From Clone to Bone

Robert J. Asher is a Lecturer and Curator of Vertebrates in the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge, UK. He is a vertebrate paleontologist, specializing in mammals, with interests in phylogenetics and development. Johannes Müller is Professor of Paleozoology at the Museum für Naturkunde and Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. He is a paleobiologist, focusing on the evolutionary diversification of fossil and recent reptiles.

• List of contributors; 1. Molecular tools in paleobiology: divergence and mechanisms Robert J. Asher and Johannes Müller; Part I. Divergence: 2. Genomics and the lost world: paleontological insights into genome evolution Chris Organ; 3. Rocking clocks and clocking rocks: a critical look at divergence time estimation in mammals Olaf R. P. Bininda-Emonds, Robin M. D. Beck and Ross D. E. MacPhee; 4. Morphological largess: can morphology offer more and be modeled as a stochastic evolutionary process? Hans C. E. Larsson, T. Alexander Dececchi and Luke B. Harrison; 5. Species selection in the molecular age Carl Simpson and Johannes Müller; Part II. Mechanisms: 6. Reconstructing the molecular underpinnings of morphological diversification: a case study of the Triassic fish Saurichthys Leonhard Schmid; 7. A molecular guide to regulation of morphological pattern in the vertebrate dentition and the evolution of dental development Moya Smith and Zerina Johanson; 8. Molecular biology of the mammalian dentary: insights into how complex skeletal elements can be shaped during development and evolution Neal Anthwal and Abigail S. Tucker; 9. Flexibility and constraint: patterning the axial skeleton in mammals Emily A. Buchholtz; 10. Molecular determinants of marsupial limb integration and constraint Karen E. Sears, Carolyn K. Doroba, Xiaoyi Cao, Dan Xie and Sheng Zhong; 11. A developmental basis for innovative evolution of the turtle shell Shigeru Kuratani and Hiroshi Nagashima; 12. A molecular-morphological study of a peculiar limb morphology: the development and evolution of the mole's 'thumb' Christian Mitgutsch, Michael K. Richardson, Merijn A. G. de Bakker, Rafael Jiménez, José Ezequiel Martín, Peter Kondrashov and Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra; 13. Manus horribilis: the chicken wing skeleton Michael K. Richardson; Index.

'Fundamental questions in biology, such as the origin of form and the tree of life, were major concerns for the leading biologists of the nineteenth century, but those researchers lacked the research tools to test their ideas. This book highlights the remarkable synergies between molecular biologists, developmental biologists, and palaeobiologists in providing new understanding. Asher and Müller have assembled an excellent set of chapters on these themes, and these provide incisive introductions to an important interdisciplinary field.' Michael J. Benton, University of Bristol