Into The Jungle: Great Adventures in the Search for Evolution

These nine short tales vividly depict key discoveries in evolutionary biology and the excitement of the scientific process. Online resources available at www.aw-bc.com/carroll.

Key Message:

Into the Jungle invites students to step into the lives of naturalists who followed their dreams, and often risked their lives, to explore the unknown. Each of the nine stories in this brief reader chronicles the dramatic adventures of an influential zoologist, geologist, paleontologist, or geneticist on their path to some of the most important discoveries that have shaped our understanding of how life has evolved. Accessible and engaging, Carroll’s storytelling approach helps students appreciate the physical hardships the featured explorers endured and the obstacles they had to overcome in challenging societal belief systems and initiating paradigm shifts in the scientific community. In reading the tales, students will also come to understand the frequent role of serendipity in scientific discovery.

Key Topics: Reverend Darwin’s Detour, Drawing a Line between Monkeys and Kangaroos, Life Imitates Life, Java Man, Where the Dragon Laid Her Eggs, The Day the Mesozoic Died, Miss Latimer’s Extraordinary Fish, A Sickle-Cell Safari, In Cold Blood: The Tale of the Icefish, General Review and Discussion, Sources and Further Reading

Market: Intended for those in learning the basics of evolutionary biology.

Sean B. Carroll is Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics and an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Among the most prominent biologists working in the world today, Carroll is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, an award-winning author of two highly acclaimed books on science for the general public (Endless Forms Most Beautiful and The Making of the Fittest), a widely known charismatic public speaker, an ardent advocate for science education, and a frequent guest on NOVA and other popular television and radio programs. He is the author or co-author of more than 100 scientific papers on animal development and evolution and of two textbooks.