It is widely acknowledged that life has adapted to its environment, but the precise mechanism remains unknown since Natural Selection, Descent with Modification and Survival of the Fittest are metaphors that cannot be scientifically tested.
This book provides researchers and advanced students associated with plant and pharmaceutical sciences with comprehensive information on medicinal trees, including their identification, morphological characteristics, traditional and economic uses, along with the latest research on their medicinal compounds.
This volume brings together diverse contributions from leading archaeologists and paleoanthropologists, covering various spatial and temporal periods to distinguish convergent evolution from cultural transmission in order to see if we can discover ancient human populations.
An essential introduction to microbiome science, a new cutting-edge discipline that is transforming the life sciencesThis book provides an accessible and authoritative guide to the fundamental principles of microbiome science, an exciting and fast-emerging new discipline that is reshaping many aspects of the life sciences.
How our ability to learn from each other has been the essential ingredient to our remarkable success as a speciesHuman beings are a very different kind of animal.
Myxomycetes: Biology, Systematics, Biogeography, and Ecology is a comprehensive overview of the body of accumulated knowledge that now exists on myxomycetes.
Evolution since Coding: Cradles, Halos, Barrels, and Wings describes genesis of metabolism, transcription, translation, cell structure, eukaryotic complexity, LUCA (the last universal common (cellular) ancestor), the great divergence of archaea and bacteria, LECA (the last eukaryotic common ancestor), extinction, and cancer in very simple ways.
Habitability of the Universe before Earth: Astrobiology: Exploring Life on Earth and Beyond (series) examines the times and places-before life existed on Earth-that might have provided suitable environments for life to occur, addressing the question: Is life on Earth de novo, or derived from previous life?
Why Penguins Communicate: The Evolution of Visual and Vocal Signals is a comprehensive and condensed review of several hundred publications on the evolution of penguin behaviors, particularly signaling, linking genetics and ecology via such behavioral adaptations as nuptial displays.
Examining Ecology: Exercises in Environmental Biology and Conservation explains foundational ecological principles using a hands-on approach that features analyzing data, drawing graphs, and undertaking practical exercises that simulate field work.
Mixed-Species Groups of Animals: Behavior, Community Structure, and Conservation presents a comprehensive discussion on the mixed-species groups of animals, a spectacular and accessible example of the complexity of species interactions.
The Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, Third Edition covers the ecology, behavior, conservation, evolution, form and function of whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, manatees, dugongs, otters and polar bears.
This visually appealing book recounts the history of molecular ecology and evolution as seen through the personal lens of one of its most prolific practitioners, who has studied a panorama of creatures ranging from corals, sponges, and other invertebrates to a wide variety of vertebrate animals including numerous birds, mammals, herps, and fishes.
Evolution: Components and Mechanisms introduces the many recent discoveries and insights that have added to the discipline of organic evolution, and combines them with the key topics needed to gain a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms of evolution.
Microbial Nanobionics: Volume 1, State of the Art, discusses a wide range of microbial systems and their utilization in biogenic synthesis of metallic nanoparticles.
On Human Nature: Biology, Psychology, Ethics, Politics, and Religion covers the present state of knowledge on human diversity and its adaptative significance through a broad and eclectic selection of representative chapters.
This work is a large, powerfully illustrated interdisciplinary natural sciences volume, the first of its kind to examine the critically important nature of ecological paradox, through an abundance of lenses: the biological sciences, taxonomy, archaeology, geopolitical history, comparative ethics, literature, philosophy, the history of science, human geography, population ecology, epistemology, anthropology, demographics, and futurism.
This book presents a comprehensive overview of our current understanding of mutualism origin, plant-pollinator specificity, mutualism stability, and reciprocal diversification.
This new book shows the work done by researchers dedicated to the study of different mycorrhizas types, the fungal species associated and their distribution influenced by geographical and environmental factors among the different South American biogeographic regions.
A groundbreaking book that examines all aspects of male aging through an evolutionary lensWhile the health of aging men has been a focus of biomedical research for years, evolutionary biology has not been part of the conversation-until now.
A groundbreaking theory of what makes the human mind uniqueThe Recursive Mind challenges the commonly held notion that language is what makes us uniquely human.
A major synthesis of homology, written by a top researcher in the fieldHomology-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.
Evolutionary Neuroscience is a collection of articles in brain evolution selected from the recent comprehensive reference, Evolution of Nervous Systems (Elsevier, Academic Press, 2007).
Inducible defenses--those often dramatic phenotypic shifts in prey activated by biological agents ranging from predators to pathogens--are widespread in the natural world.
The fossil record of giant flightless birds extends back to the Late Cretaceous, more than 70 million years ago, but our understanding of these extinct birds is still incomplete.
Chondrichthyans possess unique anatomical features compared to other vertebrates, in particular a fully cartilaginous skeleton and a permanently renewed dentition.
Bringing together the latest methodological and scientific progress in the various research areas in the field of Environmental Genomics, this book discusses the characterization of the structure and dynamics of life, the study of the evolution and adaptation of genes and genomes, the analysis of degraded and/or old DNA, and the functional and genomic ecology of populations and communities.
This visually appealing book recounts the history of molecular ecology and evolution as seen through the personal lens of one of its most prolific practitioners, who has studied a panorama of creatures ranging from corals, sponges, and other invertebrates to a wide variety of vertebrate animals including numerous birds, mammals, herps, and fishes.
Computer-Assisted Bacterial Systematics examines the theoretical basis of numerical taxonomy and its impact on microbial classification and identification.
This book should be of value to anyone interested in bird evolution and taxonomy, biogeography, distributional history, dispersal and migration patterns.
