The Evolution of Phylogenetic Systematics aims to make sense of the rise of phylogenetic systematics—its methods, its objects of study, and its theoretical foundations—with contributions from historians, philosophers, and biologists. This volume articulates an intellectual agenda for the study of systematics and taxonomy in a way that connects classification with larger historical themes in the biological sciences, including morphology, experimental and observational approaches, evolution, biogeography, debates over form and function, character transformation, development, and biodiversity. It aims to provide frameworks for answering the question: how did systematics become phylogenetic?
Andrew Hamilton is Associate Dean in the Honors College at the University of Houston.
320 pp.6 x 9Illus: 11 b/w photographs, 21 line illustrations, 7 tables
9780520276581$65.00|£55.00Hardcover
Nov 2013