Overview
- Editors:
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Bruce J. Turner
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Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, USA
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Table of contents (12 chapters)
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- Fred W. Allendorf, Gary H. Thorgaard
Pages 1-53
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- Donald C. Morizot, Michael J. Siciliano
Pages 173-234
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- Paul J. Monaco, Ellen M. Rasch, Joseph S. Balsano
Pages 311-328
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- George C. Williams, Richard K. Koehn
Pages 529-560
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Back Matter
Pages 617-636
About this book
It is my hope that this collection of reviews can be profitably read by all who are interested in evolutionary biology. However, I would like to specifically target it for two disparate groups of biologists seldom men tioned in the same sentence, classical ichthyologists and molecular biologists. Since classical times, and perhaps even before, ichthyologists have stood in awe at the tremendous diversity of fishes. The bulk of effort in the field has always been directed toward understanding this diversity, i. e. , extracting from it a coherent picture of evolutionary processes and lineages. This effort has, in turn, always been overwhelmingly based upon morphological comparisons. The practical advantages of such compari sons, especially the ease with which morphological data can be had from preserved museum specimens, are manifold. But considered objectively (outside its context of "tradition"), morphological analysis alone is a poor tool for probing evolutionary processes or elucidating relationships. The concepts of "relationship" and of "evolution" are inherently genetic ones, and the genetic bases of morphological traits are seldom known in detail and frequently unknown entirely. Earlier in this century, several workers, notably Gordon, Kosswig, Schmidt, and, in his salad years, Carl Hubbs, pioneered the application of genetic techniques and modes of reasoning to ichthyology. While certain that most contemporary ichth yologists are familiar with this body of work, I am almost equally certain that few of them regard it as pertinent to their own efforts.
Editors and Affiliations
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Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, USA
Bruce J. Turner
