Serializing our New Book: A Question of Relationship

David Williams and I have signed our contract for a new book to be published by Forrest Text. The book A Question of Relationship: the role of homology in systematics and biogeography (our working title) will be serialized on this blog over next few months (or until we get it written).

We hope that our book addresses some of the more important issues in systematics and biogeography, as well as getting your feedback. The task will be an arduous one as we hope to cover the following topics recently discussed in the literature and on this blog:

Defining Relationship

Bortoft's Intrinsic & Extrinsic Thinking in systematics and biogeography

Complexity and Classification

Homology versus Similarity

Paraphyly and Monophyly

Phenetics versus Natural Classifications

Phylocode and Artificial Classifications

Molecules and Morphology

DNA Follies and the Thin Blue Line

We hope that this interactive experiment in science writing ends in a well rounded and balanced text. Let the writing commence!

International Code of Area Nomenclature (ICAN)

The International Code of Area Nomenclature (ICAN) is available in a printed format from the Journal of Biogeography.

The project is a long term initiative of the Systematic & Evolutionary Biogeographical Association (SEBA), which seeks to introduce a naming standard in biogeography. The ICAN is also available online from the SEBA site (for those that do not have access to Blackwell Online). If you would like a reprint please send us an email.

The abstract of the printed version is given below:

"Biogeography needs a standard, coherent nomenclature. Currently, in biogeography, the same name is used for different areas of biological endemism, and one area of endemism is known by more than one name, which leads to conflict and confusion. The name ‘Mediterranean’, for example, may mean different things to different people – all or part of the sea, or the land in and around it. This results in ambiguity concerning the meaning of names and, more importantly, may lead to conflicts between inferences based on different aspects of a given name. We propose the International Code of Area Nomenclature (ICAN), a naming system that can be used to classify newly coined or existing names based on a standard. When fully implemented, the ICAN will improve communication among biogeographers, systematists, ecologists and conservation biologists" (Ebach et al. 2008).

References
Ebach, M.C., Morrone, J.J., Parenti, L.R. & Viloria, Á.L. (2008) International Code of Area Nomenclature Journal of Biogeography. 35 (7) , 1153–1157.

Blog Maintenance

On occasions we need to make minor adjustments to the blog in order to sort out a few quibbles or to add new features (check out the new Label Cloud).

If you experience any problems with this blog please let us know and post a comment below!

The new Blue Book?

It certainly is blue but Foundations of Systematics & Biogeography focuses on the history of comparative biology from Goethe to 21st century systematics and biogeography. The book is the history of our field from Ernst Haeckel to Adolf Naef, a rather neglected story that is unfairly dismissed as "typology" and forgotten. Perhaps this is Mayr's great undoing of what seems to be the foundations of 21st century systematics and biogeography.

The book is a combination of our collaborative efforts since 2001. During that time David and I have tried to unravel what is for us key-stones in our understanding of comparative biology. We are still mulling over a few, such as the role of homology in molecular data and why paraphyly is still the biggest problem in systematics. We hope that the book and this blog will help people try the unravel that same history.

The book is available from Springer in December. Watch this space for more news!