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Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution

Jonathan B. Losos

4.02 · Rating details · 587 ratings · 84 reviews

A major new work overturning our assumptions about how evolution works

Earth's natural history is full of fascinating instances of convergence: phenomena like eyes and wings and tree-climbing lizards that have evolved independently, multiple times. But evolutionary biologists also point out many examples of contingency, cases where the tiniest change--a random mutation or ...more

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Hardcover, 368 pages

Published August 8th 2017 by Riverhead Books

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Aug 05, 2017 Brian Clegg rated it really liked it

There's always a danger when a science author puts themselves at the heart of their book that it can come across as 'Me, me, me!' - but Jonathan Losos has a very amiable personal style that gives the impression of having a chat with the author over a beer - and some of the best parts of the book are those that talk about Losos's own work.

The topic here - whether evolution inevitably tends to produce particular biological approaches given an environmental niche - is an interesting one, so the There's always a danger when a science author puts themselves at the heart of their book that it can come across as 'Me, me, me!' - but Jonathan Losos has a very amiable personal style that gives the impression of having a chat with the author over a beer - and some of the best parts of the book are those that talk about Losos's own work.

The topic here - whether evolution inevitably tends to produce particular biological approaches given an environmental niche - is an interesting one, so the combination of the writing style and the topic make the book well worth reading, but there are some drawbacks, particularly with the first 150 pages or so. Arguably these suffer rather from the 'Is it a book or an article?' syndrome - there really isn't enough going on in them. What we are told is that often there will be convergence on similar biological solutions, but equally sometimes you'll get an oddity (think duckbilled platypus). The vast majority of those 150 pages involve going through many examples of both possible outcomes, making the reader inclined to yell 'Okay, I get it! Move on!'

Things get much better when Locos tells us about his own attempts in experimental evolution - one of the central threads of the book, that when ideas moved from Darwinian evolution over eons to the possibility of very quick adaptation, it was possible to put evolution to the test experimentally over periods of years. Cleverly, Locos picked up on a pre-existing experiment looking at something totally different that had involved starting lizard colonies on small islands. He was able to experiment with their development and adaptation to environmental issues and show that the populations converged on similar solutions (at least until population after population was wiped out by a hurricane).

This increased level of interest continues to a degree when we get onto other people's experiments with evolution, though again we get something of a repetition problem. The trouble is, I think, partly that Losos is so immersed in his subject that he assumes we will find every detail fascinating too, and that science requires lots of boring repetition to establish a theory. This doesn't necessarily make for engaging reading, and a good science writer has to get a feel for when to use a few examples rather than plodding through endless detail as a scientist would expect to do.

Despite these issues (you can always skip a bit), I repeatedly come back to the warm, approachable Locos style and the genuinely interesting (even to a non-biologist) aspects of how much evolution will tend to converge on similar solutions to environmental pressures, but how much novelties will also tend to arise - meaning the answer to the old Stephen Jay Gould 'Replay life's tape' idea is that sometimes it will be very similar, sometimes it won't. Incidentally, the blurb suggests this focuses on humans and whether life on other planets would end up fairly humanoid - that is certainly mentioned in the text, but it's far more about lizards and the like.

This is a book that deserves to be widely read. ...more

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Jun 24, 2018 Nikki rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fact, non-fiction

The question Losos asks, and tries to answer, is this: can we predict evolution? Are certain things inevitable in development — birds, humans, antibiotic resistance, etc, etc? He writes engagingly about field work, experiments, thought experiments, the various theories and people who have supported them… I definitely want to do more reading on this.

Am I convinced? Well, I’m not sure Losos is convinced that evolution can be predicted in detail; he presents some good evidence that suggests that ...more

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Jun 13, 2017 Chantal Lyons rated it it was amazing

"Improbable Destinies" is personable, easy to follow, and fascinating - well-worth a read by anyone with at least a passing interest in biology and evolution.

From beginning to end, Losos works hard to make the studies and theories in the book as vivid as possible. We get to meet the people behind the facts and dive into their trials and tribulations, from dangerous rainforest treks to lassoing lizards to battling through snowstorms. It's pretty amusing in places, and you can't help but admire ...more

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Jan 15, 2018 Carl Zimmer rated it it was amazing

I was asked to read this book, and provided this blurb:

"Is evolution a story foretold? Or is it little more than the rolls of DNA's dice? In Improbable Destinies, Jonathan Losos tackles these fascinating questions not with empty philosophizing, but with juicy tales from the front lines of scientific research. Drunk flies, fast-evolving lizards, mutating microbes, and hypothetical humanoid dinosaurs all grace the pages of this wonderfully thought-provoking book."

The question of how predictable ...more

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May 27, 2018 Carlos rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction-btr

I was disappointed with this book, I basically read a 350 page book to learn what I and almost everyone else knows about evolution, it cannot be controlled , it cannot be predicted and we have no way of knowing a 100 % what factors affect it and how life could have evolved in different environments other than the Earth. I just basically described this whole book for you . Good for a beginner , not so much for someone with some background in evolutionary science.

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May 12, 2019 Nick Davies rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019

This started off absolutely fascinatingly, but waned a little towards the middle. I guess unfortunately it is a consequence of science books of this type - as wonderfully written and witty as this was, I got a lot more enjoyment out of the first hundred or so pages of this (where the key concepts of evolutionary biology were explained and plenty of examples given in illustration) than out of the middle chapters where the author goes in to a lot more detail about his own research, and about some ...more

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Aug 20, 2017 Susan Cejka rated it it was amazing

Splendorous! (lifted straight for the book,)accessible, informative and entertaining. Losos explains the many paths of evolutionary biology. convergence or or contingency. Kangaroos which are essentially deer have evolved nowhere but Australia. then of course there is the most interesting animal the duck billed platypus uniquely designed for its environment and in Losos's own words a one off.
i'm no academic but i learned more in this book that i ever learned in biology and loved every minute of ...more

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Mar 21, 2018 Book rated it really liked it

Shelves: evolution, science

Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution by Jonathan B. Losos

“Improbable Destinies” is an interesting exploration of evolutionary biology. Professor Jonathan B. Losos provides readers with a behind-the-scenes access to testing ideas about evolution, out in nature and in real time. This stimulating 382-page book includes twelve chapters and is broken out into the following three parts: Part One. Nature’s Doppelgangers, Part Two. Experiments in the Wild, and Part Three. ...more

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Aug 22, 2017 Richard Carter rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science

The late Stephen Jay Gould more than once observed that, were it possible to roll back time and re-run evolutionary history, we would most likely end up with very different results. Minor differences in circumstances can lead to very different evolutionary pathways.

Others, most notably Simon Conway Morris, hold that evolution is far more predictable than Gould would have had us believe. As evidence, they cite the interesting phenomenon of convergent evolution where different species evolve The late Stephen Jay Gould more than once observed that, were it possible to roll back time and re-run evolutionary history, we would most likely end up with very different results. Minor differences in circumstances can lead to very different evolutionary pathways.

Others, most notably Simon Conway Morris, hold that evolution is far more predictable than Gould would have had us believe. As evidence, they cite the interesting phenomenon of convergent evolution where different species evolve strikingly similar features in similar circumstances. A classic example is the similar body shapes of dolphins, sharks, ichthyosaurs, and (at more of a stretch) penguins: these predators’ ‘designs’ enable them to move quickly under water. If mammals, fish, ichthyosaurs, and birds evolved such similar shapes for moving at speed in the same environment, the argument goes, evolution must, to some extent, be predictable.

Those who maintain that evolution is more predictable than we might suppose sometimes go so far as to claim that upright, bipedal, intelligent life was almost inevitable on Earth. Had it not been for that pesky asteroid, they say, the world would now, quite possibly, be being ruled by dinosaurian, rather than mammalian, humanoids. This despite the fact that, as far as we know, upright, bipedal, intelligent dinosaurs failed to evolve in the 180-million years that dinosaurs actually did rule the earth.

Jonathon Losos's interesting book sets out to explore both the phenomenon of convergent evolution, and the possibility of performing experiments to assess evolutionary predictions. In the first part of the book, he describes many examples of convergent evolution. In subsequent sections, he describes experiments in the wild, and in more controlled environments, to determine whether the accuracy of various evolutionary predictions can be tested.

Although convergent evolution is a genuinely fascinating phenomenon, it is considerably less remarkable when the species in question are closely related. When presented with similar environmental challenges, is it really at all surprising when closely related species evolve similar solutions? Evolution can only tinker with what is already there; how many fundamentally different tweaks can be made to closely related lizards, for example, to help them evade a new predator? In fairness to Losos, he makes this point more than once, but, to this non-expert at least, it seemed as if more might have been made of it. There is a world of a difference between two species of stickleback, to cite another example, evolving brighter colours in the absence of predators, and dinosaurs evolving into intelligent humanoids. Even if small-scale convergent evolution of closely related species is common, extrapolating to claim that the evolution of intelligent humanoids is almost inevitable is another thing entirely.

Sensibly, Losos doesn't spend too much time examining arguments about putative humanoid dinosaurs—although he does eventually make his own position clear. This book is primarily about the experiments: how scientists have begun to test evolutionary predictions, and to assess how particular examples of convergent evolution come about. Both of which strike me as far more interesting and useful than coming up with untestable hypotheses about where dinosaurs might have gone next.

An entertaining book on an interesting subject. ...more

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Mar 28, 2019 Gracie rated it really liked it

Shelves: science, non-fiction

This is one of the better pop-science books I've read. Losos does a great job explaining many different scientific experiments and how they fit into broader theories of evolution. I appreciated that nothing was overly-dumbed down or one-sided. Losos presents a variety of conflicting but not always mutually exclusive ideas that provide nuance to his ultimate argument about the predictability and repeatability of evolution. The book was full of evidence, yet did not feel like a list as some ...more

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Mar 08, 2018 Craig Werner rated it really liked it

Shelves: nature, science

Delightful, especially if you've been following the Stephen Jay Gould vs. Simon Conway Morris celebrity death match (okay, that's possibly an overstatement) since it started unfolding with the publication of Gould's Wonderful Life. If that doesn't mean anything to you, you may still like Improbable Destinies--if only for the nifty illustrations--but I'd recommend starting with Wonderful Life and Conway Morris's Crucible of Creation.

The core issue at stake is whether the pathways followed by Delightful, especially if you've been following the Stephen Jay Gould vs. Simon Conway Morris celebrity death match (okay, that's possibly an overstatement) since it started unfolding with the publication of Gould's Wonderful Life. If that doesn't mean anything to you, you may still like Improbable Destinies--if only for the nifty illustrations--but I'd recommend starting with Wonderful Life and Conway Morris's Crucible of Creation.

The core issue at stake is whether the pathways followed by evolution are convergent (Conway Morris) or contingent (Gould). To oversimplify a bit, was the development of something very like human beings on earth more or less inevitable?

The argument in its public form began when Gould used Conway Morris's research on a geological formation known as the Burgess Shale as the foundation for an argument that life could have turned out very very differently. (Both Wonderful Life and Improbable Destinies include illustrations of the life forms that existed then that are really fascinating; mostly they've died out, although Locos includes some new information I hadn't been aware of indicating that a few of them have relatively obscure lineages still around.) Partly because Gould's such an effective literary stylist, his visions had an immense immediate impact and made Conway Morris a scientific celebrity. Only problem was that Conway Morris himself came to disagree, strongly, with Gould's interpretation of his own research's significance. Along with a number of other evolutionary scientists, Conway Morris developed a counter perspective emphasizing that there are only so many solutions to particular evolutionary problems and that as a result evolutionary paths will come together, converge.

As a fan of Gould--and sci fi because contingency opens up many more possibilities-- I was pulling for Gould while really wanting to see where things stand almost two decades after Conway Morris's rejoinder; I haven't followed the technical literature beyond an occasional piece in Science or Nature. Through the first part of Improbably Destinies, it appeared that Losos would come down with convergence. That's tribute in part to what a nicely balanced job he does presenting the positions, because by the end, it's fairly clear that he sees the weight of evidence coming down with Gould and contingency. One very useful section concerns an ambiguity of what exactly Gould meant by "contingency;" his oft-used metaphor of rerunning the tape of life and seeing what happened doesn't quite say what he meant or at least was unclear about what conditions had to be held steady.

One heads up on the book. Aware of the angle many readers, like me, will come from, Losos starts with he crowd pleasing "big animals"--dinosaurs and marsupials and our good friend the platypus. But the center of the book, scientifically an in terms of page count, involves the nuts and bolts of both field and laboratory experiments designed to test the "repeatability" hypothesis. He writes clearly, but there's some technical detail about experiment design and appropriately cautious reports on outcomes that damps the drama and slows the pace. Worth it if you're really committed to knowing something about the science, but I can imagine a more generalist reader wanting to read part 1 and then skimming until the last two chapters, which bring it home. ...more

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Nov 03, 2017 Vincent Poirier rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, science

In 1989, the late Stephen Jay Gould published Wonderful Life, a book intended both for the general public and for professional scientists. In it, Gould presented his thesis that today's lifeforms are the result of a historical process founded on contingency, that is if we were to rewind the biological history of the earth back a half billion years and let the tape play again, there would today be lifeforms but they would not have the shapes we see around us now. The animal kingdom would have no ...more

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Apr 15, 2019 Sophia rated it really liked it

Shelves: academic-stuff, nature

This book was good but not great. It's good for someone who has not read much about evolution but is suddenly super interested, someone over 50 who is still convinced that evolution is a super slow process, and it's good for someone who is particularly fascinated by how experimental evolutionary science works in practice.

I've read a lot about evolution, and so I found almost nothing new in terms of general understanding on how evolution works. In fact, the book focuses so much on just one type This book was good but not great. It's good for someone who has not read much about evolution but is suddenly super interested, someone over 50 who is still convinced that evolution is a super slow process, and it's good for someone who is particularly fascinated by how experimental evolutionary science works in practice.

I've read a lot about evolution, and so I found almost nothing new in terms of general understanding on how evolution works. In fact, the book focuses so much on just one type of paradigm (taking the same species, putting them in two or more conditions, and see how the population changes over a few generations), that you could read just three chapters (the first, the one on lizards, and the last) and you'd have learned 90% of what there is to learn from the book. It's almost as if he's trying to convince someone who's really skeptical that evolution can be studied experimentally in just a few generations. This results in a super detailed description of an extremely effortful experimental setup that took years...to discover that a species will change color over generations to match their environment under predation. Over, and over, again. Maybe its because I learned these things from the beginning that they seem so obvious, but really, after the moths finding, and then the guppyfish finding, you don't need much more proof, especially in a popular science book.

In fact, the real novel element of his book is the detailed description of various lab and field setups that were used to study evolution. This is quite interesting in it's own right; to know how a scientist managed to convince a university to build not once but twice 12 complete ponds on campus to study the evolution of sickelback fish spines. Or how there're steel slat enclosures in the middle of nowhere America trying to keep jumping mice in a semi-controlled environment. Or how other researchers regularly populate random rocks in the Bahamas with lizards to see how they evolve, but occasionally everything falls apart after a hurricane.

...more

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Jan 04, 2018 ⋟Kimari⋞ rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science, non-fiction, animals

Improbable Destinies is broad in scope, but shallow in depth, offering a very basic overview of evolution portioned into bite-sized examples. The language is far too colloquial, the author even uses the term baby daddy. Ugh, no, just no. The topics are repetitive and uninspired, most are discussed in a multitude of other books in this genre. I had a similar reaction to The Genius of Birds. If you liked The Genius of Birds and you're looking for something similar, pick up Improbable Destinies.

You ...more

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Jan 11, 2018 Ryan rated it it was ok

Shelves: nature

While the subject matter is intriguing - whether evolution is deterministic and can be predicted in terms of the forms it will take when organisms are put under the same conditions over time, it is such a complex topic involving countless factors that almost nothing conclusive can be gleaned even after lengthy discussion. Frustrating and unsatisfying to say the least! The meat of the book deals with the experiments that have been conducted over the last decades, be they in the field or in the ...more

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Sep 18, 2017 Kimberly Edwin rated it it was amazing

An excellent overview of convergent evolution, and of long term evolution experiments that put to the test Stephen Jay Gould's thought experiment of "rewinding the tape" of evolution to determine if we would get the same results (i.e. humans). Many times, convergence happens, but once in a while you get an astonishing result that results in dramatic change and a new life form. Clearly explained and well written, this is an engaging read.

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Aug 02, 2019 Dave Schoettinger rated it liked it · review of another edition

If you are a creationist, you will find this book largely irrelevant, or, at best, wildly speculative science fiction like Star Wars, but with less formulaic plot lines. This is because this book is about evolution. People of advanced age, such as myself, tend to think of evolution as a vague process that turned monkeys into humans a long time ago, but isn't terribly applicable to one's current life. Professor Losos would disagree with this assessment. He describes evolution as a force of nature ...more

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Sep 27, 2018 Don Kent rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Confession being purportedly good for the soul, I will confess that I did quite bit of speed-reading of the second half of this book. While the author did a creditable job of covering this huge subject his emphasis on convergence made the book rather tedious.

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Nov 25, 2017 Sara rated it it was amazing

This book was so overlooked! It was really good. :)

The book questions how ubiquitous convergent evolution is. He gives examples of convergent evolution in nature to demonstrate how surprisingly common it is for two unrelated lineages to adapt in the same way. He also speak to the speed of evolution and how it is much faster than Darwin imagined given the right selective pressure.

The book really shined through most of the beginning and middle, but it did slow down a bit toward the end. The ...more

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Aug 26, 2018 ClareT rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, science

Was the evolution of humans inevitable or, if something different had happened, for example, if the meteor hadn’t killed the dinosaurs, would we have still evolved or would the planet be full of different creatures. Scientific opinion is split, and the author explains why.
Using various examples, including lizards that have evolved in the same way on different islands, convergent evolution is explained. But the counter argument is also given.
This is an interesting book, although at the end I’m ...more

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Feb 09, 2019 Adam rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: science, non-fiction, evolution

Interesting topic, especially because it confronts the crux of what makes evolution a historical science in the same way that the study of human history could be without ever raising the idea that there's some philosophical impossibility involved in studying it. But while the research presented here is interesting, it feels sparse and tentative. The conclusions aren't too surprising: adaptive radiation is common and natural selection drives populations toward a set of viable solutions to ...more

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Oct 10, 2017 Ann Cooper rated it really liked it

A (long and chatty) narrative about whether Stephen J. Gould (in Wonderful Life) was right or not on the question if evolution would play out the same again if we could replay it from the start, or be quite different. Determinism, repeatability, or chance randomness? Interesting, but rather irritating and slightly coy writing at times. It included a lot of material on the experimental process with microbes that has allowed a form of replaying in the lab to show that over thousands of ...more

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Oct 04, 2017 Amanda (Books, Life and Everything Nice) rated it liked it

Shelves: author-male, country-u-s, adult, non-fiction

Improbable Destinies is very informative about evolution, especially the genetics of it. I found the sections about the similarities between cross continental evolution very interesting. I appreciated that the experiments were explained in a fairly easy to understand manner. It makes scientific studies more accessible to someone not working in the field. Certain sections were more interesting than others. And some sections were boring and redundant. There were pages and pages of experiments with ...more

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Nov 17, 2017 Farhan rated it liked it

The author has a way of explaining complex scientific facts and theories in a very colloquial style. The book gave me a very engaging insight into the latest trends in the discipline of evolutionary biology. However, the author kept on filing fact after fact about numerous animals and species and was not really able to string the cited cases into a very coherent narrative. Good effort, though. I'm hoping his next book would be more focused and conclusive.

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Nov 03, 2017 Richard Jr. rated it really liked it

Shelves: human-interest, non-fiction-true-life, biological-science

Professor Losos has done a very interesting job of trying to elucidate historical and modern convergent evolution studies and experiments in a manner that the layperson can understand based on some excellent examples, many of which have been known and available for study for a good p0rtion of the 19th and 20th centuries. As a Biologist and educator I found the entire book to be full of the kind of examples that would be extremely helpful to the professional teacher to bring variety and interest Professor Losos has done a very interesting job of trying to elucidate historical and modern convergent evolution studies and experiments in a manner that the layperson can understand based on some excellent examples, many of which have been known and available for study for a good p0rtion of the 19th and 20th centuries. As a Biologist and educator I found the entire book to be full of the kind of examples that would be extremely helpful to the professional teacher to bring variety and interest into the classroom when elaborating on sections of evolutionary biology at both the high school and college levels of study. Thus it is well worth buying and reading. I do have two criticisms of the author's uses of terminology in his writing. First, I note that Losos does not from the get-go make it clear that his plethora of initial developmental similarities are more likely due to similar plastic materials (read, vertebrate DNA sequences) being similarly shaped or selected for by a common mold (read, similar environmental pressures) to arrive at similar endpoints (read, streamlining of water vertebrates, wing construction of flying vertebrates, camouflaged colors, etc.). Thus the non-biologist reader needs to be careful not to misinterpret Losos' examples as evidences of Teleology, ie., evidences of some grand planned design in nature. A Theist could go halfway through the book reading his information as the indication of the directional guiding hand of God leading to big brain humans. This was not the author's intention. Secondly, I would criticize Losos' tendency to state some of his examples in the terms of Lamark's theory of acquired characteristics (of dogs evolving longer legs or camouflaged colors to escape a predatory tiger population, rather than a population of dogs being selected naturally over time for longer legs or camouflaged colors due to a predator's actions.). Again this does not destroy the whole nature of an excellent work of pulling together evidence and research for how convergent evolution works. With these two caveats in mind, I rate this book as an excellent read for both professionals and lay persons desiring to broaden their understanding of one of the mechanisms of evolution. ...more

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Apr 19, 2018 Breck rated it it was amazing

I really enjoyed this book. It focuses on the some of the latest research in the field of evolutionary biology. One of the main topics is live experiments being done to watch evolution unfolding. For example, one experiment involved building several large pools and filling them with guppies, then changing the environment of each and observing how quickly they adapt to the new environment, becoming camouflage due to predators or more colorful in the absence of predators. A lot of the experiments I really enjoyed this book. It focuses on the some of the latest research in the field of evolutionary biology. One of the main topics is live experiments being done to watch evolution unfolding. For example, one experiment involved building several large pools and filling them with guppies, then changing the environment of each and observing how quickly they adapt to the new environment, becoming camouflage due to predators or more colorful in the absence of predators. A lot of the experiments are done on islands where they can release a lizard for example and observe how it adapts to the new environment. E. coli is another organism they can observe mutating over hundreds of generations because it reproduces so rapidly.

The book also focuses on the phenomenon of convergent evolution, which refers to certain similar features evolving in different animals. For example, flippers and tails work well in water, so they have evolved independently several times. But basically the idea is that even though evolution happens in a random fashion it isn't entirely random because it is shaped by a similar environment. So land animals tends to follow similar patterns and aquatic animals follow another pattern, but eyes are useful to both so several different branches of animals have evolved to have an eye independently -- mammals and octopuses, for example.

Overall, very interesting and fascinates me how organic life changes and unfolds in a natural manner, all different life forms in all their varieties springing forth in a very undetermined sort of way. The book also talks a lot about one of the foremost evolutionary biologists, Simon Conway Morris, who believes in God, and as a believer myself has me thinking about how God shaped the world and setup organic life in a way that it would create itself independently and have its own "free agency." And it's hard to imagine any other means of creation working since life needs to be able to manage itself, prey needs to be able to adapt to predators or predators eat all the prey then die themselves -- but makes for a longer discussion. ...more

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Dec 01, 2018 Benjamin Horton rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Improbable Destinies is a book of formidable scope, which makes its keen focus on the question at hand all the more impressive. Losos begins by setting out the two main sides of the argument at hand: that evolution is unpredictable and the current crop of life on earth is the result of chance (espoused by Stephen Jay Gould) and that evolution tends to converge on a few select outcomes, and our existence is inevitable (advocated by Simon Conway Morris.) He then spends two chapters examining ...more

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Sep 27, 2018 Alex Shrugged rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, science, autobiography, reviewed-books, non-fiction, medical, paleontology

Although not as good (in terms of writing) as Stephen Jay Gould's Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, it is still very good writing. This book is an evolution and paleontology update, and often refers to Gould's book, making corrections, challenging some of Gould's ideas especially the "rewind the tape" idea of running evolution again and watching what happens. Gould would say (if he were alive) that if we rewound the tape and let life evolve again it would evolve into ...more

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Aug 09, 2019 Brasukra Sudjana rated it really liked it

So this book proved my hypothesis that if that genetic mutation had happened in the brain of a duck, instead of a primate, homo sapiens would not be ruling the earth today. Instead it would have been Howard the Duck. OK, not really. But basically it's similar. For thousands of generations, mutation, natural selection, and adaptation would produce what scientists call "convergent adaptive evolution" - similar anatomical, genetic, or physiological features (mostly in the same species) that would ...more

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Nov 05, 2017 J Earl rated it it was amazing

Shelves: won, first-reads

In Improbable Destinies Jonathan B. Losos explains in very clear terms and with wonderful examples the strengths and weaknesses of both convergent and contingent approaches to evolution. To be more specific, he explains why neither serves as a singular explanation.

Either idea, taken as THE driving idea behind the results of evolution, has too many holes. One idea a researcher I know thinks is that (forgive my explanation, I am not an expert in the field) contingency rules the day early in a ...more

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