| Popis: |
It is well known that at the present time the Hexapoda comprise the majority of the arthropods, and indeed of all living organisms. The really species-rich hexapod lineages, however, are all cladistically very subordinate. Therefore, while an elucidation of the groundplan and basal diversification of the Hexapoda would be of great interest in its own right, the nested sets of apomorphies thereby disclosed would not suffice to explain ‘why there are so many different kinds of insects’. The full answer to that question will require explanation of the selective advantages of apomorphies originating in many later splitting events in insect evolution. |
