The shaping of life

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Wallace Arthur

"The body of evolutionary theory that currently occupies a dominant position in biological thought is new-Darwinism. While this theory has considerable explanatory power, it is widely recognized as being incomplete in that lacks a component dealing with individual development, or ontogeny. This lack is particularly conspicuous in relation to attempts to explain the evolutionary origin of the 35 or so animal body plans, and of the developmental trajectories that generate them." "This book examines both the origin of body plans in particular and the evolution of animal development in general. In doing so, it ranges widely, covering topics as diverse as comparative developmental genetics, selection theory and Vendian/Cambrian fossils. Particular emphasis is placed on gene duplication, changes in spatiotemporal gene-expression patterns, internal selection, coevolution of interacting genes, and coadaptation." "The book will be of particular interest to researchers and students in evolutionary biology, genetics, palaeontology and development biology."--Jacket.

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Horst Rauchfuss, Terence N. Mitchell

"Up to now, we do not have a generally accepted theory about the origin of life and about the process of development of life, we only have a great number of - to some extent even contradictory - hypotheses. Meanwhile there came up some scientific findings beyond thought only a few years ago. Horst Rauchfuss is comparing the different theories from the view of the latest results and is giving an exciting and easy understandable insight into the present state of research."--BOOK JACKET.

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Gisela Kaplan & Lesley J. Rogers

Describes the remarkable world of birds and their multitude of behaviours.Why do pigeons bob their heads when they walk? Can talking parrots understand what they say? What do birds learn and remember?Birds is an unusual collection of curious facts about our feathered friends. It describes the fascinating behaviours and physiology of birds of all shapes and sizes - from the birds in our cities to the wild birds in rainforests and at sea shores, in deserts and plains. You'll learn how birds evolved and why some came to be flightless. You'll read of the wide diversity in bird courtship rituals and territorial displays. You'll discover the art of nest building and why some birds have such well-developed senses and memory. In short, Birds explains why these creatures do the things that they do, so you can more fully enjoy and understand the birds you see every day.Gisela Kaplan and Lesley Rogers, two leading researchers in animal behaviour, cover the latest findings in bird behaviour and tell stories of their personal encounters with birds throughout the world, collected in more than twenty years of research. Supplemented with arresting photographs, this is a marvellous companion for the curious birdwatcher, the serious student of biology and for any nature or bird lover.

Sample

Donald Pigott

"Lime trees (Tilia spp.) are widely distributed and locally important members of northern temperate broad-leaved forests. In marked contrast to the largely uniform morphology of the genus its taxonomic treatment has become increasingly confused and controversial, with over one hundred species and numerous subspecies described. Using extensive data from field studies of natural populations around the world, this book clarifies the situation, proposing a revised taxonomy of 23 species and 14 subspecies. Detailed descriptions are provided for all recognised taxa and are accompanied by illustrations. Data from herbaria and cultivated trees are used to extend the analyses where appropriate and type specimens are included to stabilise nomenclature. Lime tree ecology is also considered, with an exploration of experimental and analytical data on regeneration, growth and reproduction in relation to climate and soils. Additional material includes a glossary of botanical terms and appendices of herbarium codes and relevant physical concepts"-- "Tilia is the type genus of the family name Tiliaceae Juss. (1789), and T. x europaea L. the type of the generic name (Jarvis et al. 1993). Members of Tiliaceae have many morphological characters in common with those of Malvaceae Juss. (1789) and both families were placed in the order Malvales by Engler (1912). In Engler's treatment, Tiliaceae consisted mainly of trees and shrubs belonging to several genera, including a few herbaceous genera, almost all occurring in the warmer regions. This treatment was revised by Engler and Diels (1936). The family was retained by Cronquist (1981) and consisted of about 50 genera and 700 species distributed in the tropics and warmer parts of the temperate zones in Asia, Africa, southern Europe and America. Several genera of trees, such as Apeiba in South America and Tilia itself, are of economic value for timber, and similarly the herbaceous genus, Corchorus, includes C. olitorius which is grown extensively in Bengal as the source of a brown fibre, jute, used for string, cloth ('hessian'), formerly carpet-backing and paper"--