Chordate Origins and Evolution: The Molecular Evolutionary Road to
Vertebrates focuses on echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins, and
others), hemichordates (acorn worms, etc.), cephalochordates
(lancelets), urochordates or tunicates (ascidians, larvaceans and
others), and vertebrates. In general, evolution of these groups is
discussed independently, on a larger scale: ambulacrarians
(echi+hemi) and chordates (cephlo+uro+vert). Until now, discussion
of these topics has been somewhat fragmented, and this work
provides a unified presentation of the essential information. In
the more than 150 years since Charles Darwin proposed the concept
of the origin of species by means of natural selection, which has
profoundly affected all fields of biology and medicine, the
evolution of animals (metazoans) has been studied, discussed, and
debated extensively. Following many decades of classical
comparative morphology and embryology, the 1980s marked a turning
point in studies of animal evolution, when molecular biological
approaches, including molecular phylogeny (MP), molecular
evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo), and comparative
genomics (CG), began to be employed. There are at least five key
events in metazoan evolution, which include the origins of 1)
diploblastic animals, such as cnidarians; 2) triploblastic animals
or bilaterians; 3) protostomes and deuterostomes; 4) chordates,
among deuterostomes; and 5) vertebrates, among chordates. The last
two have received special attention in relation to evolution of
human beings. During the past two decades, great advances have been
made in this field, especially in regard to molecular and
developmental mechanisms involved in the evolution of chordates.
For example, the interpretation of phylogenetic relationships among
deuterostomes has drastically changed. In addition, we have now
obtained a large quantity of MP, evo-devo, and CG information on
the origin and evolution of chordates.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!