Across the bridge : understanding the origin of the vertebrates /

Across the bridge : understanding the origin of the vertebrates /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Gee, Henry, 1962- author.
Imprint:	Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2018. ©2018 �2018
Description:	xii, 312 pages ; 24 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Vertebrates -- Origin. Vertebrates -- Evolution. Vertebrates -- Physiology. Vertebrates -- Physiology. Vertebrates -- Evolution.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11658627

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780226402864 022640286X 9780226403052 022640305X 9780226403199
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	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 remainfrom sea-squirts to starfishthe 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 divideand how far we still have to go.

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Call Number:	QL607.5.G44 2018
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