Geographic Variation and Speciation in the Torrent Salamanders of the Genus Rhyacotriton (Caudata: Rhyacotritonidae)


Book Description

The authors analyze the morphological, biochemical, and ecological differentiation of salamanders endemic to the Pacific Northwest, the Torrent Salamanders, Rhyacotriton. The authors analyze the morphological, biochemical, and ecological differentiation of salamanders endemic to the Pacific Northwest, the Torrent Salamanders, Rhyacotriton.




The Biology of Plethodontid Salamanders


Book Description

This volume offers a state-of-the-art overview of plethodontid salamanders. Readers will find the best current understanding of many aspects of the evolution, systematics, development, morphology, life history, ecology, and field methodology of these animals.




Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Urodela


Book Description

This volume contains original contributions from an international group of authors with the highest reputations in their respective areas of phylogenetic and reproductive studies on salamanders and newts. A full panoply of topics is covered, from morphology of gametes and reproductive systems to considerations of behavior and life history, all plac




Wildlife 2001: Populations


Book Description

In 1984, a conference called Wildlife 2000: Modeling habitat relationships of terrestrial vertebrates, was held at Stanford Sierra Camp at Fallen Leaf Lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. The conference was well-received, and the published volume (Verner, J. , M. L. Morrison, and C. J. Ralph, editors. 1986. Wildlife 2000: modeling habitat relationships of terrestrial vertebrates, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin, USA) proved to be a landmark publication that received a book award by The Wildlife Society. Wildlife 2001: populations was a followup conference with emphasis on the other major biological field of wildlife conservation and management, populations. It was held on July 29-31, 1991, at the Oakland Airport Hilton Hotel in Oakland, California, in accordance with our intent that this conference have a much stronger international representation than did Wildlife 2000. The goal of the conference was to bring together an international group of specialists to address the state of the art in wildlife population dynamics, and set the agenda for future research and management on the threshold of the 21st century. The mix of specialists included workers in theoretical, as well as practical, aspects of wildlife conservation and management. Three general sessions covered methods, modelling, and conservation of threatened species.




Biology of Amphibians


Book Description

Now reissued in paperback with an updated preface by the authors, Biology of Amphibians remains the standard work in its field.




The Species Problem


Book Description

The book includes collection of theoretical papers dealing with the species problem, which is among most fundamental issues in biology. The principal topics are: consideration of the species problem from the standpoint of modern non-classical science paradigm, with emphasis on its conceptual status presuming its analysis within certain conceptual framework; evolutionary emergence of the species as discrete unit of certain level of generality; epistemological consideration of the species as a particular explanatory hypotheses, with respective revised concepts of biodiversity and conservation; considerations of evolutionary and phylogenomic species concepts as candidates for the universal one; re-appraisal of the biological species concept based on the "friend-foe" recognition system; species delimitation approach using multi-locus coalescent-based method; a re-consideration of the Darwin's species concept.







Reptiles and Amphibians


Book Description

This volume details the physical characteristics, as well as the breeding and feeding behaviors, of both reptiles and amphibians, with a look at many of these remarkable creatures.




Speciation and Patterns of Diversity


Book Description

Bringing together the viewpoints of leading ecologists concerned with the processes that generate patterns of diversity, and evolutionary biologists who focus on mechanisms of speciation, this book opens up discussion in order to broaden understanding of how speciation affects patterns of biological diversity, especially the uneven distribution of diversity across time, space and taxa studied by macroecologists. The contributors discuss questions such as: Are species equivalent units, providing meaningful measures of diversity? To what extent do mechanisms of speciation affect the functional nature and distribution of species diversity? How can speciation rates be measured using molecular phylogenies or data from the fossil record? What are the factors that explain variation in rates? Written for graduate students and academic researchers, the book promotes a more complete understanding of the interaction between mechanisms and rates of speciation and these patterns in biological diversity.