The authors have collaborated since 1989, coauthoring a number of research and review papers on speciation.

Jerry A. Coyne is Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago. He earned his Ph.D. (Biology) at Harvard University, followed by an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Genetics at the University of California, Davis. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses spanning a wide range of topics, including evolutionary biology, speciation, genetic analysis, social issues and scientific knowledge, and scientific speaking and writing. Dr. Coyne was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 1989. He has served as Vice President of the Society for the Study of Evolution (1996) and as Associate Editor of Evolution (1985-1988; 1994-2000) and The American Naturalist (1990-1993). His work is widely published, not only in scientific journals, but in such mainstream venues as The New York Times, the Times Literary Supplement, and The New Republic.

H. Allen Orr is Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Rochester, where he has taught courses in evolution, quantitative and population genetics, evolutionary genetics, and speciation. He completed his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago and undertook postdoctoral study at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Orr was awarded both the Young Investigator Prize (American Society of Naturalists, 1992) and the Dobzhansky Prize (Society for the Study of Evolution, 1993). Other honors include the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering (1995-2000) and a Guggenheim fellowship (2000-2001). Dr. Orr has served on the editorial boards of Evolution (1998-2000) and Genetical Research (1996-present), authored or coauthored numerous articles in scientific journals, and been a frequent contributor of book reviews and critical essays to such publications as The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and Boston Review.

Coverage encompasses both plants and animals Fills a gap in the market by providing a unified, critical and uptodate overview of the field Gives special emphasis to topics that are either controversial or the subject of active research Its experienced authors have written for mainstream as well as scientific publications

• Introduction


• 1: Species: Reality and Concepts


• 2: Studying Speciation


• 3: Allopatric and Parapatric Speciation


• 4: Sympatric Speciation


• 5: Ecological Isolation


• 6: Behavioral and Nonecological Isolation


• 7: Postzygotic Isolation


• 8: The Genetics of Postzygotic Isolation


• 9: Polyploidy and Hybrid Speciation


• 10: Reinforcement


• 11: Selection versus Drift


• 12: Speciation and Macroevolution