The Lower Metazoa Comparative Biology And Phylogeny

Additional Contributor Is Willard D. Hartman.

Perspectives in Zoology tries to discuss in a critical way some of the aspects of biology that lack perspective. The book also calls into attention the possibilities of obtaining a more correct view and challenges views that already have already been accepted by the scientific community. In this thought-provoking book, many questions are raised and different viewpoints and their implications are considered in the areas of natural history. Coverage includes the great ages of evolution; the primitive evolution in the eumatozoa; the morphological comparisons between homology and analogy; systematic serology and its principles; and the relationship of systemics, evolution, and phylogeny. The text is recommended for students and professors that deal with biology, zoology, genetics, and evolution who not only wish to explore and understand other approaches to popular theories in zoology, but also wish to be more familiarized and delve deeper with the common yet frequently discussed and debated topics in the field.

This volume concentrates on the origin of multicellular animals, Metazoa. Until now, no unequivocal phylogeny has been produced. Therefore, the questions remain: Did Metazoa evolve from the Protozoa only once, or several times? Is the origin of animals monophyletic or polyphyletic? Especially the relationships between the existing lower metazoan phyla, particularly the Porifera (sponges) are uncertain. Based on sequence data of genes typical for multicellularity it is demonstrated that all Metazoa, including Porifera, should be placed into the kingdom Animalia together with the Eumetazoa. Therefore it is most likely that all animals are of monophyletic origin.

"The merits of this work are many. A rigorous integration of phylogenetic hypotheses into studies of adaptation, adaptive radiation, and coevolution is absolutely necessary and can change dramatically our collective 'gestalt' about much in evolutionary biology. The authors advance and illustrate this thesis beautifully. The writing is often lucid, the examples are plentiful and diverse, and the juxtaposition of examples from different biological systems argues forcefully for the validity of the thesis. Many new insights are offered here, and the work is usually accessible to both the practiced phylogeneticist and the naive ecologist."—Joseph Travis, Florida State University "[Phylogeny, Ecology, and Behavior] presents its arguments forcefully and cogently, with ample . . .support. Brooks and McLennan conclude as they began, with the comment that evolution is a result, not a process, and that it is the result of an interaction of a variety of processes, environmental and historical. Evolutionary explanations must consider all these components, else they are incomplete. As Darwin's explanations of descent with modification integrated genealogical and ecological information, so must workers now incorporate historical and nonhistorical, and biological and nonbiological, processes in their evolutionary perspective."—Marvalee H. Wake, Bioscience "This book is well-written and thought-provoking, and should be read by those of us who do not routinely turn to phylogenetic analysis when investigating adaptation, evolutionary ecology and co-evolution."—Mark R. MacNair, Journal of Natural History

This volume concentrates on the origin of multicellular animals, Metazoa. Until now, no unequivocal phylogeny has been produced. Therefore, the questions remain: Did Metazoa evolve from the Protozoa only once, or several times? Is the origin of animals monophyletic or polyphyletic? Especially the relationships between the existing lower metazoan phyla, particularly the Porifera (sponges) are uncertain. Based on sequence data of genes typical for multicellularity it is demonstrated that all Metazoa, including Porifera, should be placed into the kingdom Animalia together with the Eumetazoa. Therefore it is most likely that all animals are of monophyletic origin.

Nickle (Beltsille Agricultural Research Center of the USDA) has engaged 29 internationally known experts to replace the classic work of I.N. Filipjev (1934) and its translated revision (Schuurmans Stekhoven, Jr., 1941) with a modern work taking note of 188 additional genera, and 4,650 more species.