Do Species Exist?: Principles of Taxonomic Classification

A readily comprehensible guide for biologists, field taxonomists and interested laymen to one of the oldest problems in biology: The Species Problem . Written by a geneticist with extensive experience in field taxonomy, this practical book provides the sound scientific and philosophical background to the problems arising with classifying organisms according to species. It covers the main current theories of speciation and gives a number of taxonomic examples that cannot be explained by any single theory alone

Foreword Preface Introduction Are species constructs of the human mind? Why is there a species problem? What are traits in taxonomy? Diversity within the species: polymorphisms and the polytypic species Biological species as a gene–flow community The cohesion of organisms through genealogical lineage (cladistics) Outlook Glossary

Currently a professor in Düsseldorf, Germany, Werner Kunz studied biology, chemistry, and physics in Münster and spent two postdoc years at Yale University in New Haven, U.S.A. Although he was educated as a zoologist, he switched to Drosophila genetics and worked on chromosomes and ribosomal DNA. He later changed his field of interest again, carrying out research into molecular parasitology, and for the past ten years has been participating in the teaching of philosophy of science. Professor Kunz continues the hobby he began at a very early age, photographing birds and butterflies as a field biologist all over the globe.

“This year’s version is an interesting hybrid that lays out the various concepts, but deals with them with the practicing biologist in mind, not the philosopher. For that, I applaud it.”  ( Teaching Biology , 20 December 2012) "Recommended for those with a technical or semi–technical interest in systematics." (Ian Paulsen, Birdbooker Report 244, Oct 2012)