Walter M. Fitch (1929–2011) was Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, member of the Human Genome Organization, and the author of more than 200 publications in molecular evolution. His previous books are Tempo and Mode in Evolution: Genetics and Paleontology Fifty Years after Simpson and Variation and Evolution in Plants and Microorganisms: Toward a New Synthesis Fifty Years after Stebbins.