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Rudolf A. Raff.
The Shape of Life: genes, development, and the evolution of animal form.
University of Chicago Press. 1996

In The Shape of Life, Raff analyzes the rise of evolutionary developmental biology and proposes new research questions, hypotheses, and approaches to guide the growth of this recently founded discipline. Drawing on a number of key discoveries from the past decade, Raff explains how research in diverse disciplines has forged closer links between developmental and evolutionary biology. For instance, the discovery that both insects and vertebrates use homologous homeobox-containing genes in the development of their body plans has revealed that fundamental genetic relationships underly the development of animals in disparate phyla.

Raff uses the evolution of animal body plans to exemplify the interplay between developmental mechanisms and evolutionary patterns. Basic animal body plans emerged over 530 million years ago during the Cambrian radiation, and the subsequent evolution of developmental processes acting on these plans has resulted in the tremendous diversity of living animal forms. The evolution of animal body plans shows how the internal architecture of the genome and of developmental processes and their controls constrain the course of evolution.

Updating the proposal he first advanced with Thomas Kaufman in their 1983 book Embryos, Genes, and Evolution, Raff argues in The Shape of Life for an integrated approach to the study of the intertwined roles of development and evolution involving phylogenetic, comparative, and functional biology. This new synthesis will interest not only scientists working in these areas, but also paleontologists, zoologists, morphologists, molecular biologists, and geneticists.