The Origin of Higher Taxa: Palaeobiological, Developmental, and Ecological Perspectives. 2015. illus. 201 p. gr8vo. Paper bd.

The Origin of Higher Taxa addresses this essential question,specifically whether the emergence of higher taxa such as orders,classes, and phyla are the result of normal Darwinian evolutionacting over a sufficiently long period of time, or whether unusualgenetic events and particular environmental and ecologicalcircumstances are also involved. Until very recently, thecombination of an incomplete fossil record and a limitedunderstanding about how raw mutations lead via modifiedontogenic processes to significant phenotypic changes, effectivelystymied scientific debate. However, it is now timely to revisit thequestion in the light of the discovery of considerable new fossilmaterial (and new techniques for studying it), together withsignificant advances in our understanding of phenotypicdevelopment at the molecular level. This novel text incorporatesevidence from morphology, palaeobiology, developmental biology,and ecology, to review those parts of the fossil record thatillustrate something of the pattern of acquisition of derivedcharacters in lineages leading to actual higher taxa as well asthe environmental conditions under which they occurred. Theauthor's original ideas are set within the context of a broadand balanced review of the latest research in the field. Theresult is a book which provides a concise, authoritative, andaccessible overview of this fascinating subject for both studentsand researchers in evolutionary biology and palaeontology.