Books
Now In Press
BEETLE BATTLES: One Scientist's Journey of Adventure and Discovery
(Roaring Brook/Macmillan 2019)
What does it take to be a scientist in the field?
Doug Emlen is a scientist, and he wants to solve a mystery. He studies the evolution of beetle weapons— how their horns and armor change to better suit them in different environments.
Doug wants to know why a particular type of beetle developed a massive evolutionaryweapon, how the changes happened, and what advantages these enormous weapons gave the tiny dung beetles. He also wonders if the conditions leading to extreme beetle weapons can explain the development of massive weapons by humans.
So, he goes to find the beetles. Will he find his answers?
Part travel diary and part scientific exploration, Beetle Battles takes you from beetles to battleships and everywhere in between on an epic evolutionary adventure.
ANIMAL WEAPONS: The Evolution of Battle
(Henry Holt, 2014)
Winner of the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science (2015), and translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Italian.
EVOLUTION: Making Sense of Life, 3rd Edition
By Douglas Emlen and Carl Zimmer
(Macmillan Learning, 2019)
Now in its third edition and adopted at more than 250 Universities and Colleges.