Cladistics Theory and Practice of Parsimony Analysis

by Kitching, Ian; Forey, Peter; Humphries, Christopher; Williams, David

• ISBN13: 9780198501381
• ISBN10: 0198501382
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-09-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Cladistics aims to reconstruct genealogies based on common ancestry, thus revealing the phylogenetic relationships between taxa. Its applications vary from linguistic analysis to the study of conservation and biodiversity, and it has become a method of choice for comparative studies in all fields of biology. This new edition of Cladistics --first published in 1992--reflects the many changes and developments which have taken place in the field over the last five years, while retaining the clarity and readability that made the first edition so successful. For all students interested in the systematic relationships among organisms, this book provides a state-of-the-art account of the techniques and methods of modern cladistics, and of how to put them into practice.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction to cladistic concepts

Characters and character coding

Cladogram construction, character polarity, and rooting

Optimization and the effects of missing values

Measures of character fit and character weighting

Support and confidence statistics for cladograms and groups

Consensus trees

Simultaneous and partitioned analysis

Three-item statements analysis

References

Glossary

Appendix: Computer programs

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