Books like the extended phenotype

The Extended Phenotype is a 1982 book by Richard Dawkins, in which Dawkins introduced a biological concept of the same name. The main idea is that phenotype should not be limited to biological processes such as protein biosynthesis or tissue growth, but extended to include all effects that a gene has on its environment, inside or outside the body of the individual organism.

Dawkins considers The Extended Phenotype to be a sequel to The Selfish Gene aimed at professional biologists, and as his principal contribution to evolutionary theory.

In the main portion of the book, Dawkins argues that the only thing that genes control directly is the synthesis of proteins. He points to the arbitrariness of restricting the idea of the phenotype to apply only to the phenotypic expression of an organism's genes in its own body. Dawkins develops this idea by pointing to the effect that a gene may have on an organism's environment through that organism's behaviour.