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The tree of life : a phylogenetic classification

Author

Lecointre, Guillaume.

Preferred Title

Classification phylogénétique du vivant. English

Title

The tree of life : a phylogenetic classification / Guillaume Lecointre, Hervé Le Guyader ; illustrations by Dominique Visset ; translated by Karen McCoy.

Format

Book

Published

Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006.

Description

560 p. : ill. ; 29 cm. + 1 chapter summary chart.

Series

Harvard University Press reference library

Notes

"First published as Classification phylogénétique du vivant, 3rd ed., Éditions Belin, Paris, c2006"--T.p. verso. Chapter summary chart bound inside back cover. Includes bibliographical references (p. 537) and indexes. Translated from the French.

Contents

• Life
• Eubacteria
• Archaea
• Eukaryotes
• Chlorobionta
• Embryophyta
• Metazoa
• Protostomia
• Mollusca
• Euarthropoda
• Deuterostomia
• Sarcopterygii
• Mammalia
• Primates
• Actinopterygii.

Summary

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.

Subject headings

Biology--Classification. Cladistic analysis.

ISBN

0674021835 9780674021839

Standard Identifier

9780674021839