in denialism and pseudoscience instead of a subject with its own intellectual dynamic using fresh approaches. This second edition will be welcomed in the libraries of academics, instructors, and ordinary readers who defend basic science in this post-truth period. The first edition was lauded as an exceptional investigation of the fossil evidence for evolution.

Author: Donald R. Prothero

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0231180640/

Ratings: 4.4 out of 5 stars (from 244 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #1,056,803 in Books

#520 in History of Engineering & Technology
#1,218 in History of Technology
#35,498 in Politics & Government (Books)

For twenty years, Jerry A. Coyne has taught at the University of Chicago's ecology and evolution department. He focuses primarily on the emergence of new species and is an expert in evolutionary genetics. He frequently contributes to magazines like The New Republic and the Times Literary Supplement.

The evidence, the factual reality of evolution by natural selection, is rarely brought up in any of the current widely publicized disputes regarding creationism and its offshoot "intelligent design." Even Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould have not concentrated on the evidence itself, while espousing the virtues of evolution and reviewing case examples. However, the evidence is extensive, diverse, and wonderful, and it comes from numerous scientific disciplines. Scientists are discovering more and more fossils that represent historical change, such as dinosaurs with feathers and fish with limbs, as well as species splitting into two.

Why Evolution Is True brings together the various threads of recent genetic, paleontological, geological, molecular biological, and anatomical research that show the "indelible mark" of the Darwinian processes. Why Evolution Is True dispels common misconceptions and anxieties about evolution in plain, reader-friendly English, demonstrating that this wonderful process of change has been proven to be a scientific fact.

Author: Jerry A. Coyne

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Evolution-True-Jerry-Coyne/dp/0670020532/

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 1140 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #746,716 in Books

#2,018 in Evolution (Books)

Menno Schilthuizen is a professor of evolutionary biology at Leiden University and a senior research scientist at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands. He earned two postdoctoral scholarships at Wageningen University after receiving his PhD from Leiden University in 1994. He then spent seven years in Malaysian Borneo as an associate professor at the Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation. He has authored more than 100 high-impact papers in the scientific literature on these and other topics, and his research focuses on the development of biodiversity in land snails and insects.

Menno Schilthuizen is one of many "urban ecologists" who are examining how the settings we have created for ourselves are hastening and altering the evolution of the creatures and plants around us. In Darwin Comes to Town, he takes us on a journey throughout the globe to show us firsthand how amazingly adaptable and quick natural selection can be.

Global ecosystems are being impacted more and more as human populations rise, and no place does this affect overlap as much as cities. The urban environment is as extreme as it gets, and the wild animals and plants that coexist with us must adapt to a variety of difficult circumstances: they must survive in the city's hotter climate (the "urban heat island"); they must be able to live either in the semidesert of the tall, rocky, and cavernous structures we call buildings or in the pocket-like oases of city parks (which pose their own risks, including smog and free-ranging dogs a). However, as Schilthuizen demonstrates, the wildlife that coexists with us in these areas is not just surviving but also finding new ways to thrive.

In order to provide a breathtaking vision of urban evolution in which people and nature coexist in a special harmony, Darwin Comes to Town draws on startling examples of adaptation. It provides a ray of hope that our race toward overpopulation might not bring the rest of nature down with us by showing that evolution can occur far more quickly than Darwin imagined.

Author: Menno Schilthuizen

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Darwin-Comes-Town-Jungle-Evolution/dp/1250127823/

Ratings: 4.5 out of 5 stars (from 199 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #847,614 in Books (

#1,477 in Ecology (Books)
#2,154 in Environmental Science (Books)
#2,334 in Evolution (Books)

Alice Roberts is a lecturer at the University of Birmingham as well as an anatomist, osteoarchaeologist, anthropologist, television host, novelist, and author. She has hosted Inside Science on Radio 4, The Incredible Human Journey, and Coast on BBC 2. Of course, Alice Roberts is well-known to many people due to her captivating broadcasts, but she is also an academic who studies human anatomy and evolution. In The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being, one of the best books on evolution ever written, the mix of academic rigor with clear communication to a larger audience works extremely well.

Roberts presents the tale of how we came to be the way we are by fusing genetics, anatomy, evolution, human ecology, and much more. A lofty goal that has been more than met.

From a single cell to a complicated embryo to a living, breathing, thinking human, Alice Roberts takes you on the most amazing trip. It's a tale that ties us to our ancient ancestors and chronicles an astonishing series of improbable occurrences that influenced the course of human history and had an impact on everyone of us.

The most recent scientific findings are used by Alice Roberts to reveal the evolutionary past concealed in each and every one of us, including the mysteries of why we have what appear to be gills in our embryos and DNA as well as those shown in your anatomy. This is a story about learning why and how we have evolved the way we have. This is how your tale has never been told before.

Author: Alice Roberts
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Incredible-Unlikeliness-Being-Evolution-Making/dp/1623657989/
Ratings: 4.5 out of 5 stars (from 392 reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #1,736,556 in Books
#1,403 in Genetics (Books)
#2,084 in Anatomy (Books)

Evolutionary scientist Prosanta Chakrabarty works as a professor and curator at Louisiana State University. He is an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, a Senior Fellow at TED, and a Fulbright Distinguished Chair. He was born and raised in Montreal, obtained his undergraduate degree from McGill University there, and earned his PhD from the University of Michigan. He was raised in New York City.

Interested in reading a book that explains life? Here it is, then! A doorway into the four billion year history of the millions of species we witness on this world is opened through Explaining Life Through Evolution. This book sheds light on who we are and where we come from rather than just telling the evolution story. Prosanta Chakrabarty demystifies our perceived differences and accentuates our similarities since as humans we frequently concentrate on recognizing our differences, no matter how tiny. We need to be informed about what the results actually imply scientifically, and we must all agree on what it means socially as more and more individuals submit their DNA samples and money to ancestry testing facilities. He believes that, when seen through the lens of evolution, everyone of us simply shines a little bit differently because we are all made of the same tiny drops of water and sunlight.

Prosanta advises us to consider life as a work-in-progress similar to a novel. The current few pages are what we can observe in the world around us. We can trace the history of the millions of species we coexist with on our planet back through roughly four billion years of evolution if we gaze out at them. We might also imagine all the nearby living things as the tender leaves of a massive, ancient "Tree of Life," each of us connected by intangible branches to not only one another but also to our extinct kin and evolutionary forebears.

Author: Prosanta Chakrabarty

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Explaining-Through-Evolution-Prosanta-Chakrabarty/dp/0670095109

Ratings: 4.5 out of 5 stars (from 19 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #230,398 in Books

#542 in Evolution (Books)
#660 in Biology (Books)

Jonathan Tweet has over 25 years of experience as a creative game designer and has been a supporter of evolution for even longer. His multiple-award-winning games are renowned for inspiring players to use their imaginations and be creative. It took him 15 years to finish his first children's book, Grandmother Fish. It all started when he decided to write his own book after being unable to find one to aid in teaching his daughter about evolution.

Karen Lewis is a science, history, and children's book illustrator located in Seattle. She works hard to make her work understandable, accurate, and appetizing to the eye. She serves as the editorial cartoonist for Cobblestone, a children's magazine on American history. Her children's books include Arturo and the Navidad Birds, Amazing Alaska, and Will it Blow?: Become a Volcano Detective at Mount St. Helens.

What is our origin? Although the question is straightforward, the explanation is not, especially for young children. Young readers who are interested in science no longer have to be puzzled by Charles Darwin's notion of common descent. Introducing Grandma Fish.

Among the best books on evolution, Grandmother Fish takes children and adults through the history of life on our world and shows how we are all related. It is told in an engaging call and response language that allows a child to wiggle like a fish or hoot like an ape, and it is brought to life by brilliant artwork.

The book also has a thorough back matter, which includes:

• A detailed depiction of the evolutionary tree of life
• Practical science advice for parents
• How to teach natural selection to a young child

Author: Jonathan Tweet and Karen Lewis

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Grandmother-Fish-Childs-First-Evolution/dp/1250113237/

Ratings: 4.8 out of 5 stars (from 737 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #75,668 in Books

#23 in Children's Prehistoric Books (Books)
#42 in Children's Biology Books (Books)
#4,382 in Children's Animals Books

Professor Douglas J. Emlen works for the University of Montana. In addition to being a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has won numerous research awards from the National Science Foundation, the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering from the White House, the Young Investigator Prize from the American Society of Naturalists, and the E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award. His work has been highlighted in publications such as the New York Times, Fresh Air on National Public Radio, Steve Rinella's MeatEater, and Hank Green's SciShow. He also recently appeared in documentaries on the BBC (Nature's Wildest Weapons) and NOVA (Extreme Animal Weapons).

Achieve, Macmillan's new online learning platform, now offers support for the new edition of Evolution: Making Sense of Life. The result of several years of development work was Achieve, the most effective online learning tool for pupils. It includes a robust new platform that houses all of our well-known assessments, multimedia tools, e-books, and teacher materials.

The highly regarded evolution textbook by evolutionary biologist Douglas Emlen and science writer Carl Zimmer is still being updated. The technical rigor and conceptual depth that today's biology majors demand are present in Evolution: Making Sense of Life thanks to Emlen, an accomplished evolutionary biologist at the University of Montana. Award-winning New York Times columnist Zimmer infuses the book with fascinating storytelling, bringing evolutionary knowledge to life through a scenario that is sure to hold evolution students' interest.

The book is a reading journey aimed at capturing students' imaginations and demonstrating why evolution makes such amazing sense of existence. It contains gripping stories about evolutionary biologists working anywhere from the Arctic to tropical rainforests to hospital wards.

Author: Douglas John Emlen

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Making-Douglas-J-Emlen/dp/1319079865

Ratings: 4.4 out of 5 stars (from 154 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #609,575 in Books

#298 in Biology (Books)
#1,621 in Evolution (Books)

Where's Will? was written by Anna Claybourne, a prolific author of children's nonfiction (Ivy Kids, 2015). She and her two kids reside in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Being able to comprehend the concept of evolution might be challenging because it involves random, unexpected events occurring over incredibly long stretches of time. The proof, however, is all around us, in our genes, the relationships between all living things, and the fossils of long-dead species.

The documentary Amazing Evolution sheds light on this amazing process, from the origins of life some 3.8 billion years ago to the millions of diverse species that are alive now, including the moon-walking, talking apes with super-powerful minds that are humans!

Amazing Evolution will captivate kids (and adults, too!) for hours with its straightforward explanations, stunning images, and interesting facts about the world's oddest and most remarkable organisms. It is one of the best books on evolution.

Explore the pages to discover what makes a fish a fish, the reason giraffes have such long necks, and the connections between all living things, from cabbages to tigers! The ideal introduction to evolution for young readers is Amazing Evolution.

Author: Anna Claybourne

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Evolution-Journey-Anna-Claybourne/dp/1782407375

Ratings: 4.9 out of 5 stars (from 491 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #71,425 in Books

#44 in Children's Biology Books (Books)
#229 in Children's Zoology Books (Books)
#363 in Children's Dinosaur Books (Books)