Download or read book Macroevolutionary Dynamics written by Niles Eldredge and published by McGraw-Hill Companies. This book was released on 1989 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Macroevolutionary Dynamics written by Niles Eldredge and published by McGraw-Hill Companies. This book was released on 1989 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mesozoic Birds written by Luis M. Chiappe and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2002-12-05 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Mesozoic Birds is the first book to bring together world-renowned specialists on fossil birds and their importance to avian origins and, more importantly, it stresses a unified approach (cladistics) and presents the most anatomically detailed analyses available to date. No other study or collection of studies has ever done so much. How could the project not be welcomed by its audience of paleontologists, ornithologists, and evolutionary biologists!"—David Weishampel, editor of The Dinosauria "This is the first comprehensive volume dedicated to the relationships and evolution of the birds that lived during the Age of Dinosaurs. Its wealth of information and its diversity of viewpoints will ensure that this indispensable volume is used and discussed for many years to come."—Kevin Padian, University of California, Berkeley
Download or read book Macroevolution written by Emanuele Serrelli and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-02-13 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is divided in two parts, the first of which shows how, beyond paleontology and systematics, macroevolutionary theories apply key insights from ecology and biogeography, developmental biology, biophysics, molecular phylogenetics and even the sociocultural sciences to explain evolution in deep time. In the second part, the phenomenon of macroevolution is examined with the help of real life-history case studies on the evolution of eukaryotic sex, the formation of anatomical form and body-plans, extinction and speciation events of marine invertebrates, hominin evolution and species conservation ethics. The book brings together leading experts, who explain pivotal concepts such as Punctuated Equilibria, Stasis, Developmental Constraints, Adaptive Radiations, Habitat Tracking, Turnovers, (Mass) Extinctions, Species Sorting, Major Transitions, Trends and Hierarchies – key premises that allow macroevolutionary epistemic frameworks to transcend microevolutionary theories that focus on genetic variation, selection, migration and fitness. Along the way, the contributing authors review ongoing debates and current scientific challenges; detail new and fascinating scientific tools and techniques that allow us to cross the classic borders between disciplines; demonstrate how their theories make it possible to extend the Modern Synthesis; present guidelines on how the macroevolutionary field could be further developed; and provide a rich view of just how it was that life evolved across time and space. In short, this book is a must-read for active scholars and because the technical aspects are fully explained, it is also accessible for non-specialists. Understanding evolution requires a solid grasp of above-population phenomena. Species are real biological individuals and abiotic factors impact the future course of evolution. Beyond observation, when the explanation of macroevolution is the goal, we need both evidence and theory that enable us to explain and interpret how life evolves at the grand scale.
Download or read book Understanding Complex Ecosystem Dynamics written by William S. Yackinous and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2015-06-03 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding Complex Ecosystem Dynamics: A Systems and Engineering Perspective takes a fresh, interdisciplinary perspective on complex system dynamics, beginning with a discussion of relevant systems and engineering skills and practices, including an explanation of the systems approach and its major elements. From this perspective, the author formulates an ecosystem dynamics functionality-based framework to guide ecological investigations. Next, because complex system theory (across many subject matter areas) is crucial to the work of this book, relevant network theory, nonlinear dynamics theory, cellular automata theory, and roughness (fractal) theory is covered in some detail. This material serves as an important resource as the book proceeds. In the context of all of the foregoing discussion and investigation, a view of the characteristics of ecological network dynamics is constructed. This view, in turn, is the basis for the central hypothesis of the book, i.e., ecological networks are ever-changing networks with propagation dynamics that are punctuated, local-to-global, and perhaps most importantly fractal. To analyze and fully test this hypothesis, an innovative ecological network dynamics model is defined, designed, and developed. The modeling approach, which seeks to emulate features of real-world ecological networks, does not make a priori assumptions about ecological network dynamics, but rather lets the dynamics develop as the model simulation runs. Model analysis results corroborate the central hypothesis. Additional important insights and principles are suggested by the model analysis results and by the other supporting investigations of this book – and can serve as a basis for going-forward complex system dynamics research, not only for ecological systems but for complex systems in general. Provides a fresh interdisciplinary perspective, offers a broad integrated development, and contains many new ideas Clearly explains the elements of the systems approach and applies them throughout the book Takes on the challenging and open issues of complex system network dynamics Develops and utilizes a new, innovative ecosystem dynamics modeling approach Contains over 135 graphic illustrations to help the reader visualize and understand important concepts
Download or read book Macroevolutionary Dynamics Describing the Tree of Life written by Oskar Hagen and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Macro Innovation Dynamics and the Golden Age written by Paul J. J. Welfens and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-02-16 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book takes a new look at the golden age in neoclassical growth theory and explores in detail sustainability and optimum growth in China, the US and Europe. Innovation, foreign direct investment, trade and growth dynamics are key elements in modern economies – including perspectives on green growth and aspects of the knowledge production function in the context of multinational companies. As such the book considers the role of foreign direct investment in a modified growth model and discusses innovation in an enhanced Mundell-Fleming macro model. Moreover, for the first time it directly links a knowledge production function to the macro production function in a broader context, including real money balances in the production function. It shows – also with empirical relevance – that FDI inward stocks relative to the GDP of host countries, the number of researchers and per capita income are relevant drivers of new knowledge and the stock of knowledge, respectively. This new Schumpeterian theoretical approach lends itself to important policy conclusions for both OECD members and newly industrialized countries.
Download or read book Macroevolutionary Consequences of Trophic Specialization written by Samuel Robert Borstein and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the central issues limiting progress towards a generalized theory of biological organization involves integrating the interplay of current ecological conditions with long-term macroevolutionary dynamics. Trophic ecology has long been known to be a strong force in shaping biological diversity for all organisms, with its central tenet being the procurement of resources for survival. Though trophic ecology is well known to effect evolutionary trajectories, few studies have explicitly tested hypotheses related to the effects of diet on macroevolutionary patterns at deep phylogenetic scales. Here, I investigate the interaction between trophic ecology and macroevolution using acanthomorph fishes as a model.My first two chapters introduce R packages that were used to conduct the research in chapters three and four. In my first chapter I introduce a new R, AnnotationBustR, which extracts sequences from GenBank annotations. The second chapter highlights dietr, an R package that calculates fractional trophic levels from quantitative and qualitative diet data. Chapter three investigates the effect of trophic level and diet breadth in promoting or constraining phenotypic evolution and functional diversity in coral reef acanthomorphs. My final chapter test the macroevolutionary consequences of an evolutionary innovation related to trophic resource use, pharyngognathy, testing if it does in fact increase diversification rates and promote trophic evolution as previously hypothesized. Overall, my dissertation highlights how trophic specialists may not be constrained in their morphology and the importance of adequately testing proposed evolutionary innovations using phylogenetic comparative methods.
Download or read book Evolution s Wedge written by David Pfennig and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-10-25 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolutionary biology has long sought to explain how new traits and new species arise. Darwin maintained that competition is key to understanding this biodiversity and held that selection acting to minimize competition causes competitors to become increasingly different, thereby promoting new traits and new species. Despite Darwin’s emphasis, competition’s role in diversification remains controversial and largely underappreciated. In their synthetic and provocative book, evolutionary ecologists David and Karin Pfennig explore competition's role in generating and maintaining biodiversity. The authors discuss how selection can lessen resource competition or costly reproductive interactions by promoting trait evolution through a process known as character displacement. They further describe character displacement’s underlying genetic and developmental mechanisms. The authors then consider character displacement’s myriad downstream effects, ranging from shaping ecological communities to promoting new traits and new species and even fueling large-scale evolutionary trends. Drawing on numerous studies from natural populations, and written for a broad audience, Evolution’s Wedge seeks to inspire future research into character displacement’s many implications for ecology and evolution.
Download or read book Macroevolutionary Theory on Macroecological Patterns written by Peter W. Price and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Table of contents
Download or read book Macroevolution written by Steven M. Stanley and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Not only is a wealth of evidence presented to support the model of punctuated equilibria, but Stanley's stream of refreshing insights into classic topics of evolution, such as living fossils, mass extinctions and adaptive radiations add further weight to the validity of the general model".--GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. "Overall, Stanley offers an imaginative treatment of almost every issue in macroevolution".--AMERICAN SCIENTIST. 192 illustrations.
Download or read book Patch Dynamics written by Simon A. Levin and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the preface by Joel E. Cohen: "A century from now humanity will live in a managed - or mismanaged - global garden. We are debating the need to preserve tropical forests. Farming of the sea is providing an increasing part of our fish supply. We are beginning to control atmospheric emissions. In 100 years, we shall use novel farming practices and genetic engineering of bacteria to manipulate the methane production of rice fields. The continental shelf will be providing food, energy, possibly even living space. To make such intensive management possible will require massive improvements in data collection and analysis, and especially in our concepts. A century hence we will live on a wired earth: the oceans and the crust of the earth will receive the same comprehensive monitoring now devoted to weather. As the peoples of currently developing countries increase their levels of wealth, the need for global management will become irresistible as impatience with the accidents of nature and intolerance of mismanagement of the environment - especially of living resources - grow. Our control of physical perturbations and chemical inputs to the environment will be judged by the consequences to living organisms and biological communities. How can we obtain the factual and theoretical foundation needed to move from our present, fragmented knowledge and limited abilities to a managed, global garden?" This problem was addressed in the lectures and workshops of a summer school on patch dynamics at Cornell University. The school emphasized the analysis and interpretation of spatial patterns in terrestrial and marine environments. This book contains the course material of this school, combining general reviews with specific applications.
Download or read book Evolutionary Dynamics written by James Patrick Crutchfield and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2003 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 14 chapters of this volume, which present an overview of new research in evolutionary dynamics, were first presented at a conference held in October 1998 at the Santa Fe Institute. The main divisions of the book are macroevolution; epochal evolution; population genetics, dynamics, and optimization; and evolution of cooperation. Individual topics include spectral landscape theory, external triggers in biological evolution, and evolutionary dynamics of asexual reproduction. Several of the contributors, like the editors, are affiliated with the Sante Fe Institute; others teach or work in physics, genetics, biology, computational neuroscience, and theoretical chemistry at universities and private institutions in the US, UK, Austria, Sweden, Australia, Israel, and Germany. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book The Macroecological Perspective written by José Alexandre Felizola Diniz-Filho and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-12-29 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive volume discusses the patterns and processes analyzed in macroecology with a distinct look at the theoretical and methodological issues underlying the discipline as well as deeper epistemological matters. The book serves as a synthesis of macroecological literature that has been published since Brown and Maurer proposed and defined the term “macroecology” in 1989. Author José Alexandre Felizola Diniz-Filho draws from the different disciplines and branches (ecology, evolutionary biology, physiology, behavioral sciences, climatology, and paleontology) that make up macroecology to present a full, holistic picture of where the discipline stands. Through ten chapters, Diniz-Filho moves from a discussion of what macroecology actually is to macroecological modeling to the more applied side of the discipline, covering topics such as richness and diversity patterns and patterns in body size. The book concludes with a synthesis of how macroecological research is done in a theoretical and operational sense as well as unifying explanations for each of the macroecological patterns discussed, moving on to evaluate which theories and models are still useful and which ones can be abandoned. The book is intended for academics, young researchers and students interested in macroecology and conservation biogeography. In addition, because of the integrative nature of macroecology and the theoretical and methodological background in the book, it can be of interest to researchers working in related fields including but not limited to ecology and evolutionary biology.
Download or read book Eco Evolutionary Dynamics written by and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2014-08-12 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The theme of this volume is to discuss Eco-evolutionary Dynamics. - Updates and informs the reader on the latest research findings - Written by leading experts in the field - Highlights areas for future investigation
Download or read book The Codes of Life written by Marcello Barbieri and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-10-26 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Building on a range of disciplines – from biology and anthropology to philosophy and linguistics – this book draws on the expertise of leading names in the study of organic, mental and cultural codes brought together by the emerging discipline of biosemiotics. The volume represents the first multi-authored attempt to deal with the range of codes relevant to life, and to reveal the ubiquitous role of coding mechanisms in both organic and mental evolution.
Download or read book Artificial Life VII written by Mark A. Bedau and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2000-08-01 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term "artificial life" describes research into synthetic systems that possess some of the essential properties of life. This interdisciplinary field includes biologists, computer scientists, physicists, chemists, geneticists, and others. Artificial life may be viewed as an attempt to understand high-level behavior from low-level rules—for example, how the simple interactions between ants and their environment lead to complex trail-following behavior. An understanding of such relationships in particular systems can suggest novel solutions to complex real-world problems such as disease prevention, stock-market prediction, and data mining on the Internet. Since their inception in 1987, the Artificial Life meetings have grown from small workshops to truly international conferences, reflecting the field's increasing appeal to researchers in all areas of science.
