8/3/2019 Syst Biol-2006-Renner-696-8

1/3

696 SYSTEMATIC BIOLOGY VOL. 55Pentas tomida , and Ost racoda + Ci rr ipedia . Sec t ion Vgains spec ia l importance by advanc ing ques t ions con-cerning the deep phylogene t ic divi s ions of the Arthro-po da. Ne vert hele ss, i t is clear that different data sets canlead to different resul ts . This confl ict suggests that sup-po rt for the different cla des is st i ll no t very stron g, w hichis also not iceable in relat ively low stat ist ical support formost of the cri t ical branches in al l of the phylogenet ictrees. Presumably, the data set of Giribet et al . deservesmost c redibi l i ty , because i t encompasses mi tochondria land nuc lear markers tha t a re t rea ted separa te ly by Bab-bi t t and Patel and Carapel l i e t al . At least a consensusseems to exi s t in the f inding tha t Hexapoda and Crus-tacea represent sister taxa. However, addi t ional data wil lbe needed to de te rmine phylogene t ic re la t ionships be-tween and wi thin these two taxa .Sec t ion VI looks into phylogene t ic divi s ions tha tpreda te these wi thin the Arthropoda . The s ingle cont r i -but ion by Ronald Jenner and Gerhard Schol tz reviewsava i lable morphologica l evidence to place the Arthro-poda wi thin the Metazoa , where the opposing conceptsof the Art iculata versus the Ecdysozoa are discussedand compared by tes t ing the robus tness of publ i shedmorphologica l da tase t s . The authors conc lude tha t theArt icula ta ga in support , i f problemat ic charac te rs a reexcluded and scoring errors are corrected, but the l ikel i -

hoo d of sup por t for e i ther concept depe nd s on the phylo -gene t ic phi lo soph y ad op ted by the respec t ive sc ient i s ts .The bot tom -l ine message of thi s book i s thus tha t m oreconclusive information is st i l l needed to accurately placethe Arthropoda wi thin the phylogeny of the Metazoa ,and a l so to unders tand ear ly divi s ions in the evolut ionof the Art hro pod a tha t wou ld a l low an unequivo ca l c las-s i fi cat ion in to mono phyle t ic subun i t s . In years to come,wi t h correspo ndin g adv ances in sc ient if ic ins ight and thepromulga t ion of new hypotheses , thi s book wi l l doubt -less st i l l be considered a benchmark in the field, regard-less of debate and controversy that wil l certainly fol low:"i t has been put forward and i t is there to use". FredSchram, as wel l as the man y researchers ho no urin g himwi t h t h i s vo l um e , ha ve ma rke d l y a dva nc e d o ur p re se n tund e rs t a nd i n g o f a r t h ropo d phy l oge ny , whi l e al so p ro-viding a t empla te for t es t ing of a r thropod re la t ionshipsas the field advances in years to come.

Christoph D. Schubart, Biologie 1, Universitat Regensburg, D-93040Regensburg, Germany; E-mail: christoph.schubart@biologie.uni-regensbur

8/3/2019 Syst Biol-2006-Renner-696-8

2/3

2006 BOOK REVIEWS 697Unit 3, "Earth History and Fundamental Biogeo-graphic P rocesses," has a chapter on dispersal (focusingon autecology and with only 19 post-1998 references),and one on speciation and extinction. The latter includesdiscussions of species concepts, micro- and macroevo-lution, and m odes of speciation. This year's astonishingdiscovery of a case of sympatric speciation in palm s onan oceanic island (Savolainen et al., 2006) unfortunatelycould not yet be included. In an idiosyncratic choice,Unit 3 has the geological time scale, continental drift,and Pleistocene glaciations (Ch apters 8 an d 9) followingspeciation an d extinction (Chapter 7). Many of the paleo-distribution m aps are new, and the text of all four chap-ters has been much u pdated. For teaching purposes, theNorthern Hemisphere responses to the Pleistocene cli-matic cycles are the ideal basis for a discussion of globalwarming, and the book's bias towards its largest mar-ket is nowhere more evident than in this chapter, whichcontains a single figure illustrating Pleistocene changesoutside the Americas (p. 290, 9.13).Unit 4, "Evolutionary H istory of Lineages and Biotas,"comprises chapters on endemism and biogeographicregions, on reconstructing the history of lineages andthat of biotas. The last two are the contribution of thenew coauthor of Biogeography, Brett Riddle, whoseresearch focuses on the phylo geog raphy of Great Basinmontane island biota and molecular systematics ofNorth American rodents. He has done an excellent jobof explaining the relevant basic concepts, such as phy-logenetic inference, properties of molecular characters,construction and interpretation of haplotype networks,and molecular clocks. The sections explaining the role offossils in biogeography are all new, and very good. By

compa rison with an other recently revised text, Cox andMoore's Biogeography (cf. the rev iew by Sa nm artin, 2006),Lomolino et al. provide much more information aboutmeth ods, such as reconciling trees, dispersal-vicarianceanalysis and Brooks parsimony analysis, always point-ing the reader to approp riate original literature.Unit 5 turns to ecological biogeography, and com-prises two chapters on island biogeographyBrownand Lomolino are important contributors to the currentnonequilibrium view of island biotaand a chapter ondiversity gradients and macroecology from the keyboardof Brown. This chapter pays tribute to historical expla-nations of diversity, even if the exposition is strangelyahistorical. For example, the tropical conservatismhypothesis (that the tropics on average are larger andolder than other biomes and regions, and tha t speciationrates there are higher and extinction rates lower so thatspecies over time accumulated in the tropics), whichis beautifully set out in Herbert Baker's (1970) classicreview "Evolution in the Tropics" and also detailed byFarrell and M itter (1993) and other auth ors in the Ricklefsand Schluter book on species diversity, is attributed toa 2004 paper in Trends in Ecology and Evolution (Wiensand Donoghue, 2004). Those people who are interestedin explanations of diversity disparities up to 1980, ofcourse, can turn to Foundations of Biogeography: ClassicPapers with Commentaries, a fascinating compendium

by Lomolino et al. (2004). Foundations an d Frontiers(Lomolino and Heaney, 2004) have been produced bythe young and fit International Biogeography Society,whose cofounder and first president was Lomolino.(Brown and Riddle also are cofounders and past andpresent presidents of the 6-year-old society.)The final unit (6), "Conservation Biogeography andNew Frontiers," comprises chapters on the biodiversitycrisis, invasive species, conservation biogeography, andthe biogeography of humans. The book ends with achap ter on the frontiers of biogeography , excerpted fromFrontiers.The only omission in this book seems to be a sectionon GIS methods of mapping and model-based analysesof species ranges. GIS is mentioned in the Introductionand on the very last pages (pp. 722, 747; these men-tions are not in the index), but the capabilities and use ofwidely available packa ges, such as D omain, BIOCLIM,and GARP, and their role in element distribution mode l-ing, is something that the next generation of biogeogra-phers, to be taught w ith this book, really need s to knowabout. No wh ere in the index does one find predictive dis-tribution modeling, predictive range mapping, speciesdistribution mapping, habitat distribution mapping, orecological niche mode ling.The authors of Biogeography hold that little in evolu-tion, and for that m atter ecology, paleontology, conserva-tion biology, and human evolution, makes sense unlessviewed in a geographic context. The new edition of theirbook strongly sup ports this contention, and the very per-sonal, sometimes chatty, sometimes missionary style inwhich it is written conveys a feeling that one is close topeop le wh o have seen the action. This is an em piricallyand co nceptually rich text (as An dy Sinauer stated ab outthe second edition), whose third edition confirms its sta-tus as an indispensable classic.

REFERENCESAvise, J. C. 2000. Phylogeography: The history and formation of species.Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Baker, H. 2004. Evolution in the tropics. B iotropica 2:101-111.Farrell, B. D., and C. Mitter. 1993. Phylogenetic determinants of in-sect/p lant commun ity diversity. Pages 253-266 in Species diversityin ecological communities: Historical and geographical perspectives(R. E. Ricklefs and D. Schluter, eds.). University of Chicago Press,Chicago, Illinois.Herre, E. A. 2006. Exploring the implications of mosaic coevolutionaryoutcomes. Evolution 60:869-871.Lomolino, M. V., and L. R. Heaney, eds. 2004. Frontiers of biogeogra-phy: New directions in the geography of nature. Sinauer A ssociates,Sunderland, Massachusetts.Lomolino, M. V., D. F. Sax, and J. H. Brown, eds. 2004. Foundationsof biogeography: Classic papers with com mentaries. University ofChicago Press, Chicago, Illinois.Pennington, R. T., Q. C. B. Cronk, and J. A. Richardson. 2004. Introduc-tion and synthesis: Plant phylogeny and the origin of major biomes.Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 359:1455-1464.Ricklefs, R. E., and D. Schluter, eds . 1993. Species diversity in ecologicalcommunities. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois.Sanm artin, 1.2006. Review of Biogeography: An Ecological and Evolution-ary Approach, seventh edition. Syst. Biol. 55: 361-363.Savolainen, V., M.-C. Anstett, C. Lexer, I. Hutton, J. J. Clarkson, M.

V. Norup, M. P. Powell, D. Springate, N. Salamin, and W. j . Baker.

byguestonJanuary19,2012

http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/

Downloadedfrom

http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/

8/3/2019 Syst Biol-2006-Renner-696-8

3/3

698 SYSTEMATIC BIOLOGY VOL. 552006. Sympatric speciation in palms on an oceanic island. Nature441:210-213.Thompson, J. N. 2005. The geographic mosaic of coevolution. Univer-sity of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois.Webb, C. O., D. D. Ackerly, M. A . McPeek, and M. J. Donoghu e. 2002.Phylogenies and comm unity ecology. Ann u. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 33:475-505.

Wiens, J. J., and M. J. Donog hue. 2004. H istorical biogeography, ecologyand species richn ess. Trends Ecol. Evol. 19:639-644.Susanne S. Renner, Department of Biology, Systematic Bo tany, M unichUniversity, Menzingerstr. 67, D-80638, Munich, Germany; E-mail:renner@lrz.uni-muenchen.de

Syst. Biol. 55(4):698-700, 2006Copyr igh t Society of Systematic BiologistsISSN: 1063-5157 prin t / 1076-836X onlineDOI: 10.1080/10635150600899780

Statistical Methods in Molecular Evolution.Rasmus Nielsen (ed-itor). 2005. Springer Verlag, New York. 508 pp. ISBN 0-387-22333-9.$89.95 (61.50) (hardba ck).Molecular evolution and its sister disciplines of phy-logenetics, molecular systematics, and comparativegenomics are progressing rapidly. Of particular impor-tance has been the creation of powerful statistical tools,which h ave en abled biologists to coax increasingly mo reinformation from biological data. Statistical Methods inMolecular Evolution seeks to provide an introduction tothese tools and the mathematical theory that underpinsthem.Before discussing the contents of the book, it is use-ful to linger for a moment on its definition of the phrase"molecular evolution": only the evolution of biologicalsequences or things that can be simply inferred fromthem, such as gene order or microsatellite length, arecovered in the book. There is little to no discussion aboutthe evolution of protein structures, alternative splicing,domain shuffling, or the currently fashionable topic ofnetwork evolution. This is not a criticisma book canonly cover a limited number of topicsbut potentialreaders should be aw are of its limitations. The target au-dience includes scientists with mathematical or biolog-ical backgrou nds, w ith the intention of being accessibleto most numerically minded biology research students.This is a difficult task to manag e an d there are inev itablychapters th at man y biologists will struggle with, becausesome ideas are presented in a relatively formal statis-tical way, or both deal with particularly difficult con-ceptual issues. The majority of authors, however, dotry and guide less technically minded readers throughsome quite difficult subject matter, and in general theysucceed, making the book a pleasant and informativeread.In terms of structure, the book consists of a collectionof peer-reviewed chapters from significant innovatorsin their respective fields, tied together by the editorialhand of Rasmus Nielsen. The individual chapters feeldistinct, and each reads as a review in its own right,which leads to the book's main strengths and weak-nesses. The weaknesses are typical of books with a largenum ber of autho rs. There is redun danc y of material, with

some basic topics being covered multiple times,particularly regarding the definition of some popularevolutionary mod els. There is also a frustrating inconsis-tency with nomenclature, with different symbols beingused for the same term in different chapters. A glaringexample of this is the commonly used parameter K innucleotide models, which is defined in the usual wayas the tr ans ition /tran s version rate ratio in all but onechapter, where the authors have atypically defined itas the transversion/transition rate ratio. Of more con-cern is that some topics are only sketchily covered, andsome escape being covered at all. This tends to be par-ticularly true for the justification of modeling choices,which occasionally ha ve g aps in the logical progressionbuilding from their biological found ations. This will bea particular problem for statisticians using the book asan entry po int into molecular ev olution. There is also oc-casional patchiness in quality both within and betweenchapters. Althoug h the overall quality is high, with somenotably concise and informative expositions of diffi-cult subjects, some chapters feel in places that they aredrifting.Dwelling on the negatives too long wou ld be an injus-tice and, to some extent, miss the point. By pulling to-gether the thoughts a nd op inions of leading researchers,and letting them write in-dep th about their preferred top -ics, this book has m anage d a rare thing: to become m orethan the sum of its parts. It provides an introduction toa lot of the most exciting research going on in molecu-lar evolution, describing it from different perspectivesand providing readers with a key to explore differentaspects of the literature. This is illustrated by the dis-cussion of models of protein evolution, where chaptersintroduce perspectives and opinions from structural bi-ology, phylo gene tic inference, an d statistics. The eclecticmix of topics also invites the reader to think of molec-ular evolution at different temporal and spatial levels,an d to spot difficulties with our current approaches.For example, one chapter discusses evo lution over shorttimescales and how population structure affects naturalselection, whereas the next describes recent attem pts todraw inferences about selection from more distant evo-lutionary relationships. The comprehe nsive coverage ofboth topics serves to highlight the similarities between

byguestonJanuary19,2012

http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/

Downloadedfrom

http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/