Classification and Biology

by R.A. Crowson

Overview

Classification of plants and animals is of basic interest to biologists in all fields because correct formulation and generalization are based on sound taxonomy. This book by a world authority relates traditional taxonomic studies to developments in biochemical and other fields. It provides guidelines for the integration of modern and traditional methods and explains the underlying principles and philosophy of systematics. The problems of zoological, botanical, and paleontological classifi cation are dealt with in great detail and microbial systematics briefly.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780202309057
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	07/15/2006
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	16 Years

Table of Contents

1: The Classification of the Sciences; 2: The Function of Classification in Natural History; 3: The Species in Biological Systematics; 4: Classification Below the Species Level; 5: Classification Above the Species Level; 6: The Classification of Fossils; 7: On Classificatory Characters, and Their Correlation; 8: The Classificatory Use of Non-Structural Characters; 9: Phytogeny as the Basis of Classification; 10: Hosts, Parasites and Classification; 11: Geographical Distribution 1 and Classification; 12: Heredity and Chromosomes in Relation to Evolution and Classification; 13: Phylogenetic Evidence from Nucleic Acids and Proteins; 14: The Systematic Value of Characters of Immature Stages; 15: Numerical Taxonomy; 16: The Non-congruence Principle; 17: Some Special Classificatory Problems; 18: Taxonomic Research; 19: The Practical Problems of Phylogenetic Classification; 20: Zoological and Botanical Nomenclature; 21: The Practical Work of the Present Day Systematist; 22: Epilogue: The Future of Systematics

Editorial Reviews

[This book] will provide insight into the future of systematics as a science.”—Donn E. Rosen, Systematic Zoology “R. A. Crowson has produced what perhaps is the most informative, critical and readable book yet published in English on the subject of systematic biology in its broadest sense. In doing so, Crowson has somehow managed to avoid the wearisome detail, sterile disputation and highhanded authoritarianism that characterize one or another of the available books on this subject. Crowson’s is not a textbook intended to impress doctrine upon the young and uninitiated; it is rather an extended excursion into the problematical substance of comparative biology. Few is any other authors having written on this subject approach the lucidity, candor and congeniality of Crowson; much to the credit of his viewpoint, reading his work is truly an adventure of ideas of relevance to all biologists."—Gareth J, Nelson, Evolution

From the Publisher