Biological Approaches and Evolutionary Trends in Plants


Book Description

Biological Approaches and Evolutionary Trends in Plants is a collection of papers presented at the Fourth International Symposium of Plant Biosystematics held on July 10-14, 1989 in Kyoto, Japan. Contributors, some are world's leading plant biologists, discuss the findings in evolutionary biology and issues in plant biosystematics in light of the evidence and ideas brought forward at various levels of biological organization, from molecule to cell, individual, population, species, and community levels. This volume is organized into four sections encompassing 22 chapters and begins with an overview of discoveries concerning parapatric differentiation of weed populations, including adaptive evolution in herbicide resistant biotypes and complex evolutionary patterns in weed-crop complexes of various groups. The next section explores molecular approaches in plant biosystematics, focusing on amino acid sequencing of proteins; restriction-site variations of cpDNA, mitDNA, rDNA, etc.; and chromosome-banding patterns revealed by differential staining. The discussion shifts to a wave of research in plant population biology and evolutionary ecology since the 1970s and its impact on biology and biosystematics. The book considers various aspects of reproductive biology and evolutionary changes in significant reproductive parameters and attempts to demographically quantify these parameters. The final chapter is devoted to the use of functional phylogenetic systematics for predictive ecology. This book will be of interest to plant biologists and scientists and researchers in fields such as biochemistry, botany, microbiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology.




The Behavior, Ecology and Evolution of Cichlid Fishes


Book Description

This volume constitutes the most recent and most comprehensive consideration of the largest family of bony fishes, the Cichlidae. This book offers an integrated perspective of cichlid fishes ranging from conservation of threatened species to management of cichlids as invasive species themselves. Long-standing models of taxonomy and systematics are subjected to the most recent applications and interpretations of molecular evidence and multivariate analyses; and cichlid adaptive radiations at different scales are elucidated. The incredible diversity of endemic cichlid species in African lakes is revisited as possible examples of sympatric speciation and as serious cases for management in complex anthropogenic environments. Extreme hydrology and bathymetry as driver of micro-allopatric speciation is explored in the African riverine hotspot of diversity of the lower Congo River. Dramatic new molecular evidence draws attention to the complex taxonomy and systematics of Neotropical cichlids including the crater lakes of Central America. Molecular genetics, genomics, imaging tools and field study techniques assess the roles of natural, sexual and kin selection in shaping cichlid traits and beyond. The complex behavioral adaptations of cichlids are considered from a number of sub-disciplines including sensory biology, neurobiology, development, and evolutionary ecology. Most importantly, this volume puts forth a wealth of new interpretations, explanatory hypotheses and proposals for practical management and applications that will shape the future for these remarkable fishes in nature as well as their use as models for the study of biology.




The Evolution of Thought


Book Description

Research on the evolution of higher intelligence rarely combines data from fields as diverse as paleontology and psychology. In this volume we seek to do just that, synthesizing the approaches of hominoid cognition, psychology, language studies, ecology, evolution, paleoecology and systematics toward an understanding of great ape intelligence. Leading scholars from all these fields have been asked to evaluate the manner in which each of their topics of research inform our understanding of the evolution of intelligence in great apes and humans. The ideas thus assembled represent a comprehensive survey of the various causes and consequences of cognitive evolution in great apes. The Evolution of Thought will therefore be an essential reference for graduate students and researchers in evolutionary psychology, paleoanthropology and primatology.




Feminism and Evolutionary Biology


Book Description

Standing at the intersection of evolutionary biology and feminist theory is a large audience interested in the questions one field raises for the other. Have evolutionary biologists worked largely or strictly within a masculine paradigm, seeing males as evolving and females as merely reacting passively or carried along with the tide? Would our view of nature `red in tooth in claw' be different if women had played a larger role in the creation of evolutionary theory and through education in its transmission to younger generations? Is there any such thing as a feminist science or feminist methodology? For feminists, does any kind of biological determinism undermine their contention that gender roles purely constructed, not inherent in the human species? Does the study of animals have anything to say to those preoccupied with the evolution and behavior of humans? All these questions and many more are addressed by this book, whose contributing authors include leading scholars in both feminism and evolutionary biology. Bound to be controversial, this book is addressed to evolutionary biologists and to feminists and to the large number of people interested in women's studies.




The Evolving Female


Book Description

A human female is born, lives her life, and dies within the space of a few decades, but the shape of her life has been strongly influenced by 50 million years of primate evolution and more than 100 million years of mammalian evolution. How the individual female plays out the stages of her life--from infancy, through the reproductive period, to old age--and how these stages have been formed by a long evolutionary process, is the theme of this collection. Written by leading scholars in fields ranging from evolutionary biology to cultural anthropology, these essays together examine what it means to be female, integrating the life histories of marine mammals, monkeys, apes, and humans. The result is a fascinating inquiry into the similarities among the ways females of different species balance the need for survival with their role in reproduction and mothering. The Evolving Female offers an outlook integrating life history with an intimate examination of female life paths. Behavior, anatomy and physiology, growth and development, cultural identity of women, the individual, and the society are among the topics investigated. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Linda Fedigan, Kathryn Ono, Joanne Reiter, Barbara Smuts, Mariko Hiraiwa-Hasegawa, Mary McDonald Pavelka, Caroline Pond, Robin McFarland, Silvana Borgognini Tarli and Elena Repetto, Gilda Morelli, Patricia Draper, Catherine Panter-Brick, Virginia J. Vitzthum, Alison Jolly, and Beverly McLeod.




Comparative Social Evolution


Book Description

A comparative view of the major features of animal social life and the evolution of cooperative group living.




The Evolution of Social Behavior in Insects and Arachnids


Book Description

'Social' insects and arachnids exhibit complex forms of behavior that involve cooperation in building a nest, defending against attackers or rearing offspring. This book is a comprehensive, up-to-date guide to sociality and its evolution in a wide range of taxa.




Social Recognition in Invertebrates


Book Description

This book uses a wide range of case studies from different invertebrate taxa to describe the numerous forms of social recognition occurring in this large group of animals and traces the evolution of this cognitive ability. The authors provide several examples of direct (i.e. the target of recognition is a conspecific) and indirect recognition (i.e. recognition of a reliable proxy rather than an individual, such as a den or a substrate) and discuss cases of familiar recognition (i.e. an animal remembers a conspecific but cannot tell what class it comes from or recognize its identity). Class-level recognition (i.e. an animal assigns a conspecific to an appropriate class of animals), and true individual recognition (i.e. an animal both identifies and recognizes a conspecific on an individual basis) are also addressed.




Biocommunication of Animals


Book Description

Every coordination within or between animals depends on communication processes. Although the signaling molecules, vocal and tactile signs, gestures and its combinations differ throughout all species according their evolutionary origins and variety of adaptation processes, certain levels of biocommunication can be found in all animal species: (a) Abiotic environmental indices such as temperature, light, water, etc. that affect the local ecosphere of an organism and are sensed, interpreted. (b) Trans-specific communication with non-related organisms. (c) Species-specific communication between same or related species. (d) Intraorganismic communication, i.e., sign-mediated coordination within the body of the organism. This book gives an overview of the manifold levels of animal communication exemplified by a variety of species and thereby broadens the understanding of these organisms.