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Old Questions and Young Approaches to Animal Evolution

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Editors:
  1. José M. Martín-Durán

    1. School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Bruno C. Vellutini

    1. Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Explains how recent technical and conceptual advances are impacting animal evolution research
  • Broadens readers’ understanding of the origin of animals
  • Explains how big data approaches are now transforming our understanding of animal evolution and development

Part of the book series: Fascinating Life Sciences (FLS)

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vi
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  2. Introduction: Young Approaches to Animal Evolution

    • José M. Martín-Durán, Bruno C. Vellutini
    Pages 1-12

  3. Animal Origins

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 13-13
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    2. The Protistan Cellular and Genomic Roots of Animal Multicellularity

      • Alex de Mendoza, Arnau Sebé-Pedrós
      Pages 15-38

    3. Exceptionally Preserved Cambrian Fossils in the Genomic Era

      • Javier Ortega-Hernández
      Pages 39-54

  4. The Developmental View of Animal Evolution

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 55-55
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    2. Comparative Embryology as a Way to Understand Evolution

      • Dian-Han Kuo
      Pages 57-72

    3. How Do Developmental Programs Evolve?

      • Grigory Genikhovich
      Pages 73-106

    4. How Do Morphological Novelties Evolve? Novel Approaches to Define Novel Morphologies

      • Isabel Almudí, Juan Pascual-Anaya
      Pages 107-132

    5. Germ Layer Evolution: Using Novel Approaches to Address a Classic Evolutionary Embryological Problem

      • Naveen Wijesena
      Pages 133-149

    6. Origin and Evolution of Nervous Systems

      • Michael J. Layden
      Pages 151-171

  5. The Genomic View of Animal Evolution

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 173-173
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    2. Boosting Macroevolution: Genomic Changes Triggering Qualitative Expansions of Regulatory Potential

      • Manuel Irimia, Ignacio Maeso
      Pages 175-207

    3. How Do Gene Networks Promote Morphological Evolution

      • Alexa Sadier
      Pages 209-234

  6. Theoretical Approaches to Animal Evolution

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 235-235
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    2. How Does Modularity in the Genotype–Phenotype Map Shape Development and Evolution?

      • Diogo Melo
      Pages 237-249

    3. Can We Compute the Embryo?

      • Miquel Marín-Riera, Miguel Brun-Usan
      Pages 251-267

    4. What Is a Biological Individual?

      • Jan Baedke
      Pages 269-284
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Keywords

About this book

Animal evolution has always been at the core of Biology, but even today many fundamental questions remain open. The field of animal ‘evo-devo’ is leveraging recent technical and conceptual advances in development, paleontology, genomics and transcriptomics to propose radically different answers to traditional evolutionary controversies. 

This book is divided into four parts, each of which approaches animal evolution from a different perspective. The first part (chapters 2 and 3) investigates how new sources of evidence have changed conventional views of animal origins, while the second (chapters 4–8) addresses the connection between embryogenesis and evolution, and the genesis of cellular, tissue and morphological diversity. The third part (chapters 9 and 10) investigates how big data in molecular biology is transforming our understanding of the mechanisms governing morphological change in animals. In closing, the fourth part (chapters 11–13) explores new theoretical andconceptual approaches to animal evolution. 

‘Old questions and young approaches to animal evolution’ offers a comprehensive and updated view of animal evolutionary biology that will serve both as a first step into this fascinating field for students and university educators, and as a review of complementary approaches for researchers.



Reviews

“Excellent examples discussed throughout the book … . Overall, this edited volume offers an enjoyable read and is a timely contribution for a wide range of evolutionary biologists interested in tackling and revisiting the many “big picture” questions in animal evolution.” (Joshua R. York, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 96 (4), December, 2021)

Editors and Affiliations

  • School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK

    José M. Martín-Durán

  • Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany

    Bruno C. Vellutini

About the editors

​José M. Martín-Durán is a European Research Council Starting Grant Fellow and Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. He obtained his PhD in Genetics from the University of Barcelona, where he studied the embryonic development of planarian flatworms. After pursuing postdoctoral research at the Sars International Centre for Marine Molecular Biology, University of Bergen, he moved to Queen Mary University of London to establish a laboratory that combines his interests in developmental biology, animal evolution, and marine biodiversity. His lab applies genomic, epigenetic, and more classical developmental approaches to study the natural diversity in early embryogenesis found in spiralian lineages.

Bruno C. Vellutini is an EMBO Fellow and postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics. He obtained his MSc in Zoology from the University of São Paulo, and his PhD in Molecular and Computational Biology from the University of Bergen, where he investigated the evolution of larval forms in marine invertebrates. His research focuses on understanding how changes in embryogenesis are connected to the evolution of animal morphology. Currently, he is combining genetic and live-imaging techniques to reveal the mechanisms that govern tissue morphogenesis in the fruit fly embryo.


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Old Questions and Young Approaches to Animal Evolution

  • Editors: José M. Martín-Durán, Bruno C. Vellutini

  • Series Title: Fascinating Life Sciences

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18202-1

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life Sciences, Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-18201-4Published: 01 August 2019

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-18204-5Published: 15 August 2020

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-18202-1Published: 22 July 2019

  • Series ISSN: 2509-6745

  • Series E-ISSN: 2509-6753

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VI, 284

  • Number of Illustrations: 8 b/w illustrations, 42 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Evolutionary Biology, Zoology, Paleontology

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