Major Evolutionary Radiations

Major Evolutionary Radiations PDF Author: Paul D. Taylor
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
This unique volume takes a close look at patterns of evolutionary change responsible for the astounding diversity of life and the major radiations seen in many taxonomic groups. Evidence from the fossil record shows that this process has not occurred at an even rate. Rather, relatively short but highly active periods of evolution have yielded the multiplication of species and morphological divergences, such as the emergence of flowering plants during the late Cretaceous. The contributors to this work, all recognized authorities in their fields, discuss general aspects of major radiations, and then focus on evolution in taxonomic groups with ample fossil records. The book is an important complement to the literature of extinction and paleontology, and will be read with interest by paleontologists and evolutionary biologists alike.

Major Evolutionary Radiations

Major Evolutionary Radiations PDF Author: Paul D. Taylor
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 464

Get Book Here

Book Description
This unique volume takes a close look at patterns of evolutionary change responsible for the astounding diversity of life and the major radiations seen in many taxonomic groups. Evidence from the fossil record shows that this process has not occurred at an even rate. Rather, relatively short but highly active periods of evolution have yielded the multiplication of species and morphological divergences, such as the emergence of flowering plants during the late Cretaceous. The contributors to this work, all recognized authorities in their fields, discuss general aspects of major radiations, and then focus on evolution in taxonomic groups with ample fossil records. The book is an important complement to the literature of extinction and paleontology, and will be read with interest by paleontologists and evolutionary biologists alike.

The Largest Avian Radiation

The Largest Avian Radiation PDF Author: Jon Fjeldså
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788416728336
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
Based on the latest phylogenetic studies, this book reveals the remarkable new history of how passerines diversified and dispersed across the entire world.

The Ecology of Adaptive Radiation

The Ecology of Adaptive Radiation PDF Author: Dolph Schluter
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191588326
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
Adaptive radiation is the evolution of diversity within a rapidly multiplying lineage. It can cause a single ancestral species to differentiate into an impressively vast array of species inhabiting a variety of environments. Much of life's diversity has arisen during adaptive radiations. Some of the most famous recent examples include the East African cichlid fishes, the Hawaiian silverswords, and of course, Darwin's Gal--aacute--;pagos finches,. This book evaluates the causes of adaptive radiation. It focuses on the 'ecological' theory of adaptive radiation, a body of ideas that began with Darwin and was developed through the early part of the 20th Century. This theory proposes that phenotypic divergence and speciation in adaptive radiation are caused ultimately by divergent natural selection arising from differences in environment and competition between species. In The Ecology of Adaptive Radiation the author re-evaluates the ecological theory, along with its most significant extensions and challenges, in the light of all the recent evidence. This important book is the first full exploration of the causes of adaptive radiation to be published for decades, written by one of the world's best young evolutionary biologists.

Mammals

Mammals PDF Author: Thomas Stainforth Kemp
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198766947
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Relative newcomers within the story of evolution, mammals are hugely successful and have colonized land, water, and air. Tom Kemp discusses the great diversity of mammalian species, and looks at how their very disparate characteristics, physiologies, and behaviours are all largely driven by one uniting factor: endothermy, or warm-bloodedness.

Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree

Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree PDF Author: Jonathan B. Losos
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520269845
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
"In a book both beautifully illustrated and deeply informative, Jonathan Losos, a leader in evolutionary ecology, celebrates and analyzes the diversity of the natural world that the fascinating anoline lizards epitomize. Readers who are drawn to nature by its beauty or its intellectual challenges—or both—will find his book rewarding."—Douglas J. Futuyma, State University of New York, Stony Brook "This book is destined to become a classic. It is scholarly, informative, stimulating, and highly readable, and will inspire a generation of students."—Peter R. Grant, author of How and Why Species Multiply: The Radiation of Darwin's Finches "Anoline lizards experienced a spectacular adaptive radiation in the dynamic landscape of the Caribbean islands. The radiation has extended over a long period of time and has featured separate radiations on the larger islands. Losos, the leading active student of these lizards, presents an integrated and synthetic overview, summarizing the enormous and multidimensional research literature. This engaging book makes a wonderful example of an adaptive radiation accessible to all, and the lavish illustrations, especially the photographs, make the anoles come alive in one's mind."—David Wake, University of California, Berkeley "This magnificent book is a celebration and synthesis of one of the most eventful adaptive radiations known. With disarming prose and personal narrative Jonathan Losos shows how an obsession, beginning at age ten, became a methodology and a research plan that, together with studies by colleagues and predecessors, culminated in many of the principles we now regard as true about the origins and maintenance of biodiversity. This work combines rigorous analysis and glorious natural history in a unique volume that stands with books by the Grants on Darwin's finches among the most informed and engaging accounts ever written on the evolution of a group of organisms in nature."—Dolph Schluter, author of The Ecology of Adaptive Radiation

Specialization, Speciation, and Radiation

Specialization, Speciation, and Radiation PDF Author: Kelley Jean Tilmon
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520251326
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
"This volume captures the state-of-the-art in the study of insect-plant interactions, and marks the transformation of the field into evolutionary biology. The contributors present integrative reviews of uniformly high quality that will inform and inspire generations of academic and applied biologists. Their presentation together provides an invaluable synthesis of perspectives that is rare in any discipline."--Brian D. Farrell, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University "Tilmon has assembled a truly wonderful and rich volume, with contributions from the lion's share of fine minds in evolution and ecology of herbivorous insects. The topics comprise a fascinating and deep coverage of what has been discovered in the prolific recent decades of research with insects on plants. Fascinating chapters provide deep analyses of some of the most interesting research on these interactions. From insect plant chemistry, behavior, and host shifting to phylogenetics, co-evolution, life-history evolution, and invasive plant-insect interaction, one is hard pressed to name a substantial topic not included. This volume will launch a hundred graduate seminars and find itself on the shelf of everyone who is anyone working in this rich landscape of disciplines."--Donald R. Strong, Professor of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis "Seldom have so many excellent authors been brought together to write so many good chapters on so many important topics in organismic evolutionary biology. Tom Wood, always unassuming and inspired by living nature, would have been amazed and pleased by this tribute."--Mary Jane West-Eberhard, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Events of Increased Biodiversity

Events of Increased Biodiversity PDF Author: Pascal Neige
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0081004745
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 147

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Book Description
The fossil record offers a surprising image: that of evolutionary radiations characterized by intense increases in cash or by the sudden diversification of a single species group, while others stagnate or die out. In a modern world, science carries an often pessimistic message, surrounded by studies of global warming and its effects, extinction crisis, emerging diseases and invasive species. This book fuels frequent "optimism" of the sudden increase in biodiversity by exploring this natural phenomenon. Events of Increased Biodiversity: Evolutionary Radiations in the Fossil Record explores this natural phenomenon of adaptive radiation including its effect on the increase in biodiversity events, their contribution to the changes and limitations in the fossil record, and examines the links between ecology and paleontology's study of radiation. - Details examples of evolutionary radiations - Explicitly addresses the effect of adaptation driven by ecological opportunity - Examines the link between ecology and paleontology's study of adaptive radiation

The Geographic Mosaic of Coevolution

The Geographic Mosaic of Coevolution PDF Author: John N. Thompson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226797627
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
Coevolution—reciprocal evolutionary change in interacting species driven by natural selection—is one of the most important ecological and genetic processes organizing the earth's biodiversity: most plants and animals require coevolved interactions with other species to survive and reproduce. The Geographic Mosaic of Coevolution analyzes how the biology of species provides the raw material for long-term coevolution, evaluates how local coadaptation forms the basic module of coevolutionary change, and explores how the coevolutionary process reshapes locally coevolving interactions across the earth's constantly changing landscapes. Picking up where his influential The Coevolutionary Process left off, John N. Thompsonsynthesizes the state of a rapidly developing science that integrates approaches from evolutionary ecology, population genetics, phylogeography, systematics, evolutionary biochemistry and physiology, and molecular biology. Using models, data, and hypotheses to develop a complete conceptual framework, Thompson also draws on examples from a wide range of taxa and environments, illustrating the expanding breadth and depth of research in coevolutionary biology.

The Trace-Fossil Record of Major Evolutionary Events

The Trace-Fossil Record of Major Evolutionary Events PDF Author: M. Gabriela Mángano
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9401796009
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
This volume addresses major evolutionary changes that took place during the Ediacaran and the Paleozoic. These include discussions on the nature of Ediacaran ecosystems, as well as the ichnologic signature of evolutionary radiations, such as the Cambrian explosion and the Great Ordovician biodiversification event, the invasion of the land, and the end-Permian mass extinction. This volume set provides innovative reviews of the major evolutionary events in the history of life from an ichnologic perspective. Because the long temporal range of trace fossils has been commonly emphasized, biogenic structures have been traditionally overlooked in macroevolution. However, comparisons of ichnofaunas through geologic time do reveal the changing ecology of organism-substrate interactions. The use of trace fossils in evolutionary paleoecology represents a new trend that is opening a window for our understanding of major evolutionary radiations and mass extinctions. Trace fossils provide crucial evidence for the recognition of spatial and temporal patterns and processes associated with paleoecologic breakthroughs.

Molecular Evolution and Adaptive Radiation

Molecular Evolution and Adaptive Radiation PDF Author: Thomas J. Givnish
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521779296
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 652

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Book Description
This volume surveys advances in the study of adaptive radiation showing how molecular characters can be used to analyze the origin and pattern of diversification within a lineage in a non-circular fashion.