3 Review(s)

Since the 1980s, a renewed understanding of molecular development has afforded an unprecedented level of knowledge of the mechanisms by which phenotype in animals and plants has evolved. In this volume, top scientists in these fields provide perspectives on how molecular data in biology help to elucidate key questions in estimating paleontological divergence and in understanding the mechanisms behind phenotypic evolution. Paleobiological questions such as genome size, digit homologies, genetic control cascades behind phenotype, estimates of vertebrate divergence dates, and rates of morphological evolution are addressed, with a special emphasis on how molecular biology can inform paleontology, directly and indirectly, to better understand life's past. Highlighting a significant shift towards interdisciplinary collaboration, this is a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in the integration of organismal and molecular biology. Table of Contents List of contributors 1. Molecular tools in paleobiology: divergence and mechanisms Part I. Divergence: 2. Genomics and the lost world: paleontological insights into genome evolution 3. Rocking clocks and clocking rocks: a critical look at divergence time estimation in mammals 4. Morphological largess: can morphology offer more and be modeled as a stochastic evolutionary process? 5. Species selection in the molecular age Part II. Mechanisms: 6. Reconstructing the molecular underpinnings of morphological diversification: a case study of the Triassic fish Saurichthys 7. A molecular guide to regulation of morphological pattern in the vertebrate dentition and the evolution of dental development 8. Molecular biology of the mammalian dentary: insights into how complex skeletal elements can be shaped during development and evolution 9. Flexibility and constraint: patterning the axial skeleton in mammals 10. Molecular determinants of marsupial limb integration and constraint 11. A developmental basis for innovative evolution of the turtle shell 12. A molecular-morphological study of a peculiar limb morphology: the development and evolution of the mole's 'thumb' 13. Manus horribilis: the chicken wing skeleton Index.