Animal Evolution: Interrelationships of the Living Phyla [Hardcover]

Claus Nielsen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 17, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0198506813 | ISBN-13: 978-0198506812 | Edition: 2

Animal Evolution is a complete analysis of the evolutionary interrelationships and myriad diversity of the animal kingdom. Using modern phylogenetic reasoning based on characters from an extensive review of morphology, including ultrastructure, and embryology, each phylum is analysed to ascertain its monophyly and hence its ancestral characters. These ancestral characters are then used to construct a complete phylogenetic tree of the extant animal phyla. This new edition of Animal Evolution brings the subject fully up to date including some new ideas and emphases, as well as new bibliographic data. It also includes new chapters on the use of computer programmes and on the use of the new molecular techniques to create phylogenies, both techniques that have grown in prevalence in the field since the first edition was published. Illustrated throughout with finely detailed line drawings and clear diagrams. From reviews of the first edition of Animal Evolution: 'A clear and engaging style exemplified by a series of superbly concise descriptions of the phyla.... These are complemented by excellent illustrations.... The volume belongs on every biologist's bookshelf.' Simon Conway- Morris, Nature 'Texts like these constitute the very cream of taxonomic literature.... It really is a joy to read... and in my opinion it constitutes a highly recommended book for all zoologists. I think it is also particularly suited for seminars on animal classification for both undergraduate and graduate students.' JC von Vaupel Klein, Crustaceana'I highly recommend this book as a fascinating theory of animal relationships, and an excellent summary of the phylogenetically informative aspects of the biology of the whole animal kingdom.' Maximilian J Telford, Systematic Entomology

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Nielsen (zoology, U. of Copenhagen) examines the unity of the animal kingdom by tracing the evolution of all the 31 living phyla from their unicellar [sic] ancestor. The second edition incorporates new morphological data and new topic areas from the past decade, including histological/ultrastructural and embryological data, numerical cladistic analyses, DNA sequencing and developmental biology. The book is intended as a supplement to recent textbooks on systematic zoology, for undergraduate and graduate students, and as a reference for professionals in the field."--SciTech Book News

"This book is a complete analysis of the evolutionary interrelationships and myriad diversity of the animal kingdom. Using modern phylogenetic reasoning based on characters from an extensive review of morphology, including ultrastructure, and embryology, each phylum is analysed to ascertain its monophyly and hence its ancestral characters. These characters are then used to construct a complete phylogenetic tree of the extant animal phyla. This new edition of Animal Evoluation brings the subject fully up to date with new ideas and emphases, as well as new bibliographic data. It includes new chapters on the use of computer programmes and molecular techniques to create phylogenies and is illustrated throughout with finely detailed line drawings and clear diagrams."--Ethology, Ecology, Evolution

About the Author

Claus Nielsen, Associate Professor, Zoological Museum, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagan, Denmark. [e-mail] 45-35-32-1066 45-35-35-0818 (fax)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 578 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (May 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198506813
• ISBN-13: 978-0198506812
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,374,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear, well done presentation of the latest information., August 5, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Animal Evolution: Interrelationships of the Living Phyla (Hardcover)

This book is an excellent presentation of one expert's interpretation of the current known facts of morphologic animal cladistics. He has studied the subject of the relationships of the animal phyla and synthesized his understanding into an interesting and well written book. He presents some knew and potentially controversial branchings of the evolutionary tree of the animals. The only negative is that the book can be technical and dense with facts at times. This should not inhibit the interested reader from buying this book.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More Taxonomy Than Evolution, June 11, 2006

By 

Peter M. Ravdin (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Animal Evolution: Interrelationships of the Living Phyla (Paperback)

I thought this book was a brilliant exposition about the taxonomy of the phyla but it gave one little feel for the evolutionary history of animals. By cutting much of the discussion at the level of the phyla, a lot that I was hoping to learn something about was completely missing. In addition I thought it odd that tardigrades and even more obscure phyla had as much discussion as vertebrates. The chapter on nucleic acid sequencing seemed disorganized with it difficult to follow why some trees were more relevant than others. The time lines of the processes were hardly mentioned.
Overall I thought it read like a taxonomy lecturer's notes. I suppose these are hard words for what is so obviously expert's comprehesive work. However popular synthesizers like Sagan or Gould never wrote a book like this. So it would seem if you what to know structural details, taxonomy, embryology, this is the great book, but I wanted the big picture with organizing themes, and came away a bit disappointed.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A little outdated, September 3, 2006

By 

D. Stadtlander "this is my wifes account and ... - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Animal Evolution: Interrelationships of the Living Phyla (Paperback)

I bought this book when it first came out and quite enjoyed it. However Dr. Nielsen is not in the mainstream- he tends to reject most molecular data and bases his analysis on more traditional morphologic analysis, much of which is no longer accepted as being correct. I do not know his 2006 opinions, but as late as 2003 i think he was still arguing against the movement to ecdysozoa and lophotrochozoa. So if you want to know what the majority of biologists think- i would suggest james valentines book (on the origin of phyla) which is fairly close to the modern thoughts and i think easier reading with very good background info- or for a shorter version- just search the web for Halanych "the new view of animal phylogeny"- that article can be found in its entirety in pdf- but is not a book that gives background info- you have to have basic phyletic knowledge to understand it. Also keep in mind that whatever you read will be a bit out of date- 2006 data that seems to be fairly well accepted puts the urochordates closer to craniata(vertebrata) than cephalochordates and is not in any summary that i can find (not even wikipedia) and there is compelling evidence from mitochondrial DNA that argues that placazoa is basal to porifera.