Download or read book The Inner Bird written by Gary W. Kaiser and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Birds are among the most successful vertebrates on Earth. An important part of our natural environment and deeply embedded in our culture, birds are studied by more professional ornithologists and enjoyed by more amateur enthusiasts than ever before. However, both amateurs and professionals typically focus on birds' behaviour and appearance and only superficially understand the characteristics that make birds so unique. The Inner Bird introduces readers to the avian skeleton, then moves beyond anatomy to discuss the relationships between birds and dinosaurs and other early ancestors. Gary Kaiser examines the challenges scientists face in understanding avian evolution - even recent advances in biomolecular genetics have failed to provide a clear evolutionary story. Using examples from recently discovered fossils of birds and near-birds, Kaiser describes an avian history based on the gradual abandonment of dinosaur-like characteristics, and the related acquisition of avian characteristics such as sophisticated flight techniques and the production of large eggs. Such developments have enabled modern birds to invade the oceans and to exploit habitats that excluded dinosaurs for millions of years. While ornithology is a complex discipline that draws on many fields, it is nevertheless burdened with obsolete assumptions and archaic terminology. The Inner Bird offers modern interpretations for some of those ideas and links them to more current research. It should help anyone interested in birds to bridge the gap between long-dead fossils and the challenges faced by living species.

Download or read book Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation written by Otto Lilienthal and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Practical Lessons in Agriculture written by Lester Sylvan Ivins and published by . This book was released on 1915 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Plumes from Paradise written by Pamela Swadling and published by Sydney University Press. This book was released on 2019 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The natural resources of New Guinea and nearby islands have attracted outsiders for at least 5000 years: spices, aromatic woods and barks, resins, plumes, sea slugs, shells and pearls all brought traders from distant markets. Among the most sought-after was the bird of paradise. Their magnificent plumes bedecked the hats of fashion-conscious women in Europe and America, provided regalia for the Kings of Nepal, and decorated the headdresses of Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire. Plumes from Paradise tells the story of this interaction, and of the economic, political, social and cultural consequence for the island's inhabitants. It traces 400 years of economic and political history, culminating in the 'plume boom' of the early part of the 20th century, when an unprecedented number of outsiders flocked to the island's coasts and hinterlands. The story teems with the variety of people involved: New Guineans, Indonesians, Chinese, Europeans, hunters, traders, natural historians and their collectors, officials, missionaries, planters, miners, adventurers of every kind. In the wings were the conservationists, whose efforts brought the slaughter of the plume boom to an end and ushered in an era of comparative isolation for the island that lasted until World War II.

Download or read book Callings written by Gregg Michael Levoy and published by Harmony. This book was released on 1998-09-08 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do we know if we're following our true callings? How do we sharpen our senses to cut through the distractions of everyday reality and hear the calls that are beckoning us? is the first book to examine the many kinds of calls we receive and the great variety of channels through which they come to us. A calling may be to do something (change careers, go back to school, have a child) or to be something (more creative, less judgmental, more loving). While honoring a calling's essential mystery, this book also guides readers to ask and answer the fundamental questions that arise from any calling: How do we recognize it? How do we distinguish the true call from the siren song? How do we handle our resistance to a call? What happens when we say yes? What happens when we say no? Drawing on the hard-won wisdom and powerful stories of people who have followed their own calls, Gregg Levoy shows us the many ways to translate a calling into action. In a style that is poetic, exuberant, and keenly insightful, he presents an illuminating and ultimately practical inquiry into how we listen and respond to our calls, whether at work or at home, in our relationships or in service. Callings is a compassionate guide to discovering your own callings and negotiating the tight passages to personal power and authenticity.

Download or read book The Vertebrate Integument Volume 2 written by Theagarten Lingham-Soliar and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-03-20 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The emphasis in this volume is on the structure and functional design of the integument. The book starts with a brief introduction to some basic principles of physics (mechanics) including Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. These principles are subsequently used to interpret the problems animals encounter in motion. It is in only the last 40 or so years that we have begun to understand how important a role the integument plays in the locomotion of many marine vertebrates. This involves the crossed-fiber architecture, which was first discovered in a classic study on nemertean worms. As a design principle we see that the crossed-fiber architecture is ubiquitous in nature. Research on some of the most dynamic marine vertebrates of the oceans – tuna, dolphins and sharks, and the extinct Jurassic ichthyosaurs – shows precisely how the crossed-fiber architecture contributes to high-speed swimming and (in lamnid sharks) may even aid in energy conservation. However, this design principle is not restricted to animals in the marine biota but is also found as far afield as the dinosaurs and, most recently, has been revealed as a major part of the microstructure of the most complex derivative of the integument, the feather. We see that a variety of phylogenetically diverse vertebrates take to the air by using skin flaps to glide from tree to tree or to the ground, and present detailed descriptions of innovations developed in pursuit of improved gliding capabilities in both extinct and modern day gliders. But the vertebrate integument had even greater things in store, namely true or flapping flight. Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to use the integument as a membrane in true flapping flight and these interesting extinct animals are discussed on the basis of past and cutting-edge research , most intriguingly with respect to the structure of the flight membrane. Bats, the only mammals that fly, also employ integumental flight membranes. Classic research on bat flight is reviewed and supplemented with the latest research, which shows the complexities of the wing beat cycle to be significantly different from that of birds, as revealed by particle image velocimetry. The book’s largest chapter is devoted to birds, given that they make up nearly half of the over 22,000 species of tetrapods. The flight apparatus of birds is unique in nature and is described in great detail, with innovative research highlighting the complexity of the flight structures, bird flight patterns, and behavior in a variety of species. This is complimented by new research on the brains of birds, which shows that they are more complex than previously thought. The feather made bird flight possible, and was itself made possible by β-keratin, contributing to what may be a unique biomechanical microstructure in nature, a topic discussed in some depth. A highly polarized subject concerns the origin of birds and of the feather. Alleged fossilized protofeathers (primal simple feathers) are considered on the basis of histological and taphonomic investigative studies in Chapter 6. Finally, in Chapter 7 we discuss the controversies associated with this field of research. Professor Theagarten Lingham-Soliar works at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth and is an Honorary Professor of Life Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Download or read book How Life Learned to Live written by Helmut Tributsch and published by Mit Press. This book was released on 1985-04-11 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This absorbing book explores the world of biophysics - the ingenious means plants and animals have devised to turn the principles of physics and engineering to their advantage in the struggle to adapt and survive.

Download or read book Gay Neck written by Dhan Gopal Mukerji and published by . This book was released on 1927 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tells the story of Gay-Neck, a carrier pigeon raised and trained by an Indian boy in Calcutta. Gay-Neck flew messages for the Allies in France during World War I.

Download or read book Birds in Flight written by William Plane Pycraft and published by . This book was released on 1922 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book In the Company of Crows and Ravens written by John M. Marzluff and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Crows and people share similar traits and social strategies. To a surprising extent, to know the crow is to know ourselves.”—from the Preface From the cave walls at Lascaux to the last painting by Van Gogh, from the works of Shakespeare to those of Mark Twain, there is clear evidence that crows and ravens influence human culture. Yet this influence is not unidirectional, say the authors of this fascinating book: people profoundly influence crow culture, ecology, and evolution as well. John Marzluff and Tony Angell examine the often surprising ways that crows and humans interact. The authors contend that those interactions reflect a process of “cultural coevolution.” They offer a challenging new view of the human-crow dynamic—a view that may change our thinking not only about crows but also about ourselves. Featuring more than 100 original drawings, the book takes a close look at the influences people have had on the lives of crows throughout history and at the significant ways crows have altered human lives. In the Company of Crows and Ravens illuminates the entwined histories of crows and people and concludes with an intriguing discussion of the crow-human relationship and how our attitudes toward crows may affect our cultural trajectory.

Download or read book Essentials of Avian Medicine and Surgery written by Brian H. Coles and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essentials of Avian Medicine and Surgery is designed as a concise quick reference for the busy practitioner and animal nurse. Eminently practical, this classic avian text is prized for its down-to-earth approach. new contributions from world renowned experts in avian medicine new chapter on the special senses of birds, an understanding of which is crucial when giving advice on avian welfare problems fully up-to-date on the latest diagnostic and imaging techniques avian zoonotics are highlighted in infectious diseases section

Download or read book Perception and Motor Control in Birds written by Mark N.O. Davies and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Being both broad - perception and motor organization - and narrow - just onegroup of animals - at the same time, this book presents a new unified framework for understanding perceptuomotor organization, stressing the importance of an ecological perspective. Section I reviews recent research on a variety of sensory and perceptual processes in birds, which all involve subtle analyses of the relationships between species' perceptual mechanisms and their ecology and behaviour. Section II describes the variousresearch approaches - behavioural, neurophysiological, anatomical and comparative - all dealing with the common problem of understanding how the activities of large numbers of muscles are coordinated to generate adaptive behaviour. Section III is concerned with a range of approaches to analyzing the links between perceptual and motor processes, through cybernetic modelling, neurophysiological analysis, and behavioural methods.

Download or read book The 5AM Club written by Robin Sharma and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-12-04 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Legendary leadership and elite performance expert Robin Sharma introduced The 5am Club concept over twenty years ago, based on a revolutionary morning routine that has helped his clients maximize their productivity, activate their best health and bulletproof their serenity in this age of overwhelming complexity. Now, in this life-changing book, handcrafted by the author over a rigorous four-year period, you will discover the early-rising habit that has helped so many accomplish epic results while upgrading their happiness, helpfulness and feelings of aliveness. Through an enchanting—and often amusing—story about two struggling strangers who meet an eccentric tycoon who becomes their secret mentor, The 5am Club will walk you through: How great geniuses, business titans and the world’s wisest people start their mornings to produce astonishing achievements A little-known formula you can use instantly to wake up early feeling inspired, focused and flooded with a fiery drive to get the most out of each day A step-by-step method to protect the quietest hours of daybreak so you have time for exercise, self-renewal and personal growth A neuroscience-based practice proven to help make it easy to rise while most people are sleeping, giving you precious time for yourself to think, express your creativity and begin the day peacefully instead of being rushed “Insider-only” tactics to defend your gifts, talents and dreams against digital distraction and trivial diversions so you enjoy fortune, influence and a magnificent impact on the world Part manifesto for mastery, part playbook for genius-grade productivity and part companion for a life lived beautifully, The 5am Club is a work that will transform your life. Forever.

Download or read book The Angel Experiment written by James Patterson and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman and Angel. Six kids who are pretty normal except they grew up in a laboratory - and can fly. Now they want to track down their missing parents - and save the world.

Download or read book Illustrations of Zoology written by Thomas Landseer and published by . This book was released on 1851 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book All that is Solid Melts Into Air written by Marshall Berman and published by Verso. This book was released on 1983 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The experience of modernization -- the dizzying social changes that swept millions of people into the capitalist world -- and modernism in art, literature and architecture are brilliantly integrated in this account.

Download or read book Penguins written by Tui De Roy and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-04-19 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An acclaimed photographic guide to these marvelous and enigmatic birds—now in a new, updated edition Penguins are perhaps the most beloved birds. On land, their behavior appears so humorous and expressive that we can be excused for attributing to them moods and foibles similar to our own. Few realize how complex and mysterious their private lives truly are, as most of their existence takes place far from our prying eyes, hidden beneath the ocean waves. Now in a new, updated edition, this stunningly illustrated book provides a unique look at these extraordinary creatures and the cutting-edge science that is helping us to better understand them. Featuring more than 400 breathtaking photos, this is the ultimate guide to all 18 species of penguins, including those with retiring personalities or nocturnal habits that tend to be overlooked and rarely photographed. This revised second edition features updated scientific information and some spectacular new photographs. Penguins is the most ambitious book to date by Tui De Roy, Mark Jones, and Julie Cornthwaite. Their travels, spanning more than two decades, have seen them crisscross the southern hemisphere to virtually everywhere that penguins are found, from the sun-baked lava shores of the Galápagos to some of the remotest subantarctic islands, as well as all around the Antarctic continent, where Emperor penguins breed on the deep-frozen sea. A book that no bird enthusiast or armchair naturalist should do without, Penguins includes discussions of penguin conservation, informative species profiles, fascinating penguin facts, and tips on where to see penguins in the wild. Covers all 18 species of the world’s penguinsFeatures more than 400 stunning photosExplores the latest science on penguins and their conservationIncludes informative species profiles and fascinating penguin facts