Fossils, Phylogeny, and Form

Phylogenetic analysis and morphometrics have been developed by biologists into rigorous analytic tools for testing hypotheses about the relationships between groups of species. This book applies these tools to paleontological data. The fossil record is our one true chronicle of the history of life, preserving a set of macroevolutionary patterns; thus various hypotheses about evolutionary processes can be tested in the fossil record using phylogentic analysis and morphometrics. This text should be useful to evolutionary biologists, paleontologists, and those those studying systematics evolutionary development, theoretical biology, biogeography, and zoology. It should also provide a practical, researcher-friendly gateway into computer-based phylogenetics and morphometrics.