After volume 33, this book series was replaced by the journal "Evolutionary Biology." Please visit www.springer.com/11692 for further information. Volume 30 brings readers up to date on the investigation of eminent evolutionary biologists and paleobiologists. Contributions explore such topics as * Adaptation in Drosophila and the role of cytochrome P450s * Population genetics and species conservation of the cheetah * germ-layer theory * assymetry in the mammalian skeleton * genetic diversity of marine fish * the phenomenon of industrial melanism * the variation in lizard cranal kinesis.Other chapters focus on such issues as overdominance and its relation to higher mutation-rate estimates and the use of molecular clocks in determining the rate of nucleotide substitution in higher plants.