Systematics is the study of biological diversity and its origins. It focuses on understanding evolutionary relationships among organisms, species, higher taxa, or other biological entities, such as genes, and the evolution of the properties of taxa including intrinsic traits, ecological interactions, and geographic distributions. An important part of systematics is the development of methods for various aspects of phylogenetic inference and biological nomenclature/classification.

The objective of the Society of Systematic Biologists is the advancement of the science of systematic biology in all its aspects of theory, principles, methodology, and practice, for both living and fossil organisms, with emphasis on areas of common interest to all systematic biologists regardless of individual specialization.

Books recently reviewed in Systematic Biology, or written by members of the Society.

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The Culicidae Systematic Laboratory at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, seeks a highly motivated and productive postdoctoral researcher to work on FAPESP Temático-funded research on historical demographics of Anopheles darlingi mosquito populations, divergence times, and rates of molecular evolution.

View articles in this issue online

Data sets and supplementary material for articles this issue can be downloaded here. Files are (typically) in NEXUS, Word, or HTML formats. Note that the authors may also have deposited their data in GenBank and TreeBASE, or have additional data on their own web sites.

View articles in this issue online

Data sets and supplementary material for articles this issue can be downloaded here. Files are (typically) in NEXUS, Word, or HTML formats. Note that the authors may also have deposited their data in GenBank and TreeBASE, or have additional data on their own web sites.

The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society have published an issue on animal evolution, based on a meeting organised by Tim Littlewood and Max Telford. Papers cover the origins and relationships of major groups of animals, our attempts to reconstruct the common ancestor of all animals and the evolution of key characteristics including segments and wings.

Subscribers to the journal can view the articles online. Hard copy can be purchased at a specially discounted price of £47.50 (instead of the normal £59.50) by contacting Portland Press (quoting reference TB 1496) or Debbie Vaughan at the Royal Society (debbie.vaughan@royalsociety.org).

The meeting will take place January 8-12, 2009 in Mérida, México. Invited symposia will feature talks on the biogeography of disease, patterns and processes in biotic interchanges, disjunct distributions in Asia and America, and the biogeography of species extinction. Attendees are invited to submit abstracts for oral and poster presentations. The conference will also include workshops, field excursions, and social events. Registration, contact, and additional information may be found at: http://www.biogeography.org.

Call for Proposals - NESCent Sabbatical Scholars, Working Groups and Catalysis Meetings

The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) is now accepting proposals for sabbatical scholars, working groups and catalysis meetings. Proposals for postdoctoral fellowships are accepted at the December 1 deadline only. Proposals for sabbatical scholars (one semester to a full year), working groups and catalysis meetings are accepted twice a year, with June 15 and December 1 deadlines. Proposals for short-term visitors (2 weeks to 3 months) are considered four times a year, with deadlines on January 1, April 1, July 1 and September 1. For more information, please see our website at https://www.nescent.org/science/proposals.php.

The Third Meeting of the International Society for Phylogenetic Nomenclature will be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, at Dalhousie University, from July 21 to July 23, 2008. This meeting is organized in close collaboration with the International Society of Protistologists (ISOP) and the International Society for Evolutionary Protistology, which are hosting the joint Protist 2008 meeting, at the same venue, from July 21 to July 26, 2008. For further information, meeting deadlines, and abstract submission please, visit https://protist2008.dal.ca/ or www.phylonames.org to download the circular.