[Taxacom] Hedges /Kumar (eds) The Timetree of Life

[Tony.Rees at csiro.au]

Dear Taxacomers,

Those with an interest in phylogeny, molecular clocks, and family-level systematics who are not already aware of this may find it of interest (only a couple of years late for this notification...):

The TimeTree of Life
S. Blair Hedges and Sudhir Kumar (Editors)
with Foreword by James D. Watson
Oxford University Press, New York.
xxi + 551 pages
(c)2009 S. Blair Hedges & Sudhir Kumar

One aspect which is highly commendable is that all of the text is also available online, free for personal, research, or educational use:

http://www.timetree.org/book.php

Another is a poster of phylogeny to the level of family for many groups, probably only readable when enlarged to wall size:

http://www.timetree.org/poster/timetree24x32.pdf

(smaller versions also available, refer page cited above).

All in all a very impressive treatment for many extant groups, and although no group gets more than a few pages the intention is to treat many to family level.

Hoping this may be of interest to some on the list (it does not appear to have been mentioned previously).

Regards - Tony

Tony Rees
Manager, Divisional Data Centre,
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research,
GPO Box 1538,
Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia
Ph: 0362 325318 (Int: +61 362 325318)
Fax: 0362 325000 (Int: +61 362 325000)
e-mail: Tony.Rees at csiro.au
Manager, OBIS Australia regional node, http://www.obis.org.au/
Biodiversity informatics research activities: http://www.cmar.csiro.au/datacentre/biodiversity.htm
Personal info: http://www.fishbase.org/collaborators/collaboratorsummary.cfm?id=1566