Biological Systematics

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

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2. Problems and Methods

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Systems and classifications

      • Alessandro Minelli

      Pages 3-14

   3. Some steps in comparative biology

      • Alessandro Minelli

      Pages 15-43

   4. Biochemical and molecular systematics

      • Alessandro Minelli

      Pages 44-61

   5. The species

      • Alessandro Minelli

      Pages 62-86

   6. Resources and media

      • Alessandro Minelli

      Pages 87-103

3. The State of the Art

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 105-105

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   2. The inventory of natural diversity

      • Alessandro Minelli

      Pages 107-129

   3. Towards the system

      • Alessandro Minelli

      Pages 130-167

   4. Interviews on the daily work of systematists: problems and trends

      • Alessandro Minelli

      Pages 168-184

   5. The unequal distribution of taxonomic diversity

      • Alessandro Minelli

      Pages 185-197

   6. Domesticated animals and cultivated plants

      • Alessandro Minelli

      Pages 198-205

4. Epilogue

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 207-207

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   2. Some dangerous trends, and a hope for the future

      • Alessandro Minelli

      Pages 209-214

5. Back Matter

   Pages 215-387

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To some potential readers of this book the description of Biological System­ atics as an art may seem outdated and frankly wrong. For most people art is subjective and unconstrained by universal laws. While one picture, play or poem may be internally consistent comparison between different art products is meaningless except by way of the individual artists. On the other hand modern Biological Systematics - particularly phenetics and cladistics - is offered as objective and ultimately governed by universal laws. This implies that classifications of different groups of organisms, being the products of systematics, should be comparable irrespective of authorship. Throughout this book Minelli justifies his title by developing the theme that biological classifications are, in fact, very unequal in their expressions of the pattern and processes of the natural world. Specialists are imbibed with their own groups and tend to establish a consensus of what constitutes a species or a genus, or whether it should be desirable to recognize sub­ species, cultivars etc. Ornithologists freely recognize subspecies and rarely do bird genera contain more than 10 species. On the other hand some coleopterists and botanists work with genera with over 1500 species. This asymmetry may reflect a biological reality; it may express a working practicality, or simply an historical artefact (older erected genera often contain more species). Rarely are these phenomena questioned.

• Adaptation
• Animalia
• Chelicerata
• Crustacea
• Ctenophora
• Insecta
• Plathelminthes
• biology
• evolution
• genetics
• macromolecules
• micromolecules
• phylogeny
• systematics
• taxonomy

Is a refreshingly no-dogmatic smorgasbord of many of the major aspects of systematics - Trends in Ecology and Evolution; ...performs a welcome service by organizing and integrating a large body of recent behavioural and physiolgical data within a coherent framework and by providing a critical guide to unresolved issues. Behavioural psychologists and neuroscientists working on learning and memory will find this book well worth the investment for orientation and reference - Bioscience; The style is quite readable, and I expecially appreciated the author's comparison of various sytematic codes and his editorial comments on how the process of systematics might be improved and streamlined ... a handy reference - American Zoologist; A valuable reference for more advanced students - Science and Technology; This book provides the broadest and most balanced review of systematics that I have seen. - Biological Systematics

• Dipartimento di Biologia, Universita’ degli studi di Padova, Padova, Italy

  Alessandro Minelli

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