Interrelationships of the Platyhelminthes (Systematics Association Special Volume, 60) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0748409033 ISBN 13: 9780748409037

Publisher: CRC Press, 2000

Synopsis

The phylum Platyhelminthes is comprised of some 50,000 species of flatworms living in a wide variety of habitats - from the deep sea to the damp soil of tropical forests- where they occupy pivotal roles in many ecosystems. The parasitic forms include tapeworms and flukes, which plague virtually every species of vertebrates and impose major medical, veterinary, and economic burdens.

Interrelationships of the Platyhelminthes elucidates the role of flatworms in the animal kingdom. It brings together results from an international group of experts, spanning many disciplines, who give evidence for the phylogeny of the flatworms and constituent major taxa. A combined approach, using traditional comparative techniques along with the modern techniques of molecular phylogeny, is utilized to show that the monophyly of the phylum is not fully established, and that the phylum may in fact consist of two groups: the acoels and their direct relatives, which are basal metazoans, and the Rhabditophora, which is a more derived group. The authors review the contributions of neurobiology, morphology, and developmental and molecular biology in light of their contributions to flatworm phylogenetics.

This volume provides explicit and fully defined character matrices wherever possible allowing critics, supporters, and future workers to evaluate the state of flatworms systematics and phylogenetics from a single resource. This volume will appeal to all who have an interest in flatworms and recognize the value of phylogenetics as the basis for comparative biology.

About this title

About the Author:

D. T. J. Littlewood, R. A. Bray

Review:

'I have attempted [in this review] to convey the excitement, the controversy and the imagination in the research fields reflected in this book. I found the book greatly stimulating and will now go to the laboratory to look at protonephridia of schistosomes with renewed enthusiasm.' - John R. Kusel, Trends in Parasitology

About this edition

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0748409033
• ISBN 13: 9780748409037
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 372
• Editor: Littlewood D T J, Bray R. A.