Before the Backbone [electronic resource] : Views on the origin of the vertebrates /

We cannot catechise our stony ichthyolites, as did the necromantic lady of the Arabian Nights did the coloured fishes of the lake which had once been a city, when she touched their dead bodies with her wand, and they straightaway raised their heads and rephed to her queries. We would have many a question to ask them if we could - questions never to be solved. Hugh Miller, The Old Red Sandstone When I started this book in 1991, the subject of vertebrate origins was fusty and unfashionable. Early drafts for this preface read like an extend­ ed complaint at the lot of traditional morphologists, cast aside by the march of modern molecular biology. But no longer - this book should reach you at a time of renewed inter­ est in the origin of the vertebrates, our own particular corner of creation. For although the topic has excited interest for well over a century, molec­ ular biology has only lately achieved the maturity necessary to test its predictions. As a legitimate field of study, it is fashionable again.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Gee, Henry. author., SpringerLink (Online service)
Format:	Texto biblioteca
Language:	eng
Published:	Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands, 1996
Subjects:	Life sciences., Paleontology., Evolutionary biology., Zoology., Life Sciences., Evolutionary Biology.,
Online Access:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-25272-8
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