Introduction to systematics -- Systematics and the philosophy of science -- Characters and character states -- Character polarity and inferring homology -- Tree-building algorithms and philosophies -- Evaluating results -- Species -- Nomenclature, classifications, and systematic databases -- The integration of phylogenetics, historical biogeography and host -- Parasite coevolution -- Ecology, adaptation, and evolutionary scenarios -- Understanding molecular clocks and time trees -- Biodiversity and conservation -- Parsimony and the future of systematics.
"The book addresses the methods and philosophy of biological systematics (phylogenetics, taxonomy, and classification of living things). In particular, it emphasizes an empirical, cladistic approach, which espouses minimization of ad hoc hypotheses of evolution via the parsimony criterion for selecting preferred hypotheses of relationships, and recognition of groups based upon synapomorphies (inferred shared, derived character states) alone"--