Society of Systematic Biologists

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.

Review	Review	Review	Review

Recent issues	Past issues

The minutes and reports are available here

Evolution 2009 is drawing close, and there are a few logistic updates. It will be possible to register to attend at any time, so walk-ins are fine. Meanwhile, if you plan to use conference bussing, on-campus housing, or to subscribe to a meal plan, please do so on or before May 24.

Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you all in Moscow!
Olle Pellmyr
Program chair, Evolution 2009

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.

T. Ryan Gregory has created Evolver Zone, a resource for students, teachers, and researchers with an interest in evolution. The site contains links to multimedia (including a a beginner’s guide to making a phylogenetic tree), software, databases, professional societies, journals, and books, and is supported by sales from it's EZ Store.

Evolution Meeting
Portland State University
Portland,Oregon
25-29 June, 2010.

The Society of Systematic Biologists invites proposals for symposia at the 2010 Evolution meeting to be held in Portland, Oregon, from 25-29 June 2010. The meeting will be held jointly with the American Society of Naturalists and the Society for the Study of Evolution, and our host is Portland State University.

Proposals should include (1) a descriptive title, (2) one or two paragraphs explaining the purpose of the symposium and its relevance to systematics, (3) a list of presentations including proposed speakers, their institutions or affiliations, and their presentation titles, (4) an indication of whether the speakers have been invited and whether they have agreed to participate, and (5) the proposed length of each talk. Symposia are restricted to half-day sessions. The society is particularly interested in symposia whose topics do not overlap with those from previous meetings (see SSB website for past symposia), that introduce new ideas or synthesize important concepts, or those that are particularly good examples of the analysis of empirical data. Proposals that unite systematics with other fields are also desirable. We encourage participation from young investigators and others typically under-represented in symposia.

Dear members of ASN, SSB and SSE,

We are pleased to announce that the Evolution Tri-Societies Mentoring Program is now up and running in collaboration with MentorNet! This free program is available to ALL members of ASN, SSB and SSE. MentorNet is an award-winning mentoring organization that matches mentors with compatible protégés for an eight-month pairing, which includes weekly or biweekly e-mail discussion prompts to foster supportive mentoring relationships.

SSB is now on Twitter @systbiol. The aim is to provide Twitter updates from this web page, and the latest journal articles. There are a few teething problems to sort out, but it should be functioning soon. Meantime, don't forget @evoldir on Twitter for updates on jobs, meetings, etc. in evolutionary biology.