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University of California Press

About the Book

Cladistics, or phylogenetic systematics—an approach to discovering, unraveling, and testing hypotheses of evolutionary history—took hold during a turbulent and acrimonious time in the history of systematics. During this period—the 1960s and 1970s—much of the foundation of modern systematic methodology was established as cladistic approaches became widely accepted. Virtually complete by the end of the 1980s, the wide perception has been that little has changed. This volume vividly illustrates that cladistic methodologies have continued to be developed, improved upon, and effectively used in ever widening analytically imaginative ways.

About the Author

David M. Williams and Sandra Knapp are both in the Botany Department at the Natural History Museum of London.

Table of Contents

Contributors vii
Preface xi

PART ONE: ON CHRIS
Bibliography of Works by Chris Humphries 1

1 Chris Humphries, Cladistics, and Connections 19
David M. Williams, Kåre Bremer, and Sandra Knapp

2 Ontogeny and Systematics Revisited: Developmental
Models and Model Organisms 35
Stephen Blackmore and Alexandra H. Wortley

3 Rooted in Cladistics: Chris Humphries,
Conservation—and Beyond? 47
Richard I. Vane-Wright

4 Do We Need to Describe, Name, and Classify All Species? 67
Quentin D. Wheeler

5 Floras to Phylogenies: Why Descriptive Taxonomy Matters 77
Sandra Knapp and J. Robert Press

PART TWO: BOTANY
6 Island Hot Spots: The Challenge of Climate Change 91
David Bramwell

7 Endemism and Evolution of the Macaronesian Flora 101
Mark A. Carine, Arnoldo Santos Guerra, I. Rosana Guma,
and J. Alfredo Reyes-Betancort

8 Early British Collectors and Observers of the
Macaronesian Flora: From Sloane to Darwin 125
Javier Francisco-Ortega, Arnoldo Santos-Guerra, Charlie E. Jarvis,
Mark A. Carine, Miguel Menezes de Sequeira, and Michael Maunder

PART THREE: CLADISTICS
9 Monophyly and the Two Hierarchies 147
Olivier Rieppel

10 Beyond Belief: The Steady Resurrection of Phenetics 169
David M. Williams, Malte C. Ebach, and Quentin D. Wheeler

11 Monographic Effects on the Stratigraphic Distribution
of Brachiopods 197
Gordon B. Curry

12 The Eukaryote Tree of Life 219
Diana Lipscomb

PART FOUR: BIOGEOGRAPHY
13 Tethys and Teleosts 243
Peter L. Forey

14 East–West Continental Vicariance in Eucalyptus
Subgenus Eucalyptus 267
Pauline Y. Ladiges, Michael J. Bayly, and Gareth J. Nelson

15 Wallacea Deconstructed 305
Lynne R. Parenti and Malte C. Ebach

Index 321
About the Editors 335

Reviews

“Recommended.”
Choice
"This multifarious volume does a splendid job of reflecting the breadth and depth of fundamental questions about the methods of systematics and biogeography, from the practical applications of conservation biology to issues of wide interest to evolutionary biologists."—Dr. Norman I. Platnick, American Museum of Natural History

"A fun and informative volume that everyone interested in the subject will enjoy. This book is full of important discussions on Botany, Cladistics, and Biogeography."—Vicki Funk, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

"The Branching Of A Paradigm is the intriguing theme of this volume on the myriad of ways cladistics has impacted modern biology. Surprises from floristics to recent thoughts on epistemology await the reader."—Dennis Stevenson, New York Botanical Garden