Paperback reprint of a 2000 book.
The phylum Platyhelminthes is comprised of some 50,000 species of flatworms living in a wide variety of habitats – from the deep sea to the damp soil of tropical forests- where they occupy pivotal roles in many ecosystems. The parasitic forms include tapeworms and flukes, which plague virtually every species of vertebrates and impose major medical, veterinary, and economic burdens.
Interrelationships of the Platyhelminthes elucidates the role of flatworms in the animal kingdom. It brings together results from an international group of experts, spanning many disciplines, who give evidence for the phylogeny of the flatworms and constituent major taxa. A combined approach, using traditional comparative techniques along with the modern techniques of molecular phylogeny, is utilized to show that the monophyly of the phylum is not fully established, and that the phylum may in fact consist of two groups: the acoels and their direct relatives, which are basal metazoans, and the Rhabditophora, which is a more derived group. The authors review the contributions of neurobiology, morphology, and developmental and molecular biology in light of their contributions to flatworm phylogenetics.
This volume provides explicit and fully defined character matrices wherever possible allowing critics, supporters, and future workers to evaluate the state of flatworms systematics and phylogenetics from a single resource. Interrelationships of the Platyhelminthes will appeal to all who have an interest in flatworms and recognize the value of phylogenetics as the basis for comparative biology.
EARLY ORIGINS OF BASAL TAXA
- The Early Worm - Origins and Relationships of the Lower Flatworms /Seth Tyler
- Contributions to the Phylogeny and Systematics of the Acoelomorpha / Olga I. Raikova, Maria Reuter and Jean-Lou Justine
- The Nemertodermatida / Kennet Lundin and Wolfgang Sterrer
- Phylogenetic Systematics of the Macrostomorpha / Reinhard M. Rieger
FREE-LIVING GROUPS
- The Proseriata / Marco Curini-Galletti
- Molecular Taxonomy and Phylogeny of Tricladida / Jaume Baguñà , Salvador Carranza, Jordi Paps, Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo and Marta Riutort
- Towards a Phylogenetic Classification and Characterisation of Dugesiid Genera (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, Dugesiidae) - a morphological perspective / Ronald Sluys
SYMBIONTS AND PARASITES
- The Prolecithophora / Ulf Jondelius, Michael Norén and Jan Hendleberg
- The Temnocephalida / Lester R.G. Cannon and Boris I. Joffe
- Phylogenetic Relationships of the Monogenoidea / Walter A.Boeger and Delane C. Kritsky
- The Gyrocotylidea, Amphilinidea and the Early Evolution of Cestoda / Willi E.R. Xylander
- Phylogeny Among the Orders of the Eucestoda (Cercomeromorphae): Integrating Morphology, Molecules and Total Evidence / Eric P. Hoberg, Jean Mariaux and Dan R. Brooks
- Cestode Systematics in the Molecular Era / Jean Mariaux and Peter D. Olsen
- Interrelationships Among Tetraphyllidean and Lecanicephalidean Cestodes / Janine N. Caira, Kirsten Jensen and Claire J. Healy
- The Aspidogastrea, an Archaic Group of Platyhelminthes / Klaus Rohde
- The Digenea / Thomas H. Cribb, Rodney A.Bray, D. Timothy J. Littlewood, Sylvie P. Pichelin, Elizabeth A. Herniou
- Molecular Phylogeny of the Suborder Plagiorchiata and its Position in the System of Digenea / Vasyl V. Tkach, Jan Pawlowski, Jean Mariaux and Zdzislaw Swiderski
- The Schistosomatidae: Advances in Phylogenetics and Genomics / Scott D. Snyder, Eric S. Loker, David A. Johnston and David Rollinson
CHARACTERS AND TECHNIQUES
- Protonephridia as Phylogenetic Characters / Klaus Rohde
- Insights from Comparative Spermatology in the "Turbellarian" Rhabdocoela / Nikki A. Watson
- Spermatozoa as Phylogenetic Characters for the Platyhelminthes / Jean Lou-Justine
- Comparative Neurobiology of the Platyhelminthes / Maria Reuter and David W. Halton
- The Use of Life Cycle Characters in Studies of the Evolution of Cestodes / Ian Beveridge
- Embryology and Developmental Genes as Clues to Flatworm Relationships / Maximilian J. Telford
- Small Subunit rDNA and the Platyhelminthes: Signal, Noise, Conflict and Compromise / D. Timothy J. Littlewood and Peter D.Olson
- Flatworm Phylogeneticist: Between Molecular Hammer and Morphological / Anvil Boris I. Joffe and Elena E. Kornakova
- Towards a Phylogenetic Supertree of the Platyhelminthes? / Mark Wilkinson, Joseph L. Thorley, D. Timothy J. Littlewood and Rodney A. Bray
A book of this scope and calibre is invaluable to researchers working in this field. I highly recommend this book be published and look forward to seeing it.' - Robin Overstreet, University of Southern Mississippi, USA. This is a very welcome volume. The editors and authors are all the acknowledged authorities in their subjects.' - Hugh Jones, University of Manchester, UK It fills a gap in the literature.' - C. Combes, Centre de Biologie et Ecologie, Perpignan, France