Summary
Almost all evolutionary biologists, indeed all biologists, use particular features to study life. These characteristics or features used by evolutionary biologists are used in a particular way to unravel a tangled evolutionary history, document the rate of evolutionary change, or as evidence of biodiversity. "Characters" are the "data" of evolutionary biology and they can be employed differently in research providing both opportunities and limitations.
The Character Concept in Evolutionary Biology is about characters, their use, how different sorts of characters are limited, and what are appropriate methods for character analysis. Leading evolutionary biologists from around the world are contributors to this authoritative review of the "character concept." Because characters and the conception of characters are central to all studies of evolution, and because evolution is the central organizing principle of biology, this book will appeal to a wide cross-section of biologists.
Contents
Characters, units, and natural kinds : an introduction / Günter P. WagnerA history of character concepts in evolutionary biology / Kurt M. Fristrup
An episode in the history of the biological character concept : the work of Oskar and Cécile Vogt / Manfred Dietrich Laubichler
Preformationist and epigenetic biases in the history of the morphological character concept / Olivier Rieppel
Character replication / V. Louise Roth
Characters as the units of evolutionary change / David Houle
Character identification : the role of the organism / Günter P. Wagner and Manfred D. Laubichler
Functional units and their evolution / Kurt Schwenk
The character concept : adaptationalism to molecular developments / Alex Rosenberg
The mathematical structure of characters and modularity / Junhyong Kim and Minhyong Kim
Wholes and parts in general systems methodology / Martin Zwick
What is a part? / Daniel W. McShea and Edward P. Venit
Behavioral characters and historical properties of motor patterns / Peter C. Wainwright and John P. Friel
Homology and DNA sequence data / Ward Wheeler
Character polarity and the rooting of cladograms / Harold N. Bryant
The structure of a character and the evolution of patterns / Paul M. Brakefield
Characters and environments / Massimo Pigliucci
The genetic architecture of quantitative traits / Trudy F.C. Mackay
The genetic architecture of pleiotropic relations and differential epistasis / James M. Cheverud
Homologies of process and modular elements of embryonic construction / Scott F. Gilbert and Jessica A. Bolker
Comparative limb development as a tool for understanding the evolutionary diversification of limbs in arthropods : challenging the modularity paradigm / Lisa M. Nagy and Terri A. Williams
Origins of flower morphology / Peter K. Endress
Origin of butterfly wing patterns / H. Fred Nijhout
Perspectives on the evolutionary origin of tetrapod limbs / Javier Capdevila and Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte
Epigenetic mechanisms of character origination / Stuart A. Newman and Gerd B. Müller
Key innovations and radiations / Frietson Galis.
Additional Information
| Subjects |
Evolution (Biology)
Character. |
| Publisher | San Diego, Calif. :Academic Press,2001 |
| Contributors |
Wagner, Günter P.
|
| Language |
English |
| Description |
xxiii, 622 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography Notes |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN | 0127300554 (alk. paper) 9780127300559 (alk. paper) 0127300562 9780127300566 |
| Other | Classic View |