Download or read book Great Transformations in Vertebrate Evolution written by Kenneth P. Dial and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-07-20 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did flying birds evolve from running dinosaurs, terrestrial trotting tetrapods evolve from swimming fish, and whales return to swim in the sea? These are some of the great transformations in the 500-million-year history of vertebrate life. And with the aid of new techniques and approaches across a range of fields—work spanning multiple levels of biological organization from DNA sequences to organs and the physiology and ecology of whole organisms—we are now beginning to unravel the confounding evolutionary mysteries contained in the structure, genes, and fossil record of every living species. This book gathers a diverse team of renowned scientists to capture the excitement of these new discoveries in a collection that is both accessible to students and an important contribution to the future of its field. Marshaling a range of disciplines—from paleobiology to phylogenetics, developmental biology, ecology, and evolutionary biology—the contributors attack particular transformations in the head and neck, trunk, appendages such as fins and limbs, and the whole body, as well as offer synthetic perspectives. Illustrated throughout, Great Transformations in Vertebrate Evolution not only reveals the true origins of whales with legs, fish with elbows, wrists, and necks, and feathered dinosaurs, but also the relevance to our lives today of these extraordinary narratives of change.
Download or read book Vertebrate Evolution written by Donald R. Prothero and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2022-04-19 with total page 655 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first vertebrate animals appear in the fossil record over 520 million years ago. These lineages diversified and eventually crept ashore leading to further evolutionary divergence and the appearance of the familiar charismatic vertebrates of today. From the tiniest fishes, diminutive salamanders, and miniaturized lizards to gargantuan dinosaurs, enormous brontotheres, and immense whales, vertebrates have captured the imagination of the lay public as well as the most erudite academics. They are the among the best studied organisms. This book employs beautifully rendered illustrations of these diverse lineages along with informative text to document a rich evolutionary history. The prolific and best-selling author reveals much of the latest findings regarding the phylogenetic history of vertebrates without overwhelming the reader with pedantry and excessive jargon. Simultaneously, comprehensive and authoritative while being approachable and lucid, this book should appeal to both the scholar, the student, and the fossil enthusiast. Key Features Provides an up-to-date account of evolution of vertebrates Includes numerous beautiful color reconstructions of prehistoric vertebrates Describes extinct vertebrates and their evolutionary history Discusses and illustrates the first vertebrates, as well as familiar lineages of fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals Reviews mass extinctions and other important events in the diversification of vertebrates Related Titles Bard, J. Evolution: The Origins and Mechanisms of Diversity (ISBN 9780367357016) Böhmer, C., et al. Atlas of Terrestrial Mammal Limbs (ISBN 9781138705906) Diogo, R., et al. Muscles of Chordates: Development, Homologies, and Evolution (ISBN 9781138571167) Schweitzer, M. H., et al. Dinosaurs: How We Know What We Know (ISBN 9780367563813)
Download or read book Cooperative Breeding in Vertebrates written by Walter D. Koenig and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-07 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brings together long-term studies of cooperation in vertebrates that challenge our understanding of the evolution of social behavior.
Download or read book Evolution of the Vertebrates written by Edwin Harris Colbert and published by . This book was released on 1955 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Patterns and Processes of Vertebrate Evolution written by Robert Lynn Carroll and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997-04-28 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The factors that influenced the evolution of the vertebrates are compared with the importance of variation and selection that Darwin emphasised in this broad study of the patterns and forces of evolutionary change.
Download or read book The Evolution of Vertebrate Blood Clotting written by Russell F. Doolittle and published by University Science Books. This book was released on 2012-11-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: llluminated by a great assortment of original illustrations, this remarkable book charts the step-by-step evolution of vertebrate blood coagulation. Intended for readers with a background in biological science, it is specifically targeted for those in the field of molecular evolution as well as for researchers in the area of blood clotting. After providing some general background in the areas of blood clotting, protein structure, animal systematics, and simple genomics, the book focusses in on the search for blood clotting genes in the genomes of non-mammalian vertebrates, including fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds. The inventory of genes found allows a reconstruction of events culminating in the complex clotting system observed in humans and other mammals. Also examined are the genomes of protochordates like the sea squirt, leading to conjecture about how blood clotting was first initiated. The orderly way in which gene duplications provided new genes for fine-tuning the system serves as a model for how complex physiological systems in general have evolved. The book ends with suggestions for specific genetic engineering experiments that can be done to illustrate how molecular evolution works. An extensive glossary and guide to the current literature combine to make this book ideal for course use as well as for self study.
Download or read book Feeding in Vertebrates written by Vincent Bels and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-04-23 with total page 873 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides students and researchers with reviews of biological questions related to the evolution of feeding by vertebrates in aquatic and terrestrial environments. Based on recent technical developments and novel conceptual approaches, the book covers functional questions on trophic behavior in nearly all vertebrate groups including jawless fishes. The book describes mechanisms and theories for understanding the relationships between feeding structure and feeding behavior. Finally, the book demonstrates the importance of adopting an integrative approach to the trophic system in order to understand evolutionary mechanisms across the biodiversity of vertebrates.
Download or read book Evolution and Development of Fishes written by Zerina Johanson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-10 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World-class palaeontologists and biologists summarise the state-of-the-art on fish evolution and development.
Download or read book Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution written by Robert L. Carroll and published by New York [N.Y.] : W.H. Freeman. This book was released on 1988 with total page 698 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Role of Behavior in Evolution written by Henry C. Plotkin and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These six original essays focus on a potentially important aspect of evolutionary biology, the possible causal role of phenotypic behavior in evolution. Balancing theory with actual or potential empiricism, they provide the first full examination of this topic. Plotkin's opening chapter outlines the "conceptual minefields" that the contributors attempt to negotiate: What is an adequate theory of evolution? What is behavior and is it possible to maintain a distinction between behavior and other attributes of the phenotype? is all, or only a special subset, of behavior both a cause and a consequence of evolution? And what do the theoretical issues mean in empirical terms? He concludes that any attempt to understand the causal role of behavior in evolution requires a more complicated theoretical structure than that of orthodox neoDarwinism, a conceptualization of behavior as a distinctive set of phenotypic attributes, and the accumulation of more data. David L. Hull (Northwestern University) provides an alternative account of the evolutionary process by developing a hierarchy of replicators-interactors-lineages to replace the traditional one of genes-organisms-species. Robert N. Brandon (Duke University) also posits hierarchy as an appropriate architecture for the theoretical complexity needed to support an examination of the role of behavior in evolution. F. J. Odling-Smee (Brunei University) outlines a theoretical structure to encompass the behavior of phenotypes, concentrating on the unrestricted definition of behavior (everything that an animal does). The remaining chapters are as much concerned with evidence as with theory. Plotkin concentrates on a restricted definition of behavior (behavior that is a product of choosing intelligence), reviewing our empirical knowledge of how learning might influence evolution. R.I.M. Dunbar (University College, London) uses empirical studies of vertebrate social behavior to deal with the question of how the social systems, especially of primates, might have a causal role in species evolution. A Bradford Book
Download or read book The Neural Crest in Development and Evolution written by Brian K. Hall and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-14 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A discussion of the neural crest and neural crest cells, dealing with their discovery, their embryological and evolutionary origins, their cellular derivatives - in both agnathan and jawed vertebrates or gnathostomes - and the broad topics of migration and differentiation in normal development. The book also considers what goes wrong when development is misdirected by mutations, or by exposure of embryos to exogenous agents such as drugs, alcohol, or excess vitamin A, and includes discussions of tumours and syndromes and birth defects involving neural crest cells.
Download or read book Early Vertebrates written by Philippe Janvier and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 1996 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents our current knowledge of the early vertebrates, which were mainly fish, but included some land vertebrates, and lived 470 to 250 million years ago. It centres on anatomical and phylogenetic questions, but includes information about fossil discovery and preparation, as wellas the analysis of the characteristics from which their relationships may be reconstructed. It addresses critically both old and new problems in the evolution of certain anatomical structures and deals briefly with the animals' way of life, extinction, and former distribution.In addition, the author gives a potted history of the field of vertebrate palaentology and the rise of cladistics, a cmajor methodological revolution in comparative biology. The book is the first in this field to use a cladistic approach. For each major vertebrate group, the reader will find a diagram or relationships, or cladogram, with a selection of characters at each node, and a succinct phlyogenetic classification.
Download or read book Evolution by Gene Duplication written by Susumu Ohno and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-12-11 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is said that "necessity is the mother of invention". To be sure, wheels and pulleys were invented out of necessity by the tenacious minds of upright citi zens. Looking at the history of mankind, however, one has to add that "Ieisure is the mother of cultural improvement". Man's creative genius flourished only when his mind, freed from the worry of daily toils, was permitted to entertain apparently useless thoughts. In the same manner, one might say with regard to evolution that "natural selection mere(y tnodifted, while redundanry created". Natural selection has been extremely effective in policing alleHe mutations which arise in already existing gene loci. Because of natural selection, organisms have been able to adapt to changing environments, and by adaptive radiation many new species were created from a common ancestral form. Y et, being an effective policeman, natural selection is extremely conservative by nature. Had evolution been entirely dependent upon natural selection, from a bacterium only numerous forms of bacteria would have emerged. The creation of metazoans, vertebrates and finally mammals from unicellular organisms would have been quite impos sible, for such big leaps in evolution required the creation of new gene loci with previously nonexistent functions. Only the cistron which became redun dant was able to escape from the relentless pressure of natural selection, and by escaping, it accumulated formerly forbidden mutations to emerge as a new gene locus.
Download or read book Evolutionary Neuroscience written by Jon H Kaas and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2009-07-28 with total page 1039 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolutionary Neuroscience is a collection of articles in brain evolution selected from the recent comprehensive reference, Evolution of Nervous Systems (Elsevier, Academic Press, 2007). The selected chapters cover a broad range of topics from historical theory to the most recent deductions from comparative studies of brains. The articles are organized in sections focused on theories and brain scaling, the evolution of brains from early vertebrates to present-day fishes, amphibians, reptiles and birds, the evolution of mammalian brains, and the evolution of primate brains, including human brains. Each chapter is written by a leader or leaders in the field, and has been reviewed by other experts. Specific topics include brain character reconstruction, principles of brain scaling, basic features of vertebrate brains, the evolution of the major sensory systems, and other parts of brains, what we can learn from fossils, the origin of neocortex, and the evolution of specializations of human brains. The collection of articles will be interesting to anyone who is curious about how brains evolved from the simpler nervous systems of the first vertebrates into the many different complex forms now found in present-day vertebrates. This book would be of use to students at the graduate or undergraduate levels, as well as professional neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, and psychologists. Together, the chapters provide a comprehensive list of further reading and references for those who want to inquire further. - The most comprehensive, authoritative and up-to-date single volume collection on brain evolution - Full color throughout, with many illustrations - Written by leading scholars and experts
Download or read book Studies in Vertebrate Evolution written by Kenneth Alan Joysey and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Brains Through Time written by Georg F. Striedter and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 541 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book encourages readers to view similarities and differences in various species as fundamental to a comprehensive understanding of nervous systems.
Download or read book Vertebrate Biology written by Donald W. Linzey and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2012-02-13 with total page 602 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arranged logically to follow the typical course format, Vertebrate Biology leaves students with a full understanding of the unique structure, function, and living patterns of the subphylum that includes our own species.
