Research Catalog

Title

Systematics and the fossil record : documenting evolutionary patterns / Andrew B. Smith.

Author

Smith, Andrew B.

Publication

Oxford [England] ; Boston : Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

viii, 223 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Subject

• Evolutionary paleobiology
• Cladistic analysis

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 198-218) and index.

Contents

• 1. Introduction. Methods for reconstructing evolutionary patterns. Palaeontological data and evolutionary trees. Species, taxa, and macroevolution -- 2. Species in the fossil record. Species concepts. Species in palaeontology. Are species different from other taxa? How phena are recognized. Examples in practice -- 3. Parsimony, phylogenetic analysis, and fossils. The cladistic revolution. Characters in phylogenetic analyses. Cladograms and their construction. Fossils and phylogenetic reconstruction -- 4. Higher taxa. Why higher taxa are needed in evolutionary studies. The construction of higher taxa. Higher taxa and evolutionary patterns. Classification and rank. Macroevolution and emergent characters of higher taxa -- 5. The nature of biostratigraphic data. Biases affecting taxonomic ranges. Estimating absolute taxonomic ranges. Taxonomic ranges: do they provide a test of phylogenetic hypotheses? -- 6. The construction of evolutionary trees. Trees, cladograms, and ancestors.
• How phylogenetic trees are constructed. Examples of phylogenetic tree construction in practice -- 7. Patterns from the fossil record. Why phylogenetic data are essential. Biodiversity. Morphological disparity. Origination patterns. Extinction patterns. Taxonomic duration. Rates of evolution. Fossils and biogeographic patterns.

ISBN

0632036427

LCCN

93041845

OCLC

• 29257074
• ocm29257074

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries