Why and How
Some Problems and Methods in Historical Biology
- 1st Edition - October 30, 2013
- Latest edition
- Author: George Gaylord Simpson
- Editor: Mario Bunge
- Language: English
Why and How: Some Problems and Methods in Historical Biology discusses an overall approach to the study of fossils combined with paleontology. This book is divided into six… Read more
Why and How: Some Problems and Methods in Historical Biology discusses an overall approach to the study of fossils combined with paleontology. This book is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 consists of a few examples of studies of the fossil record, focusing on its adequacy, and ways of looking at and representing some of its aspects. The most basic aspects of study of the fossil record such as the examination, description, and illustration of the morphology of fossils are described in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 focuses on paleoecology and faunal analysis, while Chapter 4 emphasizes some of the aspects of phylogenetic principles and eclectic taxonomic theory. The essential apparatus for zoological studies that include biometrical statistics both in concepts and in measures are deliberated in Chapter 5. The last chapter deliberates the geographic distribution of organisms. This publication is a good source for paleontologists and biologists interested in historical biology.
Introduction
1. The Fossil Record
Bias, Adequacy, and Sampling of the Fossil Record
Continuity and Discontinuity in the Fossil Record
History of a Fauna
Periodicity in Vertebrate Evolution
2. Morphology, Homology, and Function
A Problem of Black on Black
"Braincasts"
A Way to Look Inside Fossils
A Way to Tell Crocodiles Apart
Ratio Diagrams
The Concept and Definition of Homology
An Exercise in Homology
An Exercise in Functional Inference and Model-making
How a Strange and Ancient Animal Got About
3. Paleoecology and Faunal Analysis
Ecological Analysis of an Ancient Local Fauna
Faunal Analysis, Facies, and an Evolutionary Principle
The Long View
4. Systematics and Taxonomy
Patterns of Cladistic Evolution
Remarks on Vertebrate Phylogeny
Higher Categories in Phylogeny and Taxonomy
Supraspecific Variation and Higher Categories
The Reality of Higher Categories
The Concept of Species
Types, Name-bearers, and Hypodigms in Taxonomy
Taxonomic Linguistics
5. Some Bits of Biometry
An Application of Statistical Thinking and Methods
Range as a Zoological Character
Standardization of Normal Frequency Distributions
6. Biogeography
Approach to a Sampling Problem
A History of an Intercontinental Faunal Resemblance
Measurement of Faunal Resemblance
Migration Routes
An Example of Sweepstakes Dispersal
Probability and Time
Species Density of Recent North American Mammals
Historical Analysis of a Continental Mammalian Fauna
Index
- Edition: 1
- Latest edition
- Published: October 30, 2013
- Language: English
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