Relativity of Evolution

This book focuses primarily on evolutionary processes (rather than evolutionary history). Topics covered are abiotic framework conditions, morphology and physiology of living organisms, fossil and molecular evidence of evolutionary developments. The basic processes of biological evolution are already established in unicellular organisms. Evolutionary options for multicellular organisms arise in a simplified way from the usable energetic transformation potentials and the dynamics of abiotic and biotic interactions. Evolutionary processes of multicellular organisms are therefore predominantly determined by the conditions of the surrounding systems. This is most clearly shown by comparisons of the evolutionary development of vertebrates under marine and terrestrial conditions.

For reasons of efficiency alone, no single species can have the equipment to capture and sustainably shape the surrounding systems in the long term. Depending on the available energetic transformation potentials, a single species is very well able to change the surrounding systems - but without being able to capture the resulting long-term consequences. This gives rise to fundamentally new questions for the design and limits of social action that makes sense in the long term.

This book is a translation of an updated and revised version of the original German work: Relativität der Evolution, ISBN 978-3-662-63936-8.
Translated by Robert D. Martin.

Dr. Markus Knoflacher studied Zoology and Botany at the University of Vienna in Austria and acquired a doctoral degree in philosophy. His professional career in extra-university institutions was focussed on interdisciplinary research tackled from the perspective of systems theory. After retirement he conducts research as an independent scientist.

About the Translator
The translator of Relativity of Evolution, Robert D. Martin, is a British citizen now residing in Zürich, Switzerland. He originally studied at Oxford University, obtaining a bachelor's degree in zoology and a PhD in animal behaviour. For his doctoral thesis, he conducted research for two years at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioural Physiology near Munich. There, he became completely fluent in German and completed his first book translation (Mimicry by Wolfgang Wickler) while still a student. After his PhD, for two years he conducted postdoctoral research in France, becoming equally fluent in French. During this time, he translated from German into English the 2-volume collected papers of Konrad Lorenz, who subsequently shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Martin's subsequent career was decidedly international, with successive senior academic posts in the UK (advancing from Lecturer to Professor of Biological Anthropology at University College London), Switzerland (Director and Professor of Biological Anthropology at the University of Zürich) and the USA (Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Curator of Biological Anthropology at the Field Museum, Chicago). Evolutionary biology has consistently been central to his research, with emphases on human origins, biological anthropology, and reproduction. His over 330 academic publications include a highly successful university textbook (Primate Origins and Evolution), a book for a general readership on the evolution of human reproduction (How We Do It), and over 80 peer-reviewed scientific papers. To date, he has translated or co-translated into English 16 academic books, 8 from French and 8 from German.