The Evolutionary Biology of the Threespine Stickleback

The Evolutionary Biology of the Threespine Stickleback PDF Author: Michael A. Bell
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 9780198577287
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 571

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Book Description
The threespine stickleback is a small fish of temperate coastal and fresh waters that exhibits extraordinary phenotypic diversity. Benefiting from its amenability to observation in the field and manipulation in the laboratory, Niko Tinbergen pioneered the threespine stickleback's use in behavioral studies and established it as a model system in ethology. This up-to-date volume incorporates reviews from active researchers who use studies of the fish to address a broad variety of evolutionary issues, including optimal foraging, armor variation, speciation, and the endocrine basis for correlated behavioral characters. The work demonstrates the value of viewing the biology of a single organism simultaneously from multiple perspectives. Students and researchers in ecology, evolution, animal behavior, and vertebrate zoology will find much of interest in this useful book.

The Evolutionary Biology of the Threespine Stickleback

The Evolutionary Biology of the Threespine Stickleback PDF Author: Michael A. Bell
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 9780198577287
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 571

Get Book Here

Book Description
The threespine stickleback is a small fish of temperate coastal and fresh waters that exhibits extraordinary phenotypic diversity. Benefiting from its amenability to observation in the field and manipulation in the laboratory, Niko Tinbergen pioneered the threespine stickleback's use in behavioral studies and established it as a model system in ethology. This up-to-date volume incorporates reviews from active researchers who use studies of the fish to address a broad variety of evolutionary issues, including optimal foraging, armor variation, speciation, and the endocrine basis for correlated behavioral characters. The work demonstrates the value of viewing the biology of a single organism simultaneously from multiple perspectives. Students and researchers in ecology, evolution, animal behavior, and vertebrate zoology will find much of interest in this useful book.

Biology of the Three-Spined Stickleback

Biology of the Three-Spined Stickleback PDF Author: Sara Ostlund-Nilsson
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1420004832
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
Highlighting the growing importance of the sticklebacks as a model species in emerging fields such as molecular genetics, genomics, and environmental toxicology, Biology of the Three-Spined Stickleback examines data from researchers who use studies of the stickleback to address a wide range of biological issues. This state-of-the-art volume

Microevolution Rate, Pattern, Process

Microevolution Rate, Pattern, Process PDF Author: Andrew P. Hendry
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401005850
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
From guppies to Galapagos finches and from adaptive landscapes to haldanes, this compilation of contributed works provides reviews, perspectives, theoretical models, statistical developments, and empirical demonstrations exploring the tempo and mode of microevolution on contemporary to geological time scales. New developments, and reviews, of classic and novel empirical systems demonstrate the strength and diversity of evolutionary processes producing biodiversity within species. Perspectives and theoretical insights expand these empirical observations to explore patterns and mechanisms of microevolution, methods for its quantification, and implications for the evolution of biodiversity on other scales. This diverse assemblage of manuscripts is aimed at professionals, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates who desire a timely synthesis of current knowledge, an illustration of exciting new directions, and a springboard for future investigations in the study of microevolution in the wild.

Improbable Destinies

Improbable Destinies PDF Author: Jonathan B. Losos
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0399184937
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
A major new book overturning our assumptions about how evolution works Earth’s natural history is full of fascinating instances of convergence: phenomena like eyes and wings and tree-climbing lizards that have evolved independently, multiple times. But evolutionary biologists also point out many examples of contingency, cases where the tiniest change—a random mutation or an ancient butterfly sneeze—caused evolution to take a completely different course. What role does each force really play in the constantly changing natural world? Are the plants and animals that exist today, and we humans ourselves, inevitabilities or evolutionary flukes? And what does that say about life on other planets? Jonathan Losos reveals what the latest breakthroughs in evolutionary biology can tell us about one of the greatest ongoing debates in science. He takes us around the globe to meet the researchers who are solving the deepest mysteries of life on Earth through their work in experimental evolutionary science. Losos himself is one of the leaders in this exciting new field, and he illustrates how experiments with guppies, fruit flies, bacteria, foxes, and field mice, along with his own work with anole lizards on Caribbean islands, are rewinding the tape of life to reveal just how rapid and predictable evolution can be. Improbable Destinies will change the way we think and talk about evolution. Losos's insights into natural selection and evolutionary change have far-reaching applications for protecting ecosystems, securing our food supply, and fighting off harmful viruses and bacteria. This compelling narrative offers a new understanding of ourselves and our role in the natural world and the cosmos.

The Biology of the Sticklebacks

The Biology of the Sticklebacks PDF Author: Robert J. Wootton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description


In Search of the Causes of Evolution

In Search of the Causes of Evolution PDF Author: Peter R. Grant
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691146950
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
Evolutionary biology has witnessed breathtaking advances in recent years. Some of its most exciting insights have come from the crossover of disciplines as varied as paleontology, molecular biology, ecology, and genetics. This book brings together many of today's pioneers in evolutionary biology to describe the latest advances and explain why a cross-disciplinary and integrated approach to research questions is so essential. Contributors discuss the origins of biological diversity, mechanisms of evolutionary change at the molecular and developmental levels, morphology and behavior, and the ecology of adaptive radiations and speciation. They highlight the mutual dependence of organisms and their environments, and reveal the different strategies today's researchers are using in the field and laboratory to explore this interdependence. Peter and Rosemary Grant--renowned for their influential work on Darwin's finches in the Galápagos--provide concise introductions to each section and identify the key questions future research needs to address. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Myra Awodey, Christopher N. Balakrishnan, Rowan D. H. Barrett, May R. Berenbaum, Paul M. Brakefield, Philip J. Currie, Scott V. Edwards, Douglas J. Emlen, Joshua B. Gross, Hopi E. Hoekstra, Richard Hudson, David Jablonski, David T. Johnston, Mathieu Joron, David Kingsley, Andrew H. Knoll, Mimi A. R. Koehl, June Y. Lee, Jonathan B. Losos, Isabel Santos Magalhaes, Albert B. Phillimore, Trevor Price, Dolph Schluter, Ole Seehausen, Clifford J. Tabin, John N. Thompson, and David B. Wake.

The Evolution of Sex Determination

The Evolution of Sex Determination PDF Author: Leo Beukeboom
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191631396
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
Sexual reproduction is a fundamental aspect of life. It is defined by the occurrence of meiosis and the fusion of two gametes of different sexes or mating types. Sex-determination mechanisms are responsible for the sexual fate and development of sexual characteristics in an organism, be it a unicellular alga, a plant, or an animal. In many cases, sex determination is genetic: males and females have different alleles or different genes that specify their sexual morphology. In animals, this is often accompanied by chromosomal differences. In other cases, sex may be determined by environmental (e.g. temperature) or social variables (e.g. the size of an organism relative to other members of its population). Surprisingly, sex-determination mechanisms are not evolutionarily conserved but are bewilderingly diverse and appear to have had rapid turnover rates during evolution. Evolutionary biologists continue to seek a solution to this conundrum. What drives the surprising dynamics of such a fundamental process that always leads to the same outcome: two sex types, male and female? The answer is complex but the ongoing genomic revolution has already greatly increased our knowledge of sex-determination systems and sex chromosomes in recent years. This novel book presents and synthesizes our current understanding, and clearly shows that sex-determination evolution will remain a dynamic field of future research. The Evolution of Sex Determination is an advanced, research level text suitable for graduate students and researchers in genetics, developmental biology, and evolution.

Evolution's Wedge

Evolution's Wedge PDF Author: David Pfennig
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520954041
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
Evolutionary biology has long sought to explain how new traits and new species arise. Darwin maintained that competition is key to understanding this biodiversity and held that selection acting to minimize competition causes competitors to become increasingly different, thereby promoting new traits and new species. Despite Darwin’s emphasis, competition’s role in diversification remains controversial and largely underappreciated. In their synthetic and provocative book, evolutionary ecologists David and Karin Pfennig explore competition's role in generating and maintaining biodiversity. The authors discuss how selection can lessen resource competition or costly reproductive interactions by promoting trait evolution through a process known as character displacement. They further describe character displacement’s underlying genetic and developmental mechanisms. The authors then consider character displacement’s myriad downstream effects, ranging from shaping ecological communities to promoting new traits and new species and even fueling large-scale evolutionary trends. Drawing on numerous studies from natural populations, and written for a broad audience, Evolution’s Wedge seeks to inspire future research into character displacement’s many implications for ecology and evolution.

Rates of Evolution

Rates of Evolution PDF Author: Philip D. Gingerich
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107167248
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
An overview of evolutionary rates, analyzing data from laboratory, field and fossil record studies to extract their underlying generation-to-generation rates.

Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics

Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics PDF Author:
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128014334
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
The theme of this volume is to discuss Eco-evolutionary Dynamics. - Updates and informs the reader on the latest research findings - Written by leading experts in the field - Highlights areas for future investigation