Overview

What light do fossils shed on the deep history of life's most diverse phylum, the Arthropoda? Are the interrelationships between major groups of arthropods-crustaceans, chelicerates, and tracheates-resolved the same way whether or not fossils are included? How should we combine evidence from extinct and extant taxa? These are the central questions of Arthropod Fossils and Phylogeny. Many recent controversies in arthropod evolution have been initiated by new fossil discoveries and new interpretations of early fossils. This book examines the role that these finds and ideas have played in understanding the deep evolutionary history of arthropods. The authors of the book's seven chapters have been at the forefront of this research. Contributions include phylogeny based on DNA sequence data for living groups, cladistic analysis of the major lineages of arthropods, detailed case studies of crustaceans, chelicerates, and lobopodians, and the evolutionary significance of arthropods in Cambrian fossil sites with exceptional preservation. All contributors use cladistic methods, presenting copious new data to stimulate further research. The book will be a vital resource for paleontologists, researchers on extant arthropods interested in fossil history, and evolutionists concerned with how different kinds of systematic data should be analyzed.

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9780231096546

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Reviews

The editor has solicited all specialists currently involved in this field of research and instructed them to give their frank opinion. The result is most interesting: though in some of the major issues a trend to consensus can be noted, in other topics opinions diverge widely, and all have been amply corroborated by sound arguments! In this way we receive the most timely information right from the horse's mouth and we become aware of the latest developments from the very forefront of science. It seems clear that anyone who'd wish to contribute to the field encompassing the origin and diversification of the arthropod phylum in forthcoming years, can find a thorough and comprehensive reference in the various contributions put together in this volume...Not surprisingly, the crustaceans figure prominently in many of the papers: items like their position in the arthropod tree (Chapters 1, 2), their relationships with annelids/annelid-like ancestors and crustacean-like extinct groups (Ch. 2), the origin of the schizoramous limb (Ch. 4, 5) and the origin and homology of the various, differentiated appendages of the crustaceans, approached just as well from a phylogenetic as from an ontogenetic point of view (Ch. 5), and, finally, the interrelationships of the taxa composing the Crustacea, both extant and extinct (Ch. 6), are all addressed in extenso by the various contributors.The composition, lay-out, printing, and binding have been well taken care of: a fine publication indeed, loaded with interesting details on the roots as well as the radiation(s) of the jointed-legged animals. -- J. C. von Vaupel Klein, Crustaceana

Author Information

Gregory D. Edgecombe is Senior Research Scientist at the Australian Museum, Sydney. He has written many papers on early arthropod (especially trilobite) evolution.

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