Classification, Evolution, and the Nature of Biology

Classification, Evolution, and the Nature of Biology PDF Author: Alec L. Panchen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521315784
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
Historically, naturalists who proposed theories of evolution, including Darwin and Wallace, did so in order to explain the apparent relationship of natural classification. This book begins by exploring the intimate historical relationship between patterns of classification and patterns of phylogeny. However, it is a circular argument to use the data for classification. Alec Panchen presents other evidence for evolution in the form of a historically based but rigorously logical argument. This is followed by a history of methods of classification and phylogeny reconstruction including current mathematical and molecular techniques. The author makes the important claim that if the hierarchical pattern of classification is a real phenomenon, then biology is unique as a science in making taxonomic statements. This conclusion is reached by way of historical reviews of theories of evolutionary mechanism and the philosophy of science as applied to biology. The book is addressed to biologists, particularly taxonomists, concerned with the history and philosophy of their subject, and to philosophers of science concerned with biology. It is also an important source book on methods of classification and the logic of evolutionary theory for students, professional biologists, and paleontologists.

Classification, Evolution, and the Nature of Biology

Classification, Evolution, and the Nature of Biology PDF Author: Alec L. Panchen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521315784
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
Historically, naturalists who proposed theories of evolution, including Darwin and Wallace, did so in order to explain the apparent relationship of natural classification. This book begins by exploring the intimate historical relationship between patterns of classification and patterns of phylogeny. However, it is a circular argument to use the data for classification. Alec Panchen presents other evidence for evolution in the form of a historically based but rigorously logical argument. This is followed by a history of methods of classification and phylogeny reconstruction including current mathematical and molecular techniques. The author makes the important claim that if the hierarchical pattern of classification is a real phenomenon, then biology is unique as a science in making taxonomic statements. This conclusion is reached by way of historical reviews of theories of evolutionary mechanism and the philosophy of science as applied to biology. The book is addressed to biologists, particularly taxonomists, concerned with the history and philosophy of their subject, and to philosophers of science concerned with biology. It is also an important source book on methods of classification and the logic of evolutionary theory for students, professional biologists, and paleontologists.

Classification and Human Evolution

Classification and Human Evolution PDF Author: Sherwood Larned Washburn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anthropology
Languages : en
Pages : 1398

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Book Description
This volume reviews the meaning of taxonomic statements and considers our present knowledge regarding the number and characteristics of species among living and extinct primates, including man and his ancestors.

Classification and Human Evolution

Classification and Human Evolution PDF Author: Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Evolution
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
This volume reviews the meaning of taxonomic statements and considers our present knowledge regarding the number and characteristics of species among living and extinct primates, including man and his ancestors.

Major Patterns in Vertebrate Evolution

Major Patterns in Vertebrate Evolution PDF Author: Max Hecht
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1468488511
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 901

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Book Description
This volume is the result of a NATO Advanced Study Institute held in England at Kingswood Hall of Residence, Royal Holloway College (London University), Surrey, during the last two weeks of July, 1976. The ASI was organized within the guide lines laid down by the Scientific Affairs Division of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. During the past two decades, significant advances have been made in our understanding of vertebrate evolution. The purpose of the Institute was to present the current status of our know ledge of vertebrate evolution above the species level. Since the subject matter was obviously too broad to be covered adequately in the limited time available, selected topics, problems, and areas which are applicable to vertebrate zoology as a whole were reviewed. The program was divided into three areas: (1) the theory and methodology of phyletic inference and approaches to the an alysis of macroevolutionary trends as applied to vertebrates; (2) the application of these methodological principles and an alytical processes to different groups and structures, particular ly in anatomy and paleontology; (3) the application of these re sults to classification. The basic principles considered in the first area were outlined in lectures covering the problems of character analysis, functional morphology, karyological evidence, biochemical evidence, morphogenesis, and biogeography.

The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants

The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants PDF Author: Arthur Cronquist
Publisher: New York Botanical Garden Press
ISBN:
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
This book provides a short version of the general classification of flowering plants, together with an exposition of the theory underlying the system.

Classification and Evolution in Biology, Linguistics and the History of Science

Classification and Evolution in Biology, Linguistics and the History of Science PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783515105897
Category :
Languages : de
Pages : 198

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Book Description


North American Bison

North American Bison PDF Author: Jerry N. McDonald
Publisher: McDonald and Woodward Publishing Company
ISBN: 9781935778363
Category : American bison
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
On 9 May 2016, the North American bison was federally designated as the first national mammal of the United States. In celebration of this recognition, we are pleased to reissue North American Bison, the most extensive and robust interpretation of the arrival and evolution of bison in North America published during the 20th Century. North American Bison was originally published in 1981. It was based primarily upon information contained in paleontological, zoological, and archaeological collections in some 30 museums and universities in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, all of which was fitted into the best geochro-nology available at the time. The resulting skeletal and chronological patterns were then fitted into the emerging habitat patterns to allow an ecological interpretation of the adaptation of the various species of bison to different environments during their tenure of, probably, over a million years on the North American continent. Four -- or possibly five -- species of bison were recognised as having inhabited the continent at one time or another, including Bison priscus / Bison alaskensis as early forms that originated in Asia and dispersed into North America by way of Beringia; Bison latifrons and Bison antiquus as distinct North American species that probably evolved from an Asian form of bison; and Bison bison which evolved from 10,000 to 5,000 years ago from Bison antiquus. At the time of its release, this book was considered a model by which the evolution of other forms of large mammals of the Quaternary, the most recent Ice Age, could be studied.

Transformed Cladistics, Taxonomy and Evolution

Transformed Cladistics, Taxonomy and Evolution PDF Author: N. R. Scott-Ram
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521340861
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
This is an examination of the relationship between classification and evolutionary theory, with reference to the competing schools of taxonomic thinking. Emphasis is placed on one of these schools, the transformed cladists who have attempted to reject all evolutionary thinking in classification and to cast doubt on evolution in general. The author examines the limits to this line of thought from a philosophical and methodological perspective. He concludes that transformed cladistics does not achieve what it claims and that it either implicitly assumes a Platonic World View, or is unintelligible without taking into account evolutionary processes--the very processes it claims to reject. Through this analysis the author attempts to formulate criteria of an objective and consistent nature that can be used to judge competing methodologies and theories. Philosophers of science, zoologists interested in taxonomy, and evolutionary biologists will find this a compelling study.

Classification and Human Evolution

Classification and Human Evolution PDF Author: Sherwood Larned Washburn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Organizational Systematics

Organizational Systematics PDF Author: Bill McKelvey
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520360958
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982.