Biological Systematics: Principles and Applications

by Randall T. Schuh

Most students who take a course in biological systematics do so to learn how to construct a data matrix and generate and evaluate a tree of phylogenetic relationships. Biological Systematics: Principles and Applications, by Randall T. Schuh, provides a welcome tool for these students and their instructors: it is a comprehensive and completely new textbook, the first of its kind since 1981. Systematics, the study of the reconstruction of the history of life, forms the underlying basis for organizing the knowledge of biology; cladistics is the diagrammatic method of charting phylogenetic relationships over time among evolving life forms. Cladistics analysis, the key tool used in this book, is also of great use outside pure systematic studies, and interests many students of population biology, ecology, epidemiology, and natural resources.Suitable for both graduate and advanced undergraduate students, Biological Systematics: Principles and Applications covers the core material for courses in biological systematics, with equal emphasis on both botany and zoology. It includes sections on the history and resources of the field; biological nomenclature; the theory of homology, character analysis, and computer algorithms; and the application of the results of systematic studies in the areas of biological classification, biogeography, adaptation and co-evolution, and biodiversity and conservation.

Genres: Biology

236 pages, Hardcover

First published December 16, 1999

Reviews

[Charlotte Probst]

Brian just handed me this book and said “I realized we never talk about phylogenetics. You should read this.” All right then

[Cristiano Costa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very useful for grad students. The lovers of probabilistic models will hate this book.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

On cladistics. Tough read and for a very specialized audience, but very good on the history of and debates on taxonomy.