Spider Evolution

Spider Evolution PDF Author: Subir Ranjan Kundu
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0323886124
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Spider Evolution: Genetics, Behavior, and Ecological Influences provides a thorough exploration of the evolutionary trail of arachnids, particularly spider species, from prehistoric origins to current sustainability issues. This book analyzes extinct organisms in the Arachnida class, specifically looking at their phylogenomics and molecular footprints to understand evolutionary changes in diversification in today's species. Sections cover spider origins and their influences on behavioral traits, physiology of sensory organs, and biomechanics, also touching on spiders as prey and predators and how their roles have changed in the 400 million years of Arachnida existence. The book then focuses upon current environmental issues facing spider species and how these have, and can, affect the evolution of these organisms. Topics include biodiversity minimization, climate change and natural disasters. This book is a much-needed resource for entomologists and arachnid- or arthropod-driven researchers. Advanced undergraduate and graduate students will also benefit from the historic review, current assessment and future predictions of spider evolution provided in this book. - Provides a complete view of spider species from their first fossil evidence nearly 400 million years ago - Focuses on climate change and biodiversity threats as environmental factors currently affecting these organisms - Contains the most up-to-date knowledge on evolutionary genetics, physiology changes and behavioral outcomes

Spider Evolution

Spider Evolution PDF Author: Subir Ranjan Kundu
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0323886124
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book Here

Book Description
Spider Evolution: Genetics, Behavior, and Ecological Influences provides a thorough exploration of the evolutionary trail of arachnids, particularly spider species, from prehistoric origins to current sustainability issues. This book analyzes extinct organisms in the Arachnida class, specifically looking at their phylogenomics and molecular footprints to understand evolutionary changes in diversification in today's species. Sections cover spider origins and their influences on behavioral traits, physiology of sensory organs, and biomechanics, also touching on spiders as prey and predators and how their roles have changed in the 400 million years of Arachnida existence. The book then focuses upon current environmental issues facing spider species and how these have, and can, affect the evolution of these organisms. Topics include biodiversity minimization, climate change and natural disasters. This book is a much-needed resource for entomologists and arachnid- or arthropod-driven researchers. Advanced undergraduate and graduate students will also benefit from the historic review, current assessment and future predictions of spider evolution provided in this book. - Provides a complete view of spider species from their first fossil evidence nearly 400 million years ago - Focuses on climate change and biodiversity threats as environmental factors currently affecting these organisms - Contains the most up-to-date knowledge on evolutionary genetics, physiology changes and behavioral outcomes

Spider Webs

Spider Webs PDF Author: William Eberhard
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022653474X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 679

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Book Description
In this lavishly illustrated, first-ever book on how spider webs are built, function, and evolved, William Eberhard provides a comprehensive overview of spider functional morphology and behavior related to web building, and of the surprising physical agility and mental abilities of orb weavers. For instance, one spider spins more than three precisely spaced, morphologically complex spiral attachments per second for up to fifteen minutes at a time. Spiders even adjust the mechanical properties of their famously strong silken lines to different parts of their webs and different environments, and make dramatic modifications in orb designs to adapt to available spaces. This extensive adaptive flexibility, involving decisions influenced by up to sixteen different cues, is unexpected in such small, supposedly simple animals. As Eberhard reveals, the extraordinary diversity of webs includes ingenious solutions to gain access to prey in esoteric habitats, from blazing hot and shifting sand dunes (to capture ants) to the surfaces of tropical lakes (to capture water striders). Some webs are nets that are cast onto prey, while others form baskets into which the spider flicks prey. Some aerial webs are tramways used by spiders searching for chemical cues from their prey below, while others feature landing sites for flying insects and spiders where the spider then stalks its prey. In some webs, long trip lines are delicately sustained just above the ground by tiny rigid silk poles. Stemming from the author’s more than five decades observing spider webs, this book will be the definitive reference for years to come.

Spider Silk

Spider Silk PDF Author: Leslie Brunetta
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300163150
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Spiders, objects of eternal human fascination, are found in many places: on the ground, in the air, and even under water. Leslie Brunetta and Catherine Craig have teamed up to produce a substantive yet entertaining book for anyone who has ever wondered, as a spider rappelled out of reach on a line of silk, “How do they do that?” The orb web, that iconic wheel-shaped web most of us associate with spiders, contains at least four different silk proteins, each performing a different function and all meshing together to create a fly-catching machine that has amazed and inspired humans through the ages. Brunetta and Craig tell the intriguing story of how spiders evolved over 400 million years to add new silks and new uses for silk to their survival “toolkit” and, in the telling, take readers far beyond the orb. The authors describe the trials and triumphs of spiders as they use silk to negotiate an ever-changing environment, and they show how natural selection acts at the genetic level and as individuals struggle for survival.

Fossil Spiders

Fossil Spiders PDF Author: David Penney
Publisher: Siri Scientific Press
ISBN: 0955863651
Category : Amber fossils
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
Compared to insects, fossil spiders have received only scant attention in the literature. Previously, the only works available were numerous scientific papers, many published in foreign languages. Most of these are basic descriptive taxonomic works, with very few considering broader biological concepts. Despite a significant increase in the discovery and description of fossil spiders within the last quarter Century this void remained unfilled. Thus, this short monograph aims to achieve several objectives. Firstly, to provide general and up to date background information on the overall importance and diversity of fossils spiders, including an indication of those groups for which the taxonomy is spurious and in need of reassessment. Secondly, to discuss the techniques available for working with fossil spiders and some of the problems encountered by palaeoarachnologists, including bias and limitations of the spider fossil record. Thirdly, the overall evolutionary history of spiders is summarized in the form of an evolutionary tree, which is subsequently used to address key issues of broad interest, such as origins, diversifications and extinctions, including the effects of mass extinctions and predator-prey co-radiations. Finally, the contribution that fossil data can make to understanding the past and present biogeography of the order is considered. This book should be of interest to both amateur and professional arachnologists and palaeontologists and will also serve as a general palaeontological reference work for neonologists studying extant spiders.

Children of Time

Children of Time PDF Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Publisher: Orbit
ISBN: 0316452491
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Book Description
Winner of the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Series! Adrian Tchaikovsky's award-winning novel Children of Time, is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare. Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

Spider Behaviour

Spider Behaviour PDF Author: Marie Elisabeth Herberstein
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139494783
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
Spiders are often underestimated as suitable behavioural models because of the general belief that due to their small brains their behaviour is innate and mostly invariable. Challenging this assumption, this fascinating book shows that rather than having a limited behavioural repertoire, spiders show surprising cognitive abilities, changing their behaviour to suit their situational needs. The team of authors unravels the considerable intra-specific as well as intra-individual variability and plasticity in different behaviours ranging from foraging and web building to communication and courtship. An introductory chapter on spider biology, systematics and evolution provides the reader with the necessary background information to understand the discussed behaviours and helps to place them into an evolutionary context. Highlighting an under-explored area of behaviour, this book will provide new ideas for behavioural researchers and students unfamiliar with spiders as well as a valuable resource for those already working in this intriguing field.

Spider Monkeys

Spider Monkeys PDF Author: Christina J. Campbell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316583104
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description
Spider monkeys are one of the most widespread New World primate genera, ranging from southern Mexico to Bolivia. Although they are common in zoos, spider monkeys are traditionally very difficult to study in the wild, because they are fast moving, live high in the canopy and are almost always found in small subgroups that vary in size and composition throughout the day. This book is an assimilation of both published and previously unpublished research. It is a comprehensive source of information for academic researchers and graduate students interested in primatology, evolutionary anthropology and behavioral ecology and covers topics such as taxonomy, diet, sexuality and reproduction, and conservation.

Spiders of the World

Spiders of the World PDF Author: Norman I. Platnick
Publisher:
ISBN: 1782407502
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
Spiders of the World explores the huge diversity of spider species and their fascinating traits, with profiles of 117 families accompanied by expert commentary and beautiful photographs.

Spider Communication

Spider Communication PDF Author: Peter N. Witt
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400857511
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
Concentrating on the complex spider communication system, this book assembles the most recent multidisciplinary advances of leading researchers from many countries to assess the peculiar role spiders play in the animal kingdom. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Fossil Arachnids

Fossil Arachnids PDF Author: Jason A. Dunlop
Publisher: Siri Scientific Press
ISBN: 0956779549
Category : Arachnida, Fossil
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
Fossil arachnids date back more than 400 million years to the Silurian period, making them one of the first animal groups to appear in terrestrial ecosystems. This book provides information on what the arachnids are and their relationships to one another.