The world is full of DNA. The salad in your sandwich, the pollen in the air, even the dirt on your shoes contains DNA from which a vast amount of information can be gained, including the identification of individuals and species, the structure and distribution of populations, the origins of lineages and the pace and mechanisms of evolutionary change.

Reading the story in DNA is a beginner’s guide to molecular evolution, and is the perfect companion on the journey to a proper understanding of molecular data.

The central theme of the book is that in order to get ecological or evolutionary information out of molecular data, you must understand the way that the molecular data evolves and the influence that the assumptions you make have on the answers you get.

The book blends beautifully clear explanations with cutting-edge examples from the research literature, drawing on the fields of biodiversity, conservation biology, epidemiology, phylogeography, evolutionary development and ancient DNA to explore topics such as molecular evolutionary theory, phylogenetics, molecular clocks, detecting selection and recombination, and identifying individuals from molecular data.

Technical detail is set apart from the main text, allowing the student to approach the material in different ways: read only the text and skip the finer details, use the text to understand the technical details or vice versa, or identify key case studies and read the concepts and methods particular to that case.

The use of "bioinformatic" analyses has revolutionized biology, and there are now few areas of evolution and ecology that remain untouched by molecular data. Today’s biology students and researchers need to be familiar with the application of molecular data to answering evolutionary questions. But the most pressing question is usually: "Where do I start?!" This book is the answer.