The book on the train...

... was EO Wilson's 'Diversity of Life', first published in 1996. EO Wilson has been historically attacked by those critical of sociobiology or behavioural Darwinism because he used ant models for human behaviour. Although some try to deny it, sexual reproduction is a potent determinant of adaptations in applicable classes, such as angiosperms (flowering plants), Chordata (vertebrates) and other eukaryotes. This book was a refresher course of the diversity acquired, lost and radiated again over Deep Time, and the importance of ecologicial conservation, on firm scientific grounds. Abandon your prejudices against sociobiology, and start to see some of the patterns of influorescences of life over time.

One of the most original and impressive points EO Wilson made was about the serendipity that evolving topography over Deep Time promoted adaptive radiation.

The continents have never been so spread out as now, allowing a much greater shore to land-area ratio, a longer interface for evolutionary diversification. In Deep Time, a solid supercontinent called Pangaea was the only landmass, but subsequently separated into Gondwanaland and Laurasia, as you can see to the right.

Geological movement was an active force in increasing the diversity of environments available to entrepreneurial organisms, by increasing habitats. This in turn tended to produce both continental and geological islands, where saltational adaptation and speciation could continue apace.