1st Edition

What Species Mean A User's Guide to the Units of Biodiversity

By Julia D. Sigwart Copyright 2019
260 Pages 19 Color & 22 B/W Illustrations
by CRC Press

260 Pages 19 Color & 22 B/W Illustrations
by CRC Press

260 Pages 19 Color & 22 B/W Illustrations
by CRC Press

Everyone uses species. All human cultures, whether using science or not, name species. Species are the basic units for science, from ecosystems to model organisms. Yet, there are communication gaps between the scientists who name species, called taxonomists or systematists, and those who use species names—everyone else. This book opens the "black box" of species names, to explain the tricks of... Read more

1. Premise. 2. General concepts. 3. Everyone uses species. 4. Why do the names keep changing? 5. Species are units of evolution. 6. Natural patterns in classification. 7. Are species real? 8. How to name a species. 9. Biodiversity and extinction through time. 10. How many species are there? 11. Dynamic patterns in biodiversity. 12. Translating biodiversity across cultural barriers

Biography

Dr Julia D. Sigwart is the director of the Queen’s University Marine Laboratory, an interdisciplinary institute for marine science in Portaferry, N. Ireland. She completed her undergraduate education at the University of Victoria, and then took up a position on the scientific staff at the American Museum of Natural History. She later moved to Ireland, to manage a research programme linking the National Museum of Ireland (Natural History) and University College Dublin. In 2009, she moved to her faculty position in Queen’s University, Belfast. She has published over 70 papers on diverse topics and organisms. Her research focuses on the evolution of diversity in molluscs and other animal groups, spanning both living and fossil species.