Understanding Body Shapes of Animals

Understanding Body Shapes of Animals PDF Author: Holger Preuschoft
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030276686
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 587

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Book Description
This book discusses how and why animals evolved into particular shapes. The book identifies the physical laws which decide over the evolutionary (selective) value of body shape and morphological characters. Comparing the mechanical necessities with morphological details, the author attempts to understand how evolution works, and which sorts of limitations are set by selection. The book explains morphological traits in more biomechanical detail without getting lost in physics, or in methods. Most emphasis is placed on the proximate question, namely the identification of the mechanical stresses which must be sustained by the respective body parts, when they move the body or its parts against resistance. In the first part of the book the focus is on ‘primitive’ animals and later on the emphasis shifts to highly specialized mammals. Readers will learn more about living and fossil animals. A section of the book is dedicated to human evolution but not to produce another evolutionary tree, nor to refine a former one, but to contribute to answering the question: “WHY early humans have developed their particular body shape".

Understanding Body Shapes of Animals

Understanding Body Shapes of Animals PDF Author: Holger Preuschoft
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030276686
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 587

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book discusses how and why animals evolved into particular shapes. The book identifies the physical laws which decide over the evolutionary (selective) value of body shape and morphological characters. Comparing the mechanical necessities with morphological details, the author attempts to understand how evolution works, and which sorts of limitations are set by selection. The book explains morphological traits in more biomechanical detail without getting lost in physics, or in methods. Most emphasis is placed on the proximate question, namely the identification of the mechanical stresses which must be sustained by the respective body parts, when they move the body or its parts against resistance. In the first part of the book the focus is on ‘primitive’ animals and later on the emphasis shifts to highly specialized mammals. Readers will learn more about living and fossil animals. A section of the book is dedicated to human evolution but not to produce another evolutionary tree, nor to refine a former one, but to contribute to answering the question: “WHY early humans have developed their particular body shape".

Understanding Body Shapes of Animals

Understanding Body Shapes of Animals PDF Author: Holger Preuschoft
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783030276706
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book discusses how and why animals evolved into particular shapes. The book identifies the physical laws which decide over the evolutionary (selective) value of body shape and morphological characters. Comparing the mechanical necessities with morphological details, the author attempts to understand how evolution works, and which sorts of limitations are set by selection. The book explains morphological traits in more biomechanical detail without getting lost in physics, or in methods. Most emphasis is placed on the proximate question, namely the identification of the mechanical stresses which must be sustained by the respective body parts, when they move the body or its parts against resistance. In the first part of the book the focus is on ‘primitive’ animals and later on the emphasis shifts to highly specialized mammals. Readers will learn more about living and fossil animals. A section of the book is dedicated to human evolution but not to produce another evolutionary tree, nor to refine a former one, but to contribute to answering the question: “WHY early humans have developed their particular body shape".

Understanding Body Shapes of Animals

Understanding Body Shapes of Animals PDF Author: Holger Preuschoft
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783030276690
Category : Anatomy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book discusses how and why animals evolved into particular shapes. The book identifies the physical laws which decide over the evolutionary (selective) value of body shape and morphological characters. Comparing the mechanical necessities with morphological details, the author attempts to understand how evolution works, and which sorts of limitations are set by selection. The book explains morphological traits in more biomechanical detail without getting lost in physics, or in methods. Most emphasis is placed on the proximate question, namely the identification of the mechanical stresses which must be sustained by the respective body parts, when they move the body or its parts against resistance. In the first part of the book the focus is on 'primitive' animals and later on the emphasis shifts to highly specialized mammals. Readers will learn more about living and fossil animals. A section of the book is dedicated to human evolution but not to produce another evolutionary tree, nor to refine a former one, but to contribute to answering the question: “WHY early humans have developed their particular body shape".

Concepts of Biology

Concepts of Biology PDF Author: Samantha Fowler
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781739015503
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Black & white print. Concepts of Biology is designed for the typical introductory biology course for nonmajors, covering standard scope and sequence requirements. The text includes interesting applications and conveys the major themes of biology, with content that is meaningful and easy to understand. The book is designed to demonstrate biology concepts and to promote scientific literacy.

Intelligent Autonomous Systems 14

Intelligent Autonomous Systems 14 PDF Author: Weidong Chen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319480367
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 1118

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Book Description
This book describes the latest research advances, innovations, and visions in the field of robotics as presented by leading researchers, engineers, and practitioners from around the world at the 14th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-14), held in Shanghai, China in July 2016. The contributions amply demonstrate that robots, machines and systems are rapidly achieving intelligence and autonomy, attaining more and more capabilities such as mobility and manipulation, sensing and perception, reasoning, and decision-making. They cover a wide range of research results and applications, and particular attention is paid to the emerging role of autonomous robots and intelligent systems in industrial production, which reflects their maturity and robustness. The contributions were selected by means of a rigorous peer-review process and highlight many exciting and visionary ideas that will further galvanize the research community and spur novel research directions. The series of biennial IAS conferences, which began in 1986, represents a premiere event in the field of robotics.

Pro Tips & Techniques for Drawing Animals

Pro Tips & Techniques for Drawing Animals PDF Author: Michiyo Miyanaga
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462923712
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
Learn to draw lifelike versions of 63 different animals! This richly illustrated guide teaches you about the skeletal structures, musculatures and movements of various animals and how to draw them realistically. Each lesson in the book focuses on a different animal and is designed to expand your repertoire and develop your drawing skills. The techniques needed to capture these animals are demonstrated in hundreds of illustrations by 26 professional artists. This comprehensive reference work covers a wide range of different animals: Mammals including dogs, lions, bears, elephants and 25 others Amphibians & Reptiles including snakes, turtles, frogs and crocodiles Aquatic Animals including dolphins, penguins, seals, squid and whales Flying Animals including crows, owls, bats and sparrows Insects & Arthropods including beetles, spiders, dragonflies, butterflies and ladybugs Once you understand the internal structures and movements of each creature, you'll be able to confidently draw it in a more realistic way! This is a reference work that all artists will refer to again and again to explore the entire animal kingdom.

A General History of Chinese Art

A General History of Chinese Art PDF Author: Xifan Li
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110790920
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
This volume explores the prehistoric beginnings of Chinese art and its development during the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties. It analyses the conditions of the emergence of Chinese art and its transformation of form, content and function throughout the Three Dynasties, a historical period marked by important changes in the social and cultural Chinese landscape. A General History of Chinese Art comprises six volumes with a total of nine parts spanning from the Prehistoric Era until the 3rd year of Xuantong during the Qing Dynasty (1911). The work provides a comprehensive compilation of in-depth studies of the development of art throughout the subsequent reign of Chinese dynasties and explores the emergence of a wide range of artistic categories such as but not limited to music, dance, acrobatics, singing, story telling, painting, calligraphy, sculpture, architecture, and crafts. Unlike previous reference books, A General History of Chinese Art offers a broader overview of the notion of Chinese art by asserting a more diverse and less material understanding of arts, as has often been the case in Western scholarship.

Humans

Humans PDF Author: Sergio Almécija
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231553986
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 526

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Book Description
How did humanity evolve? And what does our evolutionary history tell us about what it means to be human? These questions are fundamental to our identity as individuals and as a species and to our relationship with the world. But there are almost as many answers to them as there are scientists who study these topics. This book brings together more than one hundred top experts, who share their insights on the study of human evolution and what it means for understanding our past, present, and future. Sergio Almécija asks leading figures across paleontology, primatology, archaeology, genetics, and many other disciplines about their lives, their work, and the philosophical significance of human evolution. They reflect on questions that are both fun and profound: What set you down your career path? Are humans special? Where and when would you travel in a time machine? Does human evolution offer lessons for society? Is evolution compatible with spirituality and religion? Humans features a remarkably accomplished cast of contributors, including Kay Behrensmeyer, Frans de Waal, Nina Jablonski, Richard Leakey, Robert Sapolsky, and Richard Wrangham. Together, they provide a refreshing, personable, engaging, cross-disciplinary, and thought-provoking exploration of different—even diametrically opposed—ideas about our nature and evolution, what makes humans unique, and what our future might hold. This book also offers practical suggestions for readers seeking to embark on a scientific career.

Zoological Physics

Zoological Physics PDF Author: Boye K. Ahlborn
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 354036188X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
This book presents a physicists view of life. The primary life functions of animals, such as eating, growing, reproducing and getting around all depend on motion: Motion of materials through the body, motion of limbs and motion of the entire body through water, air and on land. These activities are driven by internal information stored in the genes or in the brain and by external information transmitted by the senses. This book models these life functions with the tools of physics. It will appeal to all scientists, from the undergraduate level upwards, who are interested in the role played by physics in the animal kingdom.

How the Body Shapes the Way We Think

How the Body Shapes the Way We Think PDF Author: Rolf Pfeifer
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262288524
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 419

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Book Description
An exploration of embodied intelligence and its implications points toward a theory of intelligence in general; with case studies of intelligent systems in ubiquitous computing, business and management, human memory, and robotics. How could the body influence our thinking when it seems obvious that the brain controls the body? In How the Body Shapes the Way We Think, Rolf Pfeifer and Josh Bongard demonstrate that thought is not independent of the body but is tightly constrained, and at the same time enabled, by it. They argue that the kinds of thoughts we are capable of have their foundation in our embodiment—in our morphology and the material properties of our bodies. This crucial notion of embodiment underlies fundamental changes in the field of artificial intelligence over the past two decades, and Pfeifer and Bongard use the basic methodology of artificial intelligence—"understanding by building"—to describe their insights. If we understand how to design and build intelligent systems, they reason, we will better understand intelligence in general. In accessible, nontechnical language, and using many examples, they introduce the basic concepts by building on recent developments in robotics, biology, neuroscience, and psychology to outline a possible theory of intelligence. They illustrate applications of such a theory in ubiquitous computing, business and management, and the psychology of human memory. Embodied intelligence, as described by Pfeifer and Bongard, has important implications for our understanding of both natural and artificial intelligence.