Cryptic Species Morphological Stasis, Circumscription, and Hidden Diversity

About this book

Cryptic species are organisms that look identical, but which represent distinct evolutionary lineages. They are an emerging trend in organismal biology across all groups, from flatworms, insects, amphibians, primates, to vascular plants. This book critically evaluates the phenomenon of cryptic species and demonstrates how they can play a valuable role in improving our understanding of evolution, in particular of morphological stasis. It also explores how the recognition of cryptic species is intrinsically linked to the so-called 'species problem', the lack of a unifying species concept in biology, and suggests alternative approaches. Bringing together a range of perspectives from practising taxonomists, the book presents case studies of cryptic species across a range of animal and plant groups. It will be an invaluable text for all biologists interested in species and their delimitation, definition, and purpose, including undergraduate and graduate students and researchers.

Contents

List of Contributors
1. Introduction / Alexandre K. Monro
2. Cryptic species: A product of the paradigm difference between taxonomic and evolutionary species / Simon J. Mayo
3. Species circumscription in cryptic clades: A Nihilist's view / Richard M. Bateman
4. Multilevel organismal diversity in an ontogenetic framework as a solution for the species concept / Alexander Martynov and Tatiana Korshunova
5. Diagnosability and cryptic nodes in Angiosperms: A case study from Ipomoea / Pablo Muñoz-Rodríguez, John. R. I. Wood and Robert W. Scotland
6. Connecting micro- and macro-evolutionary research – extant cryptic species as systems to understand macro-evolutionary stasis / Torsten H. Struck and José Cerca
7. Coexisting cryptic species as a model system in integrative taxonomy / Cene Fišer and Klemen Koselj
8. Non-monophyletic species are common in plants: An ecological evolutionary perspective / Matt Lavin and R. Toby Pennington
9. Guerrilla taxonomy and discriminating cryptic species – is quick also dirty? / Paul H. Williams
10. Cryptic lineages among Seychelles herpetofauna / Jim Labisko, Simon T. Maddock, Sara Rocha, David J. Gower
11. Cryptic diversity in European terrestrial flatworms of the genus Microplana (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, Geoplanidae) / Marta Álvarez-Presas, Eduardo Mateos, Ronald Sluys and Marta Riutort

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Biography

Alexandre K. Monro is a Research Leader at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, UK. He is a taxonomist who has specialised in nettles and the generation of biological collections and their application to taxonomy and conservation. He has co-authored five field guides, over 90 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and made more than 16,000 biological collections. He is a council member of the Systematics Association.

Simon J. Mayo is an Honorary Research Associate at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, UK. He is a taxonomist specializing in aroids and Brazilian flora. He has authored 112 peer-reviewed papers, 24 flora accounts and seven books on Araceae, Brazilian flora, monocot evolution, and computational botany. His current focus is on algorithmic delimitation and the cognitive basis of taxonomic species.


Contributors:
- Alexandre K. Monro
- Simon J. Mayo
- Richard M. Bateman
- Alexander Martynov
- Tatiana Korshunova
- Pablo Muñoz-Rodríguez
- John. R. I. Wood
- Robert W. Scotland
- Torsten H. Struck
- José Cerca
- Cene Fišer
- Klemen Koselj
- Matt Lavin
- R. Toby Pennington
- Paul H. Williams
- Jim Labisko
- Simon T. Maddock
- Sara Rocha
- David J. Gower
- Marta Álvarez-Presas
- Eduardo Mateos
- Ronald Sluys
- Marta Riutort