Homoplasy - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 012618030X ISBN 13: 9780126180305

Publisher: Academic Press Inc, 1997

Synopsis

Plants and animals that are unrelated sometimes resemble one another in astonishing detail. These similarities are the result of parallelism, convergence, and reversal, collectively termed homoplasy. The independent evolution of similar characteristics can be thought of as the converse of homology, which is the shared similarity between organisms that results from shared ancestry or a common evolutionary history. In contrast, homoplasy is the shared similarities between organisms that is not the result of shared evolutionary history. In the past, it has been thought to be an error of the scientist unable to distinguish subtly different characteristics between animals and plants. More recently, however, studies of homoplasy are recognized as new opportunities for the exploration of biodiversity. This book explores new ways to view this phenomenon.

About this title

Review

"The editors are successful in their goal of demonstrating that the study of homoplasy is an important field in its own right and that it is more than just a nuisance factor in phylogenetic analyses or the opposite of homology."COPEIA"Researchers in the field of phylogenetic systematics will find this book extremely useful."--Mary V. Ashley in DOODY"This book is long overdue. Homoplasy merits far more attention that it has received to date, and most evolutionary biologists will find much in this volume that is interesting and provocative."--THE QUATERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY"The editors of this volue sought to establish homoplasy as a topic of interest in its own right and to identify the evolutionary processes that produce it. This is a useful book, strong on practical, methodological considerations, with several chapters that transcend observations specific to particular systems to deal with more general issues. This may be the first, but one hopes not the last, book-length treatment of this compelling topic."--AMERICAN SCIENTIST

Edition details

• Publisher: Academic Press Inc
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 012618030X
• ISBN 13: 9780126180305
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384
• Editor: Sanderson Michael, Hufford Larry