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The Historia animalium (HA) of Aristotle contains an extraordinarily rich compilation of descriptions of animal anatomy, development, and behaviour. It is believed that Aristotle's aim in HA was to describe the correlations of characters rather than to classify or define animal groups. In order to assess if Aristotle, while organising his character correlations, referred to a pre-existing classification that underlies the descriptions in HA, we carried out a cladistic analysis according to the following procedure: by disentangeling 147 species and 40 higher taxa-designations from 157 predicates in the texts, we transcribed Aristotle's descriptions on anatomy and development of animals in books I-V of HA into a character matrix for a cladistic analysis. By analysing the distribution of characters as described in his books, we obtained a non-phylogenetic dendrogram displaying 58 monophyletic groups, 29 of which have equivalents among Aristotle's group designations. Eleven Aristotelian groupings turned out to be non-monophyletic, and six of them are inconsistent with the monophyletic groups. Twelve of 29 taxa without equivalents in Aristotle's works have equivalents in modern classifications. With this analysis we demonstate there exists a fairly consistent underlying classification in the zoological works of Aristotle. The peculiarities of Aristotle's character basis are discussed and the dendrogram is compared with a current phylogenetic tree.
History of Philosophy of the Life Sciences is an interdisciplinary journal committed to providing an integrative approach to understanding the life sciences. In specific terms, it welcomes submissions from biologists, historians, philosophers, and scholars in the social study of science that offer broad and interdisciplinary perspectives on the development of biology, especially as these perspectives illuminate both biology's scientific development and its larger role in society. Submissions which are collaborative and feature different disciplinary approaches are especially encouraged, as are submissions written by senior and junior scholars (including graduate students). HPLS also welcomes submissions featuring novel formats. While it is anticipated most submissions will represent recent scholarship, they may also include essays on contemporary issues or perspectives, results of unique workshops, and/or discussions featuring a wide-range of perspectives. Papers are published on the understanding that they have not been published before and are not concurrently under offer to any other journal. Authors will usually receive a decision on their articles within 3 months of receipt. The languages of the journal are English, French, German, and Italian; however, other languages can be considered. Book reviews are published only in English.
The Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn of Naples was established in 1872 by the German scientist Anton Dohrn. It is at present a public research organization controlled by the Ministero dell'Istruzione dell'Università e della Ricerca. The Stazione Zoologica is among the top research institutions in the world in the fields of marine biology and ecology. Initiated by its founder with the mission to promote basic research by hosting scientists that needed marine organisms for their studies, it is now based on the research carried out by its own staff. The present mission of the Stazione Zoologica is to conduct basic research in biology with a focus on marine organisms and their biodiversity, tightly linked with studies on biological evolution and marine ecosystem dynamics, using an integrated and interdisciplinary approach. The Stazione Zoologica also supports access to marine organisms for the international scientific community and provides high level training in its mission areas.
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History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
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