Description
Book SynopsisA new view for studying and understanding biological evolution emerges when the concepts of phylogenetic systematics and exaptation are combined. A new definition of macroevolution is created. Preadaptation is shown to be a null concept and its comparison with exaptation is shown to be inappropriate. This book criticizes the prevailing view, the adaptationist, microevolutionary outlook, which considers adaptation as being the exclusive or main evolutionary process responsible for vertebrates having occupied the terrestrial environment. The authors argue that the macroevolutionary processes are significantly more important to explain an improbable evolutionary event. Their research shows that macroevolutionary processes are the dominant factors involved in the origin of terrestriality.
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Notes for Reading This book 1 Phylogenetic Systematics or Cladistics, Introductory Information 1 From Darwin to Hennig 2 Which Animals Are We Dealing With? 3 The Skeleton 2 Adaptive Scenarios 3 Adaptationism, Microevolution, Macroevolution, and Exaptation 4 Monophyly and Geological Time as Counter-arguments to the Adaptationist View of the Origin of Terrestrial Vertebrates 1 Monophyly of Terrestrial Vertebrates 2 The Geologic Time Gap 3 The Extreme Diversity of the Actinopterygii 4 The Phyletic Nature of †Placoderms and †Acanthodians 5 Method Based on Cladistics: New Perspectives 1 Criticisms of Adaptationism 2 Characters 3 Life Styles 4 The Issue of Topology 5 The Origins of Limbs with Digits, Walking, and Terrestriality 6 Recent Phylogenies of Basal Tetrapoda Reveal an Additional Argument 7 Exaptation: Misunderstandings of the Concept 8 Complementary Considerations 6 Geological Time, Morphology, and Ecology 1 Characters 2 Abrupt Appearance of Several Characters 3 Evolutionary Space for Independent New Invasions of Land by Vertebrates after the Devonian 7 Absence of Correlation among Characters and Asynchrony in Their Origins as Additional Arguments 8 Synergy among Arguments and Summary Considerations of the Main Arguments 9 Exaptations, Not Preadaptations, at the Origin of Terrestriality in Vertebrates 10 Science and Its Limits 1 A Statement on Scientific Paradigms 2 A View on the Sociology of Science 3 Epilogue Glossary References Index
