The evolution of animal diversity is strongly affected by the origin of novel cell and tissue types and their interactions with each other. Understanding the evolution of cell types will shed light on the evolution of novel structures, and in turn highlight how animals diversified. Several cell types may also have been lost as animals simplified – for example did sponges have nerves and lose them? This book reveals the interplay between gains and losses and provides readers with a better grasp of the evolutionary history of cell types. In addition, the book illustrates how new cell types allow a better understanding permitting the discrimination between convergence and homology.

Crustaceans, due to the great diversity of their body organization, segmentation patterns, tagmatization, limb types, larval forms, cleavage, and gastrulation modes, are highly desirable for the study of questions at the interface of evolution and development. Modern interest in evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) rests on the molecular genetic approach and a variety of molecular techniques have proven fruitful when performed on crustaceans.
Evolutionary Developmental Biology of Crustacea presents a comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the field, beginning with a discussion of the implications of the typological Bauplan and phylum concepts versus historical concepts such as ground pattern and monophylum for the formulation of conceptual questions in evo-devo. Following this, the authors present the results of Hox gene expression in various crustacean taxa, aspects of segment formation at the cellular and genetic levels, the formation of segmental structures such as neurons, ganglia, and limbs, and the role of morphological ontogenetic characters in resolving phylogenetic relationships.
By covering so many general aspects of crustacean development, morphology, and evolution, Evolutionary Developmental Biology of Crustacea serves as an indispensable reference for developmental and evolutionary biologists investigating the role of genetics in evolution and development.

The evolution of animal diversity is strongly affected by the origin of novel cell and tissue types and their interactions with each other. Understanding the evolution of cell types will shed light on the evolution of novel structures, and in turn highlight how animals diversified. Several cell types may also have been lost as animals simplified - for example did sponges have nerves and lose them? This book reveals the interplay between gains and losses and provides readers with a better grasp of the evolutionary history of cell types. In addition, the book illustrates how new cell types allow a better understanding permitting the discrimination between convergence and homology.