The evolution of living organisms; a symposium to mark the centenary of Darwin's 'Origin of species' and of the Royal Society of Victoria, held in Melbourne, December 1959.

Sponsored by the Royal Society of Victoria, with the cooperation of the Univ. of Melbourne and the Australian Academy of Science.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Accident or design, the paradox of evolution / Ernst Mayr -- Darwin and Australia / Sir Gavin de Beer -- Evolution made visible : current changes in the pattern of virus disease / Sir Macfarlane Burnet -- On the origin of life / L.G.M. Baas Becking -- Some crucial stages in the transition from Devonian fish to man / T. Stanley Westoll -- Population dynamics and natural selection / A.J. Nicholson -- Survival of the mediocre / A.S. Fraser -- Evolved regulatory mechanisms of population control / J. Le Gay Brereton -- Effects of chromosomal inversions on size and relative viability in the grasshopper Moraba scurra / M.J.D. White and Lesley E. Andrew -- Evolution of dominance / J.M. Rendel -- The genetic control of population growth patterns / J.A. Thomson -- Chromosome breakage in the genetic system of Astroloma pinifolium / S. Smith White -- Some aspects of the evolution of the host-parasite relationship / J.D. Smyth -- Parasitism, immunity and evolution / J.F.A. Sprent -- Some aspects of the evolution of thyroid structure and function / I.M. Thomas -- The evolution of wheat / O.H. Frankel and Anne Munday -- Natural selection among strains of Trifolium subterraneum / F.H.W. Morley, C.I. Davern, V.E. Rogers, and J.W. Peak -- Changes in reproductive fitness under artificial selection / B.D.H. Latter -- Evolution in the genus Neurospora / J.A. Pateman -- Species concept in bacteria / V.B.D. Skerman -- Palaeontological evidence for speciation preceded by geographic isolation / C.A. Fleming -- Isolation and communication in the geological history of the Australian fauna / M.F. Glaessner -- Evolution in the Homoptera / J.W. Evans -- Darwin and dating the past / E.D. Gill -- Some palynological evidence bearing on the development of the Glossopteris flora / B.E. Balme -- On the evolution of Australian marsupials / W.D.L. Ride -- Embryological evidence of evolutionary trends in some temnopleurid echinoids / H. Barraclough Fell -- Evolution and ecology of portunid crabs, with especial reference to Australian species / W. Stephenson -- Speciation in Australian Tabanidae / I.M. Mackerras -- Adaptive responses and speciation in the spider genus Aganippe Cambridge / Barbara York Main -- Comparisons of breeding biology and isolating mechanisms in Western Australian frogs / A.R. Main -- Vertebrate speciation in Australia : some comparisons between birds, marsupials, and reptiles / Allen Keast -- Observations on the history of penguins / B.J. Marples -- Origins of the New Zealand flora : cytogeobotanical observations on the 'Malayan element' / J.A. Rattenbury -- Natural groups within the genus Eucalyptus / D.J. Carr and Stella G.M. Carr -- The validity of taxonomic categories in the assessment of evolutionary trends within the genus Eucalyptus / L.D. Pryor.