Conservation of the Earth's diversity is one of the most important and daunting challenges faced by biologists and politicians alike. The challenge has been taken up and declarations of intent issued, but there remains the basic problem of defining what we are trying to conserve, and why. This collection of essays reflects the wide range of views that are held about what constitutes biodiversity; from its perception in terms of species numbers, categorization of landforms, or different ecological levels, to the view that biodiversity is a dynamic and socio-political necessity for our own survival. The problems of matching species numbers, species variety, and the systematic hierarchy to geographic areas which we may wish to save are also addressed. Given that we need to set priorities for conservation, it is suggested that the preservation of the systematic hierarchy - as the most complete representation of the evolutionary legacy - should be the goal of conservation, and ways are outlined by which this may be accomplished.

This book explores the biological underpinnings of social systems from invertebrates to mammals, particularly humans. These social systems, the authors argue, represent fusions between the economic and reproductive interests of organisms. Their theory reinstates the importance of economics in social organizations of all types, moving away from the more prominent emphasis on reproductive biology at the core of sociobiology.

Most students who take a course in biological systematics do so to learn how to construct a data matrix and generate and evaluate a tree of phylogenetic relationships. Biological Systematics: Principles and Applications, by Randall T. Schuh, provides a welcome tool for these students and their instructors: it is a comprehensive and completely new textbook, the first of its kind since 1981. Systematics, the study of the reconstruction of the history of life, forms the underlying basis for organizing the knowledge of biology; cladistics is the diagrammatic method of charting phylogenetic relationships over time among evolving life forms. Cladistics analysis, the key tool used in this book, is also of great use outside pure systematic studies, and interests many students of population biology, ecology, epidemiology, and natural resources.Suitable for both graduate and advanced undergraduate students, Biological Systematics: Principles and Applications covers the core material for courses in biological systematics, with equal emphasis on both botany and zoology. It includes sections on the history and resources of the field; biological nomenclature; the theory of homology, character analysis, and computer algorithms; and the application of the results of systematic studies in the areas of biological classification, biogeography, adaptation and co-evolution, and biodiversity and conservation.

Biological Systematics: Principles and Applications draws equally from examples in botany and zoology to provide a modern account of cladistic principles and techniques. It is a core systematics textbook with a focus on parsimony-based approaches for students and biologists interested in systematics and comparative biology. Randall T. Schuh and Andrew V. Z. Brower cover: -the history and philosophy of systematics and nomenclature; -the mechanics and methods of analysis and evaluation of results; -the practical applications of results and wider relevance within biological classification, biogeography, adaptation and coevolution, biodiversity, and conservation; and -software applications. This new and thoroughly revised edition reflects the exponential growth in the use of DNA sequence data in systematics. New data techniques and a notable increase in the number of examples from molecular systematics will be of interest to students increasingly involved in molecular and genetic work.