Arthropod Relationships / Edition 1

by Richard A. Fortey, Richard H. Thomas

Overview

The arthropods contain more species than any other animal group, but the evolutionary pathways which led to their current diversity are still an issue of controversy. Arthropod Relationships provides an overview of our current understanding, responding to the new data arising from sequencing DNA, the discovery of new Cambrian fossils as direct evidence of early arthropod history, and developmental genetics. These new areas of research have stimulated a reconsideration of classical morphology and embryology. Arthropod Relationships is the first synthesis of the current debate to emerge: not since the volume edited by Gupta was published in 1979 has the arthropod phylogeny debate been, considered in this depth and breadth.
Leaders in the various branches of arthropod biology have contributed to this volume. Chapters focus progressively from the general issues to the specific problems involving particular groups, and thence to a consideration of embryology and genetics. This wide range of disciplines is drawn on to approach an understanding of arthropod relationships, and to provide the most timely account of arthropod phylogeny.
This book should be read by evolutionary biologists, palaeontologists, developmental geneticists and invertebrate zoologists. It will have a special interest for post-graduate students working in these fields.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780412754203
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	12/31/1997
Series:	The Systematics Association Special Volume Series , #55
Edition description:	1998
Pages:	383
Product dimensions:	8.27(w) x 10.98(h) x 0.04(d)

Table of Contents

1 Bodyplans, phyla and arthropods.- 2 The phylogenetic position of the Arthropoda.- 3 A defence of arthropod polyphyly.- 4 Hox genes and annelid-arthropod relationships.- 5 Arthropod and annelid relationships re-examined.- 6 Evolutionary correlates of arthropod tagmosis: scrambled legs.- 7 Theories, patterns, and reality: game plan for arthropod phylogeny.- 8 Sampling, groundplans, total evidence and the systematics of arthropods.- 9 Arthropod phylogeny: taxonomic congruence, total evidence and conditional combination approaches to morphological and molecular data sets.- 10 The place of tardigrades in arthropod evolution.- 11 Stem group arthropods from the Lower Cambrian Sirius Passet fauna of North Greenland.- 12 Cambrian ‘Orsten’-type arthropods and the phylogeny of Crustacea.- 13 Comparative limb morphology in major crustacean groups: the coxa-basis joint in postmandibular limbs.- 14 Crustacean phylogeny inferred from 18S rDNA.- 15 A phylogeny of recent and fossil Crustacea derived from morphological characters.- 16 The fossil record and evolution of the Myriapoda.- 17 The early history and phylogeny of the chelicerates.- 18 Problem of the basal dichotomy of the winged insects.- 19 Arthropod phylogeny and ‘basal’ morphological structures.- 20 Advances and problems in insect phylogeny.- 21 The groundplan and basal diversification of the hexapods.- 22 Phylogenetic relationships between higher taxa of tracheate arthropods.- 23 Myriapod-insect relationships as opposed to an insect-crustacean sister group relationship.- 24 Cleavage, germ band formation and head segmentation: the ground pattern of the Euarthropoda.- 25 Homology and parallelism in arthropod sensory processing.- 26 The organization and development of the arthropod ventral nerve cord: insights intoarthropod relationships.

Editorial Reviews

‘... it may mark a historical transition. For practitioners in the field this will be an important book and should find its way onto their bookshelves ...'
Nature, 397 (1999)
‘... their splendid Arthropod Relationships ... It is a milestone that will certainly be appreciated by students as well as specialists in the field. The book represents a clear and up-to-date review of arthropod phylogeny and handless some general phylogenetic aspects.'
TREE - Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 13:12 (1998)

From the Publisher

Not an examination of, for instance, marital relations between spiders or food-sharing among crawdads, but an update on the controversial evolutionary relationship among the many and varied species of the animal group. Incorporates new data from sequencing DNA, the discovery of new Cambrian fossils as direct evidence of early arthropod history, and developmental genetics. The new information has stimulated a serious reconsideration of the classical morphology and embryology. Among the topics are the phylogenetic position of the Arthropoda, evolutionary correlates of arthropod tagmosis, the place of tardigrades in arthropod evolution, crustacean phylogeny inferred from 18S rDNA, the problem of the basal dichotomy of the winged insects, phylogenetic relationships between higher taxa of tracheate arthropods, homology and parallelism in arthropod sensory processing, and insights into relationships from the organization and development of the ventral nerve cord. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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