Textbook or review articles on avian phylogeny? (1 Viewer)

K

kschnei

Active member

• Jan 16, 2009

• #1

I'm hoping that someone can recommend a review article or textbook with a good introduction to avian systematics/phylogenetics? I have a strong science background (PhD in molecular biology, although a while back), but I confess that I lack the knowledge of statistics, etc. to thoroughly understand most of the articles I read on assembling bird haplotypes into clades, tracing evolutionary trees, etc. What I need (I think) is an explanation that starts the discussion on a very basic level and then gets more involved in the details...

Any ideas?

Thanks!
Ken

 

K

kschnei

Active member

• Jan 16, 2009

• #2

Sorry - not a very clear thought/question. Can someone perhaps recommend a recent edition of an ornithology, or perhaps even better, a zoology textbook that covers modern systematics and phylogeny at an introductory level?

 

S

StevePreddy

Well-known member

• Jan 17, 2009

• #3

kschnei said:

Sorry - not a very clear thought/question. Can someone perhaps recommend a recent edition of an ornithology, or perhaps even better, a zoology textbook that covers modern systematics and phylogeny at an introductory level?

Click to expand...

The Speciation and Biogeography of Birds by Ian Newton would be my recommendation.

 

njlarsen

Gallery Moderator

Opus Editor

Supporter

• Jan 17, 2009

• #4

From my own bookshelf, I have two books that both are slightly more involved I think, but may be worthwhile for you:

Barry G Hall Phylogenetic trees made easy ISBN 978-0-87893-310-5
David P Mindell (ed) Avian Molecular Evolution and Systematics ISBN 0-12-498315-4

The second one is getting a little old, I think, and does assume you have some level of prior knowledge.

Niels

 

K

kschnei

Active member

• Jan 18, 2009

• #5

Thanks to both of you for these suggestions. Steve - does Ian Newton's book cover Nearctic birds as well?

 

F

fugl

Well-known member

• Jan 18, 2009

• #6

I'm currently reading "Speciation in Birds" by Travor Price (Roberts & Company, Colorado, 2008) which might be of interest to you though, as the title suggests, its focus is on processes of speciation not systematics in general.

 

S

StevePreddy

Well-known member

• Jan 18, 2009

• #7

kschnei said:

Thanks to both of you for these suggestions. Steve - does Ian Newton's book cover Nearctic birds as well?

Click to expand...

Yes, it does - it has sections on each of the world's faunal regions.

 

M

Murray Lord

Well-known member

• Jan 20, 2009

• #8

While I enjoyed Ian Newton's book, one of the main criticisms of it in reviews is that its treatment of systematics/phylogenetics was poor. See http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3793/is_200410/ai_n9452456
for one review. So while it is very interesting, perhaps it does not focus on what you are looking for. Speciation in Birds is better in that regard (though as noted above, it's not really focussed on that area).

Hope this helps,

Murray

 

K

kschnei

Active member

• Jan 22, 2009

• #9

Thanks to all for the great suggestions. I purchased Speciation in Birds for now and I'll see where that takes me...

Ken