Smithsonian Series in Comparative Evolutionary Biology

Integrating the results of comparative morphology, experiments on pattern development, the genetics of color patterns, and theoretical modeling of pattern formation, Nijhout shows that the enormous diversity of natural patterns arises largely from quantitative variations in a small set of readily understandable generating rules.Perhaps the most brilliant morphology book published in many years. . . . This is a paradigmatic book for the study of morphologic variation and evolution (Günter P. Wagner Quarterly Review Of Biology)

The foremost worker on the development of butterfly wing patterns, H. Frederik Nijhout has painted in brilliant verbal pictures and accompanying illustrations a superb analysis of the development and evolution of butterfly wing patterns. . . . Overall, the body of work summarized in this book can fairly be said to represent the most direct, comprehensive, and integrated exploration of development in morphological evolution in any group of organisms. (Thomas C. Emmel Tropical Lepidoptera)H. Frederik Nijhout is a professor of zoology at Duke University.