Download or read book On the Wing written by Dr. David E. Alexander and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "On the Wing is the first book to take a comprehensive look at the evolution of flight in all four groups of powered flyers: insects, pterosaurs, birds, and bats."--Book jacket.

Download or read book Taking Wing written by Pat Shipman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1999-01-15 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1861, just a few years after the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, a scientist named Hermann von Meyer made an amazing discovery. Hidden in the Bavarian region of Germany was a fossil skeleton so exquisitely preserved that its wings and feathers were as obvious as its reptilian jaws and tail. This transitional creature offered tangible proof of Darwin's theory of evolution. Hailed as the First Bird, Archaeopteryx has remained the subject of heated debates for the last 140 years. Are birds actually living dinosaurs? Where does the fossil record really lead? Did flight originate from the "ground up" or "trees down"? Pat Shipman traces the age-old human desire to soar above the earth and to understand what has come before us. Taking Wing is science as adventure story, told with all the drama by which scientific understanding unfolds.

Download or read book Dinosaurs of the Air written by Gregory S. Paul and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2002-05 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book synthesises the growing body of evidence which suggests that modern-day birds have evolved from theropod dinosaurs of prehistoric times. The author argues that the ancestor-descendant relationship can also be reversed.

Download or read book The Evolution of Flight written by Georg Glaeser and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-05-11 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book will take you on an exciting journey made up of texts and images. Spectacular, large-scale photographs printed on double pages and accompanied by explanatory texts will arouse the reader’s curiosity about evolution’s accomplishments in the world of flying: from the botanical air fleet (pollen grains, flying seeds...), over flying snakes and fish, to penguins flying underwater and humans rising into the air. Mathematician and passionate animal photographer Georg Glaser has joined forces with the experienced evolutionary biologist Hannes Paulus and the exercise physiologist and flight biophysicist Werner Nachtigall in order to approach this topic with words and pictures in a way that is both generally comprehensible and scientifically sound. Double-page by double-page, the book can be read in any order. Cross-references allow to jump easily from one double-page to another. Aside from the detailed introduction to each chapter, the text passages are usually independent from one another, and they discuss crucial moments in the evolutionary process. The double-pages provide additional information on bibliographical references and references to informative websites.

Download or read book Quest for Performance written by Laurence K. Loftin and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 547 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Flights of Fancy written by Richard Dawkins and published by Apollo. This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever dreamt you could fly? Or imagined what it would be like to glide and swoop through the sky like a bird? Do you let your mind soar to unknown, magical spaces? Richard Dawkins explores the wonder of flight: from the mythical Icarus, to the sadly extinct but spectacular bird Argentavis magnificens, from the Wright flyer and the 747, to the Tinkerbella fairyfly and the Peregrine falcon. But he also explores flights of the mind and escaping the everyday a through science, ideas and imagination.

Download or read book Butterflies written by Carol L. Boggs and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2003-07 with total page 784 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Butterflies: Ecology and Evolution Taking Flight, the world's leading experts synthesize current knowledge of butterflies to show how the study of these fascinating creatures as model systems can lead to deeper understanding of ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes in general. The twenty-six chapters are organized into broad functional areas, covering the uses of butterflies in the study of behavior, ecology, genetics and evolution, systematics, and conservation biology. Especially in the context of the current biodiversity crisis, this book shows how results found with butterflies can help us understand large, rapid changes in the world we share with them—for example, geographic distributions of some butterflies have begun to shift in response to global warming, giving early evidence of climate change that scientists, politicians, and citizens alike should heed. The first international synthesis of butterfly biology in two decades, Butterflies: Ecology and Evolution Taking Flight offers students, scientists, and amateur naturalists a concise overview of the latest developments in the field. Furthermore, it articulates an exciting new perspective of the whole group of approximately 15,000 species of butterflies as a comprehensive model system for all the sciences concerned with biodiversity and its preservation. Contributors: Carol L. Boggs, Paul M. Brakefield, Adriana D. Briscoe, Dana L. Campbell, Elizabeth E. Crone, Mark Deering, Henri Descimon, Erika I. Deinert, Paul R. Ehrlich, John P. Fay, Richard ffrench-Constant, Sherri Fownes, Lawrence E. Gilbert, André Gilles, Ilkka Hanski, Jane K. Hill, Brian Huntley, Niklas Janz, Greg Kareofelas, Nusha Keyghobadi, P. Bernhard Koch, Claire Kremen, David C. Lees, Jean-François Martin, Antónia Monteiro, Paulo César Motta, Camille Parmesan, William D. Patterson, Naomi E. Pierce, Robert A. Raguso, Charles Lee Remington, Jens Roland, Ronald L. Rutowski, Cheryl B. Schultz, J. Mark Scriber, Arthur M. Shapiro, Michael C. Singer, Felix Sperling, Curtis Strobeck, Aram Stump, Chris D. Thomas, Richard VanBuskirk, Hans Van Dyck, Richard I. Vane-Wright, Ward B. Watt, Christer Wiklund, and Mark A. Willis

Download or read book Electronics In The Evolution Of Flight written by Albert D. Helfrick and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Helfrick traces the paired history of modern aviation and electronics from its earliest years to the industrial force it is today.

Download or read book Evolution of the Airliner written by Ray Whitford and published by Crowood Press (UK). This book was released on 2007 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Commercial air travel has come a long way since the first purpose-built airliners took to the sky soon after World War I. Countless innovations have enabled aircraft to fly higher, faster, and more efficiently, and flights have become more comfortable and cheaper. This important book, based on a well-received series of articles in Air International magazine, offers an unparalleled insight into the way that the airliner has evolved and how each new breakthrough and refinement has affected the industry and the future path of development.

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 The Biomechanics of Insect Flight written by Robert Dudley and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the rain forests of Borneo to the tenements of Manhattan, winged insects are a conspicuous and abundant feature of life on earth. Here, Robert Dudley presents the first comprehensive explanation of how insects fly. The author relates the biomechanics of flight to insect ecology and evolution in a major new work of synthesis. The book begins with an overview of insect flight biomechanics. Dudley explains insect morphology, wing motions, aerodynamics, flight energetics, and flight metabolism within a modern phylogenetic setting. Drawing on biomechanical principles, he describes and evaluates flight behavior and the limits to flight performance. The author then takes the next step by developing evolutionary explanations of insect flight. He analyzes the origins of flight in insects, the roles of natural and sexual selection in determining how insects fly, and the relationship between flight and insect size, pollination, predation, dispersal, and migration. Dudley ranges widely--from basic aerodynamics to muscle physiology and swarming behavior--but his focus is the explanation of functional design from evolutionary and ecological perspectives. The importance of flight in the lives of insects has long been recognized but never systematically evaluated. This book addresses that shortcoming. Robert Dudley provides an introduction to insect flight that will be welcomed by students and researchers in biomechanics, entomology, evolution, ecology, and behavior.

Download or read book The Origin and Evolution of Birds written by Alan Feduccia and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of all that is known about the origin of birds and of avian flight. It draws on fossil evidence and studies of the structure and biochemistry of living birds to present knowledge and data on avian evolution and to propose a new model of this evolutionary process.

Download or read book The Origin of Birds and the Evolution of Flight written by Kevin Padian and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Flight written by Stephen Woolford and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Witness the daring exploits and dangerous challenges that form the story of flight in this beautifully illustrated book, filled with rare photographs and historical documents. Published in the year that marks 50 years since the first flight of the Boeing 747 and of Concorde, it describes the early pioneers, such as the Wright brothers and Alcock & Brown, as well as the highly skilled engineers developing aircraft today. From the early hot-air balloons of the Montgolfiers to the complex technology behind military jets and space rockets, this book looks at how flight emerged as a new means of military combat and how it became the leading mode of international travel, all in the space of less than a century.

Download or read book The Evolution of Feathers written by Christian Foth and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-03-11 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Feathers are one of the most unique characteristics of modern birds and represent the most complex and colourful type of skin derivate within vertebrates, while also fulfilling various biological roles, including flight, thermal insulation, display, and sensory function. For years it was generally assumed that the origin of flight was the main driving force for the evolution of feathers. However, various discoveries of dinosaur species with filamentous body coverings, made over the past 20 years, have fundamentally challenged this idea and produced new evolutionary scenarios for the origin of feathers. This book is devoted to the origin and evolution of feathers, and highlights the impact of palaeontology on this research field by reviewing a number of spectacular fossil discoveries that document the increasing morphological complexity along the evolutionary path to modern birds. Also featuring chapters on fossil feather colours, feather development and its genetic control, the book offers a timely and comprehensive overview of this popular research topic.

Download or read book Vertebrate Flight written by Ulla M. Norberg and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has been great fun to write this book, even though it has taken longer than planned, and occasionally been exasperating. The most difficult problem was deciding what to exclude among so many interesting things, because the available material usually exceeded the space. Because a book like this covers so many aspects, each component must be limited. This book is intended for graduate and undergraduate students as well as professional scientists who want to work with animal flight or to gain some insight into flight mechanics, aerodynamics, energetics, physiology, morpho logy, ecology and evolution. My aim has not been to give the whole mathe matical explanation of flight, but to provide an outline and summary of the main theories for the understanding of how aerofoils respond to an airflow. I also hope to give the reader some insight into how flight morphology and the various wing shapes have evolved and are adapted to different ecological niches and habitats.

Download or read book The Evolution of the Airline Industry written by Steven Morrison and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the enactment of the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978, questions that had been at the heart of the ongoing debate about the industry for eighty years gained a new intensity: Is there enough competition among airlines to ensure that passengers do not pay excessive fares? Can an unregulated airline industry be profitable? Is air travel safe? While economic regulation provided a certain stability for both passengers and the industry, deregulation changed everything. A new fare structure emerged; travelers faced a variety of fares and travel restrictions; and the offerings changed frequently. In the last fifteen years, the airline industry's earnings have fluctuated wildly. New carriers entered the industry, but several declared bankruptcy, and Eastern, Pan Am, and Midway were liquidated. As financial pressures mounted, fears have arisen that air safety is being compromised by carriers who cut costs by skimping on maintenance and hiring inexperienced pilots. Deregulation itself became an issue with many critics calling for a return to some form of regulation. In this book, Steven A. Morrison and Clifford Winston assert that all too often public discussion of the issues of airline competition, profitability, and safety take place without a firm understanding of the facts. The policy recommendations that emerge frequently ignore the long-run evolution of the industry and its capacity to solve its own problems. This book provides a comprehensive profile of the industry as it has evolved, both before and since deregulation. The authors identify the problems the industry faces, assess their severity and their underlying causes, and indicate whether government policy can play an effective role in improving performance. They also develop a basis for understanding the industry's evolution and how the industry will eventually adapt to the unregulated economic environment. Morrison and Winston maintain that although the airline industry has not rea