Evolution of Parasitism - A Phylogenetic Perspective

Parasitology continues to benefit from taking an evolutionary approach to its study. Tree construction, character-mapping, tree-based evolutionary interpretation, and other developments in molecular and morphological phylogenetics have had a profound influence and have shed new light on the very nature of host-parasite relations and their coevolution. Life cycle complexity, parasite ecology and the origins and evolution of parasitism itself are all underpinned by an understanding of phylogeny. The Evolution of Parasitism - A Phylogenetic Perspective aims to bring together a range of articles that exemplifies the phylogenetic approach as applied to various disciplines within parasitology and as applied by parasitologists. Unified by the use of phylogenies, this book tackles a wide variety of parasite-specific biological problems across a diverse range of taxa.