Assumptions Inhibiting Progress in Comparative Biology

This book is a thought-provoking assessment of assumptions inhibiting progress in comparative biology. The volume is inspired by a list generated years earlier by Donn Rosen, one of the most influential, innovative and productive comparative biologists of the latter 20th century. His list has assumed almost legendary status among comparative evolutionary biologists. Surprisingly many of the obstructing assumptions implicated by Rosen remain relevant today. Any comparative biologist hoping to avoid such assumptions in their own research will benefit from this introspective volume.

Brian I. Crother is Professor of Biological Sciences and Assistant Dean of the College of Science and Technology at Southeastern Louisiana University. He is the President Elect of the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. His research focuses on evolution from a phylogenetic perspective; historical biogeography, historical ecology, patterns of gene evolution, patterns of species evolution, methodology and philosophy of phylogenetic analysis. In addition, he is engaged in survey work for the accumulation of long term data for amphibian and reptile populations in local wetlands. Lynne R. Parenti is curator of Fishes at the National Museum of Natural History, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution. Her research program focuses on the phylogeny, systematics, comparative morphology, and historical biogeography of bony fishes especially the systematics and biogeography of freshwater and coastal marine fishes of the Indo-Pacific; use of new morphological characters in systematic ichthyology, especially neglected character sets; and the development of new tools for the collection and preservation of natural history specimens. She is the author or editor of several books including a previous volume in the Species and Systematics book series.