The evidence for evolution

Public opinion polls suggest that a majority of Americans regard evolution as unproven. Rogers argues that the doubt is understandable, since many biology classes and texts focus on how evolution works, including natural selection, genetic drift and gene flow, while offering little on whether species actually change over time. He takes up the central questions directly: how scientists know species change, and whether the planet's history contains enough time for such change to occur.

The book moves from small changes within a single species, which are easiest to observe and accept, to much larger transformations, such as the move from fish to amphibians or from land mammals to whales. For each case, Rogers presents several independent lines of evidence, drawing on fossils, DNA and radioactive isotopes. The treatment includes recent advances in the field, along with the history of the debate in which skeptical researchers first demanded to know how the claims could be trusted and then gathered evidence until they were persuaded.