Milestones in Systematics

ISBN-13: 9780415280327 / Angielski / Twarda / 2004 / 312 str.

David M. Williams; Peter L. Forey

Opis

Presenting a historical analysis of the evolution of systematics during the last one hundred years, Milestones in Systematics reviews many of the major issues in systematic theory and practice that have driven the working methods of systematics during the 20th century and looks at the issues most likely to preoccupy systematists in the immediate future.
The book highlights:
The development of evolutionary, phenetic and cladistic methods of phylogenetic analysis and the associated computer algorithms
The changing influence of paleontological techniques
The impact of new molecular data and the relationships between systematics, development, and evolution
The authors stress the importance of understanding the past to make sense of the future. They present a general assessment of comparative biology's recent past and how it has matured and blossomed. Exploring the full impact of the cladistics revolution, a phenomenon that has yet to be fully appreciated, the book provides a platform for further debate and discussion.

Spis treści

Introduction. Setting Up Milestones: Sneath on Adanson and Mayr on Darwin. Launching the Society of Systematic Zoology in 1947. Explanations in Systematics. What Happens if the Language of Science Happens to Break Down in Systematics? - A Popperian Perspective. Hennig's Phylogenetic Systematics Bought Up-to-date. The Arrested Development of Cladistics. Systematics and Paleontology. Parsimony and Computers. Homology and Homologues, Cladistics and Phenetics: 100 Years of Progress. From Dispersal to Geographic Congruence: Comments on Cladistic Biogeography in the 20th Century. The Fall and Rise of Evolutionary Developmental Biology.

O autorze

David M. Williams, Peter L. Forey