Download or read book Arthropod Biology and Evolution written by Alessandro Minelli and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-11 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than two thirds of all living organisms described to date belong to the phylum Arthropoda. But their diversity, as measured in terms of species number, is also accompanied by an amazing disparity in terms of body form, developmental processes, and adaptations to every inhabitable place on Earth, from the deepest marine abysses to the earth surface and the air. The Arthropoda also include one of the most fashionable and extensively studied of all model organisms, the fruit-fly, whose name is not only linked forever to Mendelian and population genetics, but has more recently come back to centre stage as one of the most important and more extensively investigated models in developmental genetics. This approach has completely changed our appreciation of some of the most characteristic traits of arthropods as are the origin and evolution of segments, their regional and individual specialization, and the origin and evolution of the appendages. At approximately the same time as developmental genetics was eventually turning into the major agent in the birth of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo), molecular phylogenetics was challenging the traditional views on arthropod phylogeny, including the relationships among the four major groups: insects, crustaceans, myriapods, and chelicerates. In the meantime, palaeontology was revealing an amazing number of extinct forms that on the one side have contributed to a radical revisitation of arthropod phylogeny, but on the other have provided evidence of a previously unexpected disparity of arthropod and arthropod-like forms that often challenge a clear-cut delimitation of the phylum.
Download or read book Arthropod Brains written by Nicholas James Strausfeld and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-02 with total page 849 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin proposed that an ant’s brain, no larger than a pin’s head, must be sophisticated to accomplish all that it does. Yet today many people still find it surprising that insects and other arthropods show behaviors that are much more complex than innate reflexes. They are products of versatile brains which, in a sense, think. Fascinating in their own right, arthropods provide fundamental insights into how brains process and organize sensory information to produce learning, strategizing, cooperation, and sociality. Nicholas Strausfeld elucidates the evolution of this knowledge, beginning with nineteenth-century debates about how similar arthropod brains were to vertebrate brains. This exchange, he shows, had a profound and far-reaching impact on attitudes toward evolution and animal origins. Many renowned scientists, including Sigmund Freud, cut their professional teeth studying arthropod nervous systems. The greatest neuroanatomist of them all, Santiago Ramón y Cajal—founder of the neuron doctrine—was awed by similarities between insect and mammalian brains. Writing in a style that will appeal to a broad readership, Strausfeld weaves anatomical observations with evidence from molecular biology, neuroethology, cladistics, and the fossil record to explore the neurobiology of the largest phylum on earth—and one that is crucial to the well-being of our planet. Highly informative and richly illustrated, Arthropod Brains offers an original synthesis drawing on many fields, and a comprehensive reference that will serve biologists for years to come.
Download or read book Evolution and Adaptation of Terrestrial Arthropods written by John L. Cloudsley-Thompson and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is intended as a textbook for 3rd year undergraduate students, as well as postgraduate students. It comprises a review of the current opinion regarding the evolution and adaptation of terrestrial arthropods, beginning with the paleontological, embryological, morphological and physiological evidence. The implication of size is then considered in relation to life on land. A discussion of insect phylogeny and the origin of flight is followed by an account of evolutionary trends in reproduction. Further chapters cover adaptations to extreme environments, dispersal and migration, defensive mechanisms and, finally, present arguments for the success of the terrestrial arthropods in general.
Download or read book Crustacea and Arthropod Relationships written by Stefan Koenemann and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2005-04-27 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Compared to other arthropods, crustaceans are characterized by an unparalleled disparity of body plans. Traditionally, the specialization of arthropod segments and appendages into distinct body regions has served as a convenient basis for higher classification; however, many relationships within the phylum Arthropoda still remain controversial.
Download or read book Arthropod Phylogeny written by A. P. Gupta and published by Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. This book was released on 1979 with total page 792 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Arthropod Brains written by Nicholas James Strausfeld and published by Belknap Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 830 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insects and other arthropods show complex behaviors that are products of versatile brains which, in a sense, think. Strausfeld weaves anatomical observations, molecular biology, neuroethology, cladistics, and the fossil record to explore how arthropod brains process sensory information to produce learning, strategizing, cooperation, and sociality.
Download or read book Arthropod Relationships written by Richard A Fortey and published by . This book was released on 1997-12-31 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Tiger Beetles written by David L. Pearson and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tiger beetles are one of the most obvious and ubiquitous families of any insect taxon--some 2300 species are found on nearly all the land surfaces of the earth. Their frequently showy colors, brazen behavior, and ability to live in habitats ranging from dry, alkaline lakebeds to tropical rain forests have captured the interest of amateur and professional entomologists alike. Although tiger beetles have been widely studied, the wealth of knowledge has been synthesized only briefly in a few sources.In Tiger Beetles, David L. Pearson and Alfried P. Vogler provide for the first time a detailed integration and summary of all that is known about the family Cicindelidae. The book's early chapters cover anatomy, distribution, and natural history. Pearson and Vogler build from these basics to show the usefulness of tiger beetles for exploring questions in genetics, biogeography, ecology, behavior, and conservation. As bioindicators, the tiger beetles present in an area may allow biologists to pinpoint places with the richest diversity of animal and plant life. The use of tiger beetles as model organisms has made possible or greatly enhanced many areas of research, including molecular phylogeny, the function of acute hearing, spatial modeling, and physiology of vision.
Download or read book Arthropod Relationships written by Richard A. Fortey and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The arthropods contain more species than any other animal group, but the evolutionary pathways which led to their current diversity are still an issue of controversy. Arthropod Relationships provides an overview of our current understanding, responding to the new data arising from sequencing DNA, the discovery of new Cambrian fossils as direct evidence of early arthropod history, and developmental genetics. These new areas of research have stimulated a reconsideration of classical morphology and embryology. Arthropod Relationships is the first synthesis of the current debate to emerge: not since the volume edited by Gupta was published in 1979 has the arthropod phylogeny debate been, considered in this depth and breadth. Leaders in the various branches of arthropod biology have contributed to this volume. Chapters focus progressively from the general issues to the specific problems involving particular groups, and thence to a consideration of embryology and genetics. This wide range of disciplines is drawn on to approach an understanding of arthropod relationships, and to provide the most timely account of arthropod phylogeny. This book should be read by evolutionary biologists, palaeontologists, developmental geneticists and invertebrate zoologists. It will have a special interest for post-graduate students working in these fields.
Download or read book Biology Ecology and Evolution of Gall inducing Arthropods written by Anantanarayanan Raman and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Arthropoda written by Sidnie Milana Manton and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1977 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Planet of the Bugs written by Scott Richard Shaw and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-09-11 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the evolution of insects and explains how evolutionary innovations have enabled them to disperse widely, occupy narrow niches, and survive global catastrophes. --Publisher's description.
Download or read book Evolution of the Insects written by David Grimaldi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-05-16 with total page 790 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insects are the most diverse group of organisms in the 3 billion-year history of life on Earth, and the most ecologically dominant animals on land. This book chronicles for the first time the complete evolutionary history of insects: their living diversity, relationships and 400 million years of fossils. Whereas other volumes have focused on either living species or fossils, this is the first comprehensive synthesis of all aspects of insect evolution. The book is illustrated with 955 photo- and electronmicrographs, drawings, diagrams, and field photos, many in full colour and virtually all of them original. The book will appeal to anyone engaged with insect diversity: professional entomologists and students, insect and fossil collectors, and naturalists.
Download or read book Biology Ecology and Evolution of Gall inducing Arthropods written by Anantanarayanan Raman and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Specialization Speciation and Radiation written by Kelley Tilmon and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2008-01-03 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The intimate associations between plants and the insects that eat them have helped define and shape both groups for millions of years. This pioneering volume is a comprehensive, up-to-date treatment of the evolutionary biology of herbivorous insects, including their relationships with host plants and natural enemies. Chapters focus on the dynamic relationships between insects and plants from the standpoint of evolutionary change at different levels of biological organization—individuals, populations, species, and clades. Written by prominent evolutionary biologists, entomologists, and ecologists, the chapters are organized into three sections: Evolution of Populations and Species; Co- and Macroevolutionary Radiation; and Evolutionary Aspects of Pests, Invasive Species, and the Environment. The volume is unified by the idea that understanding the ecological framework of the interactions between herbivorous insects and their host plants is fundamental to understanding their evolution.
Download or read book Homology Genes and Evolutionary Innovation written by Günter P. Wagner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-10 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major synthesis of homology, written by a top researcher in the field Homology—a similar trait shared by different species and derived from common ancestry, such as a seal's fin and a bird’s wing—is one of the most fundamental yet challenging concepts in evolutionary biology. This groundbreaking book provides the first mechanistically based theory of what homology is and how it arises in evolution. Günter Wagner, one of the preeminent researchers in the field, argues that homology, or character identity, can be explained through the historical continuity of character identity networks—that is, the gene regulatory networks that enable differential gene expression. He shows how character identity is independent of the form and function of the character itself because the same network can activate different effector genes and thus control the development of different shapes, sizes, and qualities of the character. Demonstrating how this theoretical model can provide a foundation for understanding the evolutionary origin of novel characters, Wagner applies it to the origin and evolution of specific systems, such as cell types; skin, hair, and feathers; limbs and digits; and flowers. The first major synthesis of homology to be published in decades, Homology, Genes, and Evolutionary Innovation reveals how a mechanistically based theory can serve as a unifying concept for any branch of science concerned with the structure and development of organisms, and how it can help explain major transitions in evolution and broad patterns of biological diversity.
Download or read book Signalers and Receivers written by Michael D. Greenfield and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2002 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In most terrestrial and aquatic habitats, the vast majority of animals transmitting and receiving communicative signals are arthropods. This book presents the story of how this important group of animals use pheromones, sound, vibration, and light for sexual and social communication. Because of their small to minute body size most arthropods have problems sending and receiving acoustic and optical information, each of which have their own severe constraints. Because of these restraints they have developed chemical signaling which is not similarly limited by scale. Presenting the latest theoretical and experimental findings from studies of signaling, it suggests that close parallels between arthropods and vertebrates reflect a very limited number of solutions to problems in behavior that are available within the confines of physical laws.
