What, if anything, are species?

Brent Mishler is Director of the University and Jepson Herbaria at UC Berkeley, as well as a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, where he teaches systematics and plant diversity. A native southern Californian, he attended Bonita High School in La Verne, California and worked for Los Angeles County as a ranger-naturalist at San Dimas Canyon County Park, where he became interested in natural history and especially botany. He attended California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where he received his B.S. degree in Biology in 1975 and his M.S. in biology in 1978. He then received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1984, and was on the faculty at Duke University in Durham, NC for nine years before moving to UC Berkeley in 1993.

• Author. Introduction. What Should the Species Level Represent within the Current Ranked Codes of Nomenclature? The Need for Pluralism Because of Different Biologies in Different Taxa. A Phylogenetic Species Concept. What Should Happen to Taxa at the Traditional Species Level under a Rankless Code of Nomenclature? General Principles of Rankless Classification Extended to the Species Rank. Discussion: What Would the World Be Like without the Species Rank?. Endnotes. Index .

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