Motoo Kimura was born on 13 November 1924 in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. After graduating from high school in Nagoya, he entered the Faculty of Science, Kyoto University. He studied botany under the guidance of Professor Hitoshi Kihara at the Faculty of Agriculture of Kyoto University, but also taught himself population genetics theory. After graduating in 1947, he became a research assistant in Kihara's laboratory. He was appointed as a staff scientist at the National Institute of Genetics when it was established in 1949 and became Head of the newly created Division of Population Genetics in 1964. He worked there until he passed away on 13 November 1994. In 1953 he studied at Iowa State University and in 1955 at the University of Wisconsin, where he received a PhD under the guidance of Professor James. F. Crow. Motoo Kimura received many honors, including the Order of Culture from the Japanese Government in 1976 and the Darwin Medal in 1992.

Is the first English translation of Motoo Kimura's best-selling classic on evolutionary biology

Guides readers through theories of evolution, from Lamarck and Darwin to Kimura's neutral theory of evolution

Broadens our understanding of the theoretical foundation of molecular evolutionary studies

In Memory.- Translators' Notes.- Preface.- Chapter I: Diversity of Organisms and Views on Evolution.- Chapter II: History of the Development of the Theory of Evolutionary Mechanism on the Basis of Genetics.- Chapter III: Tracing the Course of Evolution.- Chapter IV: Mutation as an Evolutionary Factor.- Chapter V: On Natural Selection and Adaptation.- Chapter VI: Introduction to Population Genetics.- Chapter VII: Introduction to Molecular Evolution.- Chapter VIII: The Neutral Theory and Molecular Evolution.- Chapter IX: An Evolutionary Genetic World View.