Guillaume Lecointre is Professor and Research Scientist at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. Hervé Le Guyader is Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie (Université Paris 6).
While so many fundamental texts rely on new advances in genetics to
tell us what is known about the machinery of life, basically none
provides a revision of the way that we view the structure of the
world itself. This is the only book centered on the pattern of
biological data, and it should be a model for every book on
biological diversity that follows.
*Cladistics (review of the French edition)*
At long last, we have a single source on the classification of the
diversity of life based upon modern methodological and conceptual
advances. This book is a milestone that will move forward the
teaching and understanding of the great tree of life and its
branches. The authors are to be commended for creating a book that
will be of value to anyone interested in the diversity and history
of life on earth, from bacteria to orchids from fungi to man.
*Dennis W. Stevenson, Vice President for Botanical Science & Rupert
Barneby Curator, New York Botanical Garden*
The Tree of Life by Lecointre and Le Guyader is now the best book
available for information on groups of organisms, numbers of
species per group, and relationships. All who are interested in how
to recognize living and fossil life-forms and their relationships
should possess and read this book. Clearly written and beautifully
illustrated, it will stand as the most important source for years
to come.
*Choice*
The Tree of Life is a terrific compendium of the conclusions of
thirty years of research and standardization by thousands of
scientists around the globe. It is clearly written, logically
organized, and beautifully illustrated. In short, it is one-stop
shopping for anyone with questions about where a given group of
organisms fits on the tree of life, what characteristics put it
there, and how we know all this...Karen McCoy's translation of the
original French edition is competent and fluid, a pleasure to read.
This book deserves wide distribution and use in libraries and
classrooms, as well as among professionals and students of
biology.
*Reports of the National Center for Science Education*
This will make a great reference for any student of the diversity
of life. This book classifies all major groups of living organisms
and lists the characters that support them in a regular and
organized fashion. I strongly recommend this book for anyone
interested in the tree of life's great diversity.
*Journal of Human Biology*
As the book review editor, it is obvious that I would request from
the publisher a copy of any book with this title, with the
intention of then sending it on to a reviewer. However, I just
couldn’t make myself do it in this case—I loved the book too much
to be able to part with it… [T]he straightforward arrangement, the
simple writing style (translated well) and the direct presentation
of phylogenetic information all make the book accessible to the
reader, both expert and non-expert alike. In short, the book is
unique. It not only represents the first thorough attempt to
portray life from a purely phylogenetic perspective, it is an
excellent implementation of that idea. As an added bonus, there is
a 35-page introduction to phylogenetic systematics. This is among
the best such introductions in any language. The candid and
unadorned writing style comes to the fore, so that the ideas and
information are comprehensible to the uninitiated without
alienating the experts by oversimplification. None of the
complications in phylogeny reconstruction are avoided (although the
methodology concentrates on parsimony analysis), and yet the
concepts are presented in a straightforward and logical manner,
with suitable illustrated examples.
*Systematic Biology*
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
