The Tree of Life
Subtitle: A Phylogenetic Classification (Harvard University Press Reference Library)
Contributors: Dominique Visset (Illustrator); Karen McCoy (Translator)
Publisher: Belknap Press; Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Published: January 15, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 560
ISBN-13: 9780674021839
Subjects: Evolution; Life Sciences - Biology - General; Biology; Science; System Theory; Science/Mathematics; Reference; Science / Reference; Cladistic analysis; Classification
Description: Modern classification, based on phylogeny, no longer places humans at the center of nature. Groups of organisms are no longer defined by their general appearance, but by their different individual characteristics. Phylogeny, therefore, by showing common ancestry, outlines a tree of evolutionary relationships from which one can retrace the history of life. This book diagrams the tree of life according to the most recent methods of classification. Each branch of the tree is a group that includes the hypothetical ancestor and all its descendants. The basis for classification is the evolutionary adaptations that the unique ancestor passed to its modern-day descendants.