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Across the Bridge

By Henry Gee

Product Image: Across the Bridge

Across the Bridge

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Description
Our understanding of vertebrate origins and the backbone of human history evolves with each new fossil find and DNA map. Many species have now had their genomes sequenced, and molecular techniques allow genetic inspection of even non-model organisms. But as longtime Nature editor Henry Gee argues in Across the Bridge, despite these giant strides and our deepening understanding of how vertebrates fit into the tree of life, the morphological chasm between vertebrates and invertebrates remains vast and enigmatic. As Gee shows, even as scientific advances have falsified a variety of theories linking these groups, the extant relatives of vertebrates are too few for effective genetic analysis. Moreover, the more we learn about the species that do remain--from sea-squirts to starfish--the clearer it becomes that they are too far evolved along their own courses to be of much use in reconstructing what the latest invertebrate ancestors of vertebrates looked like. Fossils present yet further problems of interpretation. Tracing both the fast-changing science that has helped illuminate the intricacies of vertebrate evolution as well as the limits of that science, Across the Bridge helps us to see how far the field has come in crossing the invertebrate-to-vertebrate divide--and how far we still have to go.
Product details
Binding:
Paperback
Edition:
illustrated
Number of Pages:
288
Release Date:
2018-07-02
Publication Date:
2018-07-09
Publisher:
The University of Chicago Press
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
022640305X
ISBN13:
9780226403052
Weight:
460 g
Height:
154 cm
Width:
229 cm
Thickness:
22 cm
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