Abstract

Why do unrelated organisms sometimes appear almost identical in details of the anatomy, behavior, physiology, and ecology? Homoplasy assembles leaders in evolutionary biology to explore issues of parallelism, convergence, and reversals. This innovative book is certain to provoke discussion of homoplasy compelling evidence for particular theories of evolutionary change

• The first book on this increasingly interesting subject
• Includes authoritative treatments from leading experts expressing a variety of viewpoints

"The editors are successful in their goal of demonstrating that the study of homoplasy is an important field in its own right and that it is more than just a nuisance factor in phylogenetic analyses or the opposite of homology." --COPEIA

"Researchers in the field of phylogenetic systematics will find this book extremely useful." --Mary V. Ashley in DOODY

"This book is long overdue. Homoplasy merits far more attention that it has received to date, and most evolutionary biologists will find much in this volume that is interesting and provocative." --THE QUATERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY

"The editors of this volue sought to establish homoplasy as a topic of interest in its own right and to identify the evolutionary processes that produce it. This is a useful book, strong on practical, methodological considerations, with several chapters that transcend observations specific to particular systems to deal with more general issues. This may be the first, but one hopes not the last, book-length treatment of this compelling topic." --AMERICAN SCIENTIST