Evolution of Dasyurid Marsupials

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This book introduces readers to living and fossil dasyurids and the answers to questions evolutionary biologists have asked about them. It offers a comprehensive synthesis of dasyurid evolutionary biology for students, teachers and researchers in mammalian evolution and marsupial biology.

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The marsupial family Dasyuridae has a history of study extending from 18th century naturalists to the modern genomics era. The Evolution of Dasyurid Marsupials: Systematics and Family History tells the story of dasyurid evolution as it unfolded in the context of changing world views on biodiversity, biotic history and scientific methodology, from its roots in Enlightenment taxonomy to its transformation by the Darwinian and Hennigian revolutions, and then its maturation as statistical phylogenetics and phylogenomics.

Research on dasyurids includes every major approach in animal systematics, including some for which few comparable examples exist. It extends beyond the recent consensus on species relationships to include the timing of diversification, historical biogeography and the evolution of key phenotypic traits. This book introduces readers to living and fossil dasyurids, the questions evolutionary biologists have asked about them, the inferential methods used to answer those questions and the implications of those answers for understanding the history of this fascinating marsupial family. It offers a comprehensive synthesis of dasyurid evolutionary biology for students, teachers and researchers in mammalian evolution and marsupial biology.

Obsah

1. Dasyurids and ‘tree thinking’ 2. The diversity of dasyurids 3. Dasyurid phylogeny: morphological taxonomy from Linnaeus to Archer 4. Dasyurid phylogeny: molecular systematics, 1977–2003 5. Dasyurid phylogeny: integrative studies 6. Dasyurid species-level relationships 7. Dasyurid species recognition 8. Dasyuromorphian families and fossils 9. The timing of dasyurid evolution 10. Dasyurid macroevolution 11. Evolution of the dasyurid phenotype 12. Dasyurids past, present and future Appendix: colour images. References. Index.