"metamorphosis" by frank ryan. It's seriously one of the most amazing books I've read in years. It's written in a thriller/detective manner, and sensationalistic, but it's about the history of research into metamorphosis, from the obvious caterpiller/butterfly through the less obvious but much weirder motile/sessile forms of marine invertebrates, to some discussion of puberty. But the part that makes it amazing is the discussion of how metamorphosis started, esp. in the marine environment: at least one guy is claiming massive horizontal gene transfer a la Barbara McClintock, where external fertilization has gone awry and sperm from one *phylum* is semi-successfully fertilizing eggs from another phylum, leading to bizarre cross-breeds that have a larval form and an adult form that are almost totally different.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-08-15 05:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-15 05:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-15 06:05 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-08-15 02:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-16 09:06 am (UTC)Crossing fingers, does the book have good footnotes to the literature?