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Adaptive Aspects Of Insular Evolution
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Book Synopsis Adaptive Aspects of Insular Evolution by : William L. Stern
Download or read book Adaptive Aspects of Insular Evolution written by William L. Stern and published by . This book was released on 1971 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Adaptive Aspects of Insular Evolution by : William Louis Stern
Download or read book Adaptive Aspects of Insular Evolution written by William Louis Stern and published by . This book was released on 1971 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Evolution of Island Mammals by : Alexandra van der Geer
Download or read book Evolution of Island Mammals written by Alexandra van der Geer and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-02-14 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolution on islands differs in a number of important ways from evolution on mainland areas. Over millions of years of isolation, exceptional and sometimes bizarre mammals evolved on islands, such as pig-sized elephants and hippos, giant rats and gorilla-sized lemurs that would have been formidable to their mainland ancestors. This timely and innovative book is the first to offer a much-needed synthesis of recent advances in the exciting field of the evolution and extinction of fossil insular placental mammals. It provides a comprehensive overview of current knowledge on fossil island mammals worldwide, ranging from the Oligocene to the onset of the Holocene. The book addresses evolutionary processes and key aspects of insular mammal biology, exemplified by a variety of fossil species. The authors discuss the human factor in past extinction events and loss of insular biodiversity. This accessible and richly illustrated textbook is written for graduate level students and professional researchers in evolutionary biology, palaeontology, biogeography, zoology, and ecology.
Book Synopsis Evolutionary Ecology of Freshwater Animals by : B. Streit
Download or read book Evolutionary Ecology of Freshwater Animals written by B. Streit and published by Birkhäuser. This book was released on 2013-03-11 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolutionary ecology includes aspects of community structure, trophic interactions, life-history tactics, and reproductive modes, analyzed from an evolutionary perspective. Freshwater environments often impose spatial structure on populations, e.g. within large lakes or among habitat patches, facilitating genetic and phenotypic divergence. Traditionally, freshwater systems have featured prominently in ecological research and population biology. This book brings together information on diverse freshwater taxa, with a mix of critical review, synthesis, and case studies. Using examples from bryozoans, rotifers, cladocerans, molluscs, teleosts and others, the authors cover current conceptual issues of evolutionary ecology in considerable depth. The book can serve as a source of critically evaluated ideas, detailed case studies, and open problems in the field of evolutionary ecology. It is recommended for students and researchers in ecology, limnology, population biology, and evolutionary biology.
Book Synopsis Major Patterns in Vertebrate Evolution by : Max Hecht
Download or read book Major Patterns in Vertebrate Evolution written by Max Hecht and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 901 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is the result of a NATO Advanced Study Institute held in England at Kingswood Hall of Residence, Royal Holloway College (London University), Surrey, during the last two weeks of July, 1976. The ASI was organized within the guide lines laid down by the Scientific Affairs Division of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. During the past two decades, significant advances have been made in our understanding of vertebrate evolution. The purpose of the Institute was to present the current status of our know ledge of vertebrate evolution above the species level. Since the subject matter was obviously too broad to be covered adequately in the limited time available, selected topics, problems, and areas which are applicable to vertebrate zoology as a whole were reviewed. The program was divided into three areas: (1) the theory and methodology of phyletic inference and approaches to the an alysis of macroevolutionary trends as applied to vertebrates; (2) the application of these methodological principles and an alytical processes to different groups and structures, particular ly in anatomy and paleontology; (3) the application of these re sults to classification. The basic principles considered in the first area were outlined in lectures covering the problems of character analysis, functional morphology, karyological evidence, biochemical evidence, morphogenesis, and biogeography.
Download or read book Avian Biology written by Donald S. Farner and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2013-09-17 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Avian Biology, Volume V is a collection of papers that deals with the biology of birds concerning their mechanics of flight and migration. The first paper describes the mechanics of bird flights such as gliding, soaring, and the energy requirements of this activity. Other papers investigate the control and metabolic physiology of migration, including flight restlessness and fat metabolism. Other topics cover migratory orientation research involving topographical, meteorological, inertial, magnetic, and celestial cues. Upon migration to different environments, birds have to adapt as their circadian and circannual rhythms are affected. One paper discusses the works of Wynne-Edwards, Aschoff and Wever, and Leopold and Eynon regarding their observations of bird migration cues. One author describes the vocal behavior in birds, including the dual sound theory where two sound sources can occur in each bronchus. Of interest to many in this paper is the description of the different stages in song development. Other papers discuss the incubation behavior of birds as well as the energetics involved. This book is suitable for zoologists, bird enthusiasts, and avian biologists.
Book Synopsis The Beak of the Finch by : Jonathan Weiner
Download or read book The Beak of the Finch written by Jonathan Weiner and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • A dramatic story of groundbreaking scientific research of Darwin's discovery of evolution that "spark[s] not just the intellect, but the imagination" (Washington Post Book World). “Admirable and much-needed.... Weiner’s triumph is to reveal how evolution and science work, and to let them speak clearly for themselves.”—The New York Times Book Review On a desert island in the heart of the Galapagos archipelago, where Darwin received his first inklings of the theory of evolution, two scientists, Peter and Rosemary Grant, have spent twenty years proving that Darwin did not know the strength of his own theory. For among the finches of Daphne Major, natural selection is neither rare nor slow: it is taking place by the hour, and we can watch. In this remarkable story, Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself. The Beak of the Finch is an elegantly written and compelling masterpiece of theory and explication in the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould.
Book Synopsis Evolution of Insect Migration and Diapause by : H. Dingle
Download or read book Evolution of Insect Migration and Diapause written by H. Dingle and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is an outgrowth of a Symposium entitled "Evolution of Escape in Space and Time" held at the XV International Congress of Entomology in Washington, D. C., USA in August, 1976. The choice of topic was prompted by recent advances in evolutionary ecology and the apparent suitability of insect migration and dia pause as appropriate material for evolutionary studies. In the event, that choice seems amply justified as I hope a perusal of these papers will show. These Sympos ium papers hardly cover the topic of the evolution of escape mechanisms exhaustively, and I am sure everyone will have his favorite lacuna. Some of the more obvious ones are indicated by Professor Southwood in his Concluding Remarks at the end of the book. The purpose of the Symposium, however, was not complete coverage, but rather to indicate the potential inherent in insect migration and diapause for the study of evolutionary problems. In that I think we have succeeded reasonably well. These papers are expanded and in some cases somewhat altered versions of the papers delivered in Washington. This has allowed greater coverage of the topics in question. I suggested a format of a general overview of a topic emphasizing the author's own research con tributions. In general the papers follow this outline although emphases vary. Two of the authors, Dr. Rainey and Dr. Lumme, were unable to attend the Symposium. Dr. Rainey's paper was read by Mr. Frank Walsh, but Dr.
Book Synopsis Biogeography and Ecology of New Guinea by : J.L. Gressit
Download or read book Biogeography and Ecology of New Guinea written by J.L. Gressit and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 962 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: J. L. Gressitt New Guinea is a fantastic island, unique and fascinating. It is an area of incredible variety of geomorphology, biota, peoples, languages, history, tradi tions and cultures. Diversity is its prime characteristic, whatever the subject of interest. To a biogeographer it is tantalizing, as well as confusing or frustrating when trying to determine the history of its biota. To an ecologist, and to all biologists, it is a happy hunting ground of endless surprises and unanswered questions. To a conservationist it is like a dream come true, a "flash-back" of a few centuries, as well as a challenge for the future. New Guinea is so special that it is hard to compare it with other islands or tropical areas. It is something apart, with its very complicated history (chapters I: 2-4, II: 1-4, III: I, VI: I, 2). It is partly old but to a great extent very young, yet extremely rich and complex. It has biota of different sources - to such a degree that it is still disputed in this volume as to what Realm it belongs to: the Paleotropical or Notogaean (Australian); or what Region: Oriental, "Oceanic," Papuan or Australian. The terms Papuasian, Indo-Australian and Australasian also have been applied to the area.
Download or read book Island Ecology written by M. Gorman and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The islands of the Pacific and East Indies made an enormous and fateful impact on the minds of Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace, the fathers of modem evolutionary theory. Since then island floras and faunas have continued to playa central role in the development of evolutionary, and more recently ecological thought. For much ofthis century island ecology was a descriptive science and a wealth of information has been amassed on patterns of species distributions, on the composition of island floras and faunas, on the classification of islands into types such as oceanic and continental, on the taxonomic description of insular species and sub-species and on the adaptations, often bizarre, of island creatures. However, biologists are not satisfied for long with the mere collection of data and the description of patterns, but seek unifying theories. Island ecology was transformed into a predictive science by the publication, in 1967, of MacArthur and Wilson's Theory of Island Biogeography. This, perhaps the most influential book written on island ecology, has been the stimulus for a generation of theoretical ecologists and gifted field workers. The books listed below in the bibliography will indicate to the reader the vast scope of island ecology and the changes in approach that have taken place over the years.
Book Synopsis Foundations of Tropical Forest Biology by : Robin L. Chazdon
Download or read book Foundations of Tropical Forest Biology written by Robin L. Chazdon and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2002-02 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a timely collection of pioneering work in the study of these diverse and fascinating ecosystems. It consists of facsimiles of papers chosen by world experts in tropical biology as the 'classics' in the field.
Download or read book Technical Bulletin written by and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 690 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book American Tropics written by Megan Raby and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biodiversity has been a key concept in international conservation since the 1980s, yet historians have paid little attention to its origins. Uncovering its roots in tropical fieldwork and the southward expansion of U.S. empire at the turn of the twentieth century, Megan Raby details how ecologists took advantage of growing U.S. landholdings in the circum-Caribbean by establishing permanent field stations for long-term, basic tropical research. From these outposts of U.S. science, a growing community of American "tropical biologists" developed both the key scientific concepts and the values embedded in the modern discourse of biodiversity. Considering U.S. biological fieldwork from the era of the Spanish-American War through the anticolonial movements of the 1960s and 1970s, this study combines the history of science, environmental history, and the history of U.S.–Caribbean and Latin American relations. In doing so, Raby sheds new light on the origins of contemporary scientific and environmentalist thought and brings to the forefront a surprisingly neglected history of twentieth-century U.S. science and empire.
Book Synopsis The Life of David Lack by : Ted Anderson
Download or read book The Life of David Lack written by Ted Anderson and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first biography of David Lack, the father of evolutionary ecology and an acclaimed ornithologist
Book Synopsis Patterns of Adaptive Radiation in Insular Reptiles and Amphibians by : Daniel Patrick Scantlebury
Download or read book Patterns of Adaptive Radiation in Insular Reptiles and Amphibians written by Daniel Patrick Scantlebury and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Life on Earth may be characterized by many patterns. The species that surround us are not only numerous, they are often phenotypically and ecologically diverse. The fossil records shows that these species and their phenotypic diversity arose heterogeneously throughout history, and further inspection demonstrates species and phenotypes are nonrandomly distributed across the globe and environments. Ecology and evolutionary biology attempt to explain how these patterns emerge by identifying underlying processes. For instance, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace recognized that there were similarities between the species inhabiting adjacent regions and proposed that organic evolution (common descent and modification) can explain these similarities as an alternative to special creation. My research explores three patterns that emerge from the examination of life, and how a single evolutionary process is capable of generating these patterns. That process is adaptive radiation. Adaptive radiation occurs as a response to ecological opportunity in a diversifying lineage. It is an interaction between speciation and adaptation that results in ecologically distinctive new species. If the ecological opportunities available to a diversifying lineage are limited, then rates of speciation and adaptation might decline during the course of adaptive radiation, potentially contributing to differential rates of diversification seen in both the fossil record and molecular phylogenies. Furthermore, if adaptive radiation produces the ecological diversity necessary for species to survive in a variety of climates and habitats, then it might also explain how and why species distribute themselves across landscapes. Although adaptive radiation has the potential to explain much about the diversity of life, current studies are limited to a few iconic clades making it difficult to identify the general elements of adaptive radiation because of vast historical contingencies. This thesis is a comparative effort that explores how adaptive radiation contributes to patterns of (1) species richness and ecological diversity, (2) macroevolutionary diversification rates, and (3) biogeography, by examining clades that radiated in similar regions, habitats, and times. In chapter 1 I focus on the pattern of species richness and phenotypic diversity: why are there groups of related species that differ phenotypically? In particular, I examine a group of predominately Caribbean geckos (Sphaerodactylus) and address whether or not the variation seen in the shape of their skulls has an adaptive origin. Sphaerodactylus geckos are remarkable because they are co-distributed with the wellstudied adaptive radiation of Anolis lizards and potentially provide an important system to evaluate the generalities of conclusions made from Anolis. I show that adaptive radiation probably contributed to variation seen in the shape of their skulls. I also suggest that Sphaerodactylus and Anolis both possess ecologically distinct habitat specialists. These findings show that Sphaerodactylus is an excellent clade to study adaptive radiation by revealing that adaptive radiation may be simultaneous in codistributed clades and ecological diversity may accrue via different pathways. Next, I focus on macroevolutionary patterns of diversification rates through time. Adaptive radiation is hypothesized to result in declining rates of speciation through time if ecological opportunities are limited. As adaptive radiation produces new species, ecological opportunities diminish and the rate at which new species form also declines. Many studies have recovered the signature of declining diversification rates in clades distributed around the world and with different diversification histories, though they do not explicitly prove that adaptive radiation produced these patterns. To date, no study has explored how diversification proceeds in clades that radiated in the same region and habitats during overlapping periods of history. In chapter 2, I use time-scaled phylogenies from seven reptile and amphibian clades from the island of Madagascar to compare diversification dynamics in groups that radiated in same region and through overlapping periods of history. Madagascar is an outstanding region to examine diversification dynamics because it has been isolated and geographically cohesive for the majority of its history, and its many endemic clades provide replication. Given its stability and isolation throughout history, processes general to diversification on Madagascar might be general to the diversification of life elsewhere, demonstrating what happens in the absence of paleogeography or other historical contingencies. I show that diversification rates have declined during the history of the seven clades, and that these declines are probably related to ecological limits to diversity. Although I cannot conclude that adaptive radiation produced these patterns, I note that there are ancillary observations to suggest it played a role. Regardless, these results suggest diversification declines are a general phenomenon on Madagascar and demonstrate the island is an excellent region for further investigation of this macroevolutionary pattern. In chapter 3, I explore how adaptive radiation might underlie regional biogeographic patterns and community assembly. Community assembly is the process by which species come to co-occur locally. Like others, I show that community assembly may be viewed as picking species from sets of regionally distributed species called regional species pools, and indicate that adaptive radiation makes an important prediction regarding the identity of these species pools and their geographic distribution. Several recent studies have indicated that adaptive radiation is multidimensional, with adaptation and ecological diversification occurring along multiple ecological dimensions. If one dimension confers adaptation to regionally variable environmental conditions, then we can predict that regional species pools will correspond to these environmental gradients, and local communities will be assembled from varying combinations of these species pools. I demonstrate that assembly may be modeled with a hidden Markov model. With this model, I use species distributions and community composition data to estimate the minimum number of regional species pools necessary to explain the patterns of co-occurrence in Hispaniolan Anolis lizards that have been documented through over a century of herpetological research. Consistent with my predictions, I find that the regional species pools correspond to a mesic-xeric habitat gradient and that this pattern is replicated across a paleogeographic boundary"--Pages ix-xii.
Book Synopsis The Song Of The Dodo by : David Quammen
Download or read book The Song Of The Dodo written by David Quammen and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-03-31 with total page 706 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why have island ecosystems always suffered such high rates of extinction? In our age, with all the world's landscapes, from Tasmania to the Amazon to Yellowstone, now being carved into island-like fragments by human activity, the implications of this question are more urgent than ever. Over the past eight years, David Quammen has followed the threads of island biogeography on a globe-encircling journey of discovery.
Book Synopsis Quaternary and Environmental Research on East African Mountains by : W.H. Mahaney
Download or read book Quaternary and Environmental Research on East African Mountains written by W.H. Mahaney and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2021-05-31 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twenty-six papers form a summary of research on glacial history, paleoclimatology, biogeography, ecosystem disequilibrium. Focus is on detailed chrono-stratigraphic, glacial geologic, and vertebrate paleontologic problems.