Vertebrate Flight

Vertebrate Flight PDF Author: Ulla M. Norberg
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642838480
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
It has been great fun to write this book, even though it has taken longer than planned, and occasionally been exasperating. The most difficult problem was deciding what to exclude among so many interesting things, because the available material usually exceeded the space. Because a book like this covers so many aspects, each component must be limited. This book is intended for graduate and undergraduate students as well as professional scientists who want to work with animal flight or to gain some insight into flight mechanics, aerodynamics, energetics, physiology, morpho logy, ecology and evolution. My aim has not been to give the whole mathe matical explanation of flight, but to provide an outline and summary of the main theories for the understanding of how aerofoils respond to an airflow. I also hope to give the reader some insight into how flight morphology and the various wing shapes have evolved and are adapted to different ecological niches and habitats.

Vertebrate Flight

Vertebrate Flight PDF Author: Ulla M. Norberg
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642838480
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
It has been great fun to write this book, even though it has taken longer than planned, and occasionally been exasperating. The most difficult problem was deciding what to exclude among so many interesting things, because the available material usually exceeded the space. Because a book like this covers so many aspects, each component must be limited. This book is intended for graduate and undergraduate students as well as professional scientists who want to work with animal flight or to gain some insight into flight mechanics, aerodynamics, energetics, physiology, morpho logy, ecology and evolution. My aim has not been to give the whole mathe matical explanation of flight, but to provide an outline and summary of the main theories for the understanding of how aerofoils respond to an airflow. I also hope to give the reader some insight into how flight morphology and the various wing shapes have evolved and are adapted to different ecological niches and habitats.

Patterns and Processes of Vertebrate Evolution

Patterns and Processes of Vertebrate Evolution PDF Author: Robert Lynn Carroll
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521478090
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
The factors that influenced the evolution of the vertebrates are compared with the importance of variation and selection that Darwin emphasised in this broad study of the patterns and forces of evolutionary change.

Vertebrate Palaeontology

Vertebrate Palaeontology PDF Author: Michael J. Benton
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405144491
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 467

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Book Description
Vertebrate Palaeontology is a complete, up-to-date historyof the evolution of vertebrates. The third edition of this populartext has been extensively revised to incorporate the latestresearch, including new material from North and South America,Australia, Europe, China, Africa and Russia. Highlights astonishing new discoveries including new dinosaursand Mesozoic birds from China features a new chapter on how to study fossil vertebrates provides an increased emphasis on the cladistic framework withcladograms set apart from the body of the text and full lists ofdiagnostic characters includes new molecular evidence on early mammaldiversification new features aid study including new functional anddevelopmental feature spreads, key questions and extensivereferences to useful web sites strong phylogenetic focus making it an up-to-date source of thelatest broad-scale systematic data on vertebrate evolution To access the artwork from the book, please visit: ahref="http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/benton"www.blackwellpublishing.com/benton/a. An Instructor manual CD-ROM for this title is available. Pleasecontact our Higher Education team at ahref="mailto:[email protected]"[email protected]/afor more information.

The Vertebrate Integument Volume 2

The Vertebrate Integument Volume 2 PDF Author: Theagarten Lingham-Soliar
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 366246005X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
The emphasis in this volume is on the structure and functional design of the integument. The book starts with a brief introduction to some basic principles of physics (mechanics) including Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. These principles are subsequently used to interpret the problems animals encounter in motion. It is in only the last 40 or so years that we have begun to understand how important a role the integument plays in the locomotion of many marine vertebrates. This involves the crossed-fiber architecture, which was first discovered in a classic study on nemertean worms. As a design principle we see that the crossed-fiber architecture is ubiquitous in nature. Research on some of the most dynamic marine vertebrates of the oceans – tuna, dolphins and sharks, and the extinct Jurassic ichthyosaurs – shows precisely how the crossed-fiber architecture contributes to high-speed swimming and (in lamnid sharks) may even aid in energy conservation. However, this design principle is not restricted to animals in the marine biota but is also found as far afield as the dinosaurs and, most recently, has been revealed as a major part of the microstructure of the most complex derivative of the integument, the feather. We see that a variety of phylogenetically diverse vertebrates take to the air by using skin flaps to glide from tree to tree or to the ground, and present detailed descriptions of innovations developed in pursuit of improved gliding capabilities in both extinct and modern day gliders. But the vertebrate integument had even greater things in store, namely true or flapping flight. Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to use the integument as a membrane in true flapping flight and these interesting extinct animals are discussed on the basis of past and cutting-edge research , most intriguingly with respect to the structure of the flight membrane. Bats, the only mammals that fly, also employ integumental flight membranes. Classic research on bat flight is reviewed and supplemented with the latest research, which shows the complexities of the wing beat cycle to be significantly different from that of birds, as revealed by particle image velocimetry. The book’s largest chapter is devoted to birds, given that they make up nearly half of the over 22,000 species of tetrapods. The flight apparatus of birds is unique in nature and is described in great detail, with innovative research highlighting the complexity of the flight structures, bird flight patterns, and behavior in a variety of species. This is complimented by new research on the brains of birds, which shows that they are more complex than previously thought. The feather made bird flight possible, and was itself made possible by β-keratin, contributing to what may be a unique biomechanical microstructure in nature, a topic discussed in some depth. A highly polarized subject concerns the origin of birds and of the feather. Alleged fossilized protofeathers (primal simple feathers) are considered on the basis of histological and taphonomic investigative studies in Chapter 6. Finally, in Chapter 7 we discuss the controversies associated with this field of research. Professor Theagarten Lingham-Soliar works at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth and is an Honorary Professor of Life Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Vertebrate Paleobiology

Vertebrate Paleobiology PDF Author: Sergio F. Vizcaíno
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 025307049X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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Book Description
An essential introduction to the paleobiology of animal body size, locomotion, and feeding. Paleobiology is the branch of evolutionary biology involved in the reconstruction of the life histories of extinct organisms. It answers the questions, How do we use fossils to reconstruct the size of prehistoric animals, and How did they move and feed? Drawing on a rich inventory of South American Miocene fossils, Vertebrate Paleobiology: A Form and Function Approach examines different aspects of functional morphology and how they are tested by paleontologists, anatomists, and zoologists. Beginning with a review of various methodologies to interpret fossils, the authors turn to the main concepts important to functional morphology and give examples of each. They conclude by showing how functional morphology enables a dynamic, broadscale reconstruction of the life of prehistoric animals during the South American Miocene. Originally published in Spanish, Vertebrate Paleobiology: A Form and Function Approach provides a broad sweep of recent developments, including theoretical and practical techniques, applied to the study of extinct vertebrates.

Evolution of Vertebrate Design

Evolution of Vertebrate Design PDF Author: Leonard B. Radinsky
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022622063X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
The Evolution of Vertebrate Design is a solid introduction to vertebrate evolution, paleontology, vertebrate biology, and functional, comparative anatomy. Its lucid style also makes it ideal for general readers intrigued by fossil history. Clearly drawn diagrams illustrate biomechanical explanations of the evolution of fins, jaws, joints, and body shapes among vertebrates. A glossary of terms is included. "A luminous text is matched by lucid drawings rationally placed. . . . A great teaching monograph, the book will charm lay readers of fossil history. For virtually every college & public collection."—Scitech Book News

Vertebrate Zoölogy

Vertebrate Zoölogy PDF Author: Horatio Hackett Newman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Vertebrates
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description


Biological Systems in Vertebrates, Vol. 1

Biological Systems in Vertebrates, Vol. 1 PDF Author: J N Maina
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1482294303
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Gives an account of the morphologies of vertebrate respiratory organs and attempts to explicate the basis of the common and different structural and functional designs and stratagems that have evolved for acquisition of molecular oxygen. The book has been written with a broad readership in mind: students of biology as well as experts in the disciplines of zoology, physiology, morphology, biological microscopy, biomedical engineering, and ecology and those that work or may contemplate working on materials and aspects concerning respiration in whole organisms will find it useful. Scientists in earth sciences with particular interest on the outcomes of past interactions between environmental factors (the physical domain) and evolution and adaptation (the biological domain), mechanisms that have set the composition, patterning, and anatomies of extant animal life, will find the book of interest.

Current Ornithology

Current Ornithology PDF Author: Richard Johnston
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461567874
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
Volume 5 of this series continues its coverage of currently active re search fields in ornithology. Because an editor can never be a disin terested observer of his or her own editorial efforts, any claim for su periority of this volume is not without conflict of interest. Even so, Volume 5 has certain merits that even a parent should acknowledge, and I find the current chapters not merely timely and authoritative but compelling in their demand for a reader's attention. Wolfgang and Roswitha Wiltschko provide a perceptive review of magnetic orientation in birds, a piece dedicated to Fritz Merkel, the pioneer in studies of magnetic orientation. Sergei Kharitonov and Doug las Siegel-Causey are concerned with the behavioral ecology of seabird coloniality, emphasizing their field experiences in the USSR and the United States. Ted Miller examines the application of studies of bird behavior to comparative biology, pursuing the interface of behavior and evolutionary biology adumbrated by Konrad Lorenz in the 1930s. Jeremy Raynor gives us a summary of the work over the past decade on bird flight, which is not, by turns, as complex or as simple as we had formerly believed. Carrol Henderson describes recent develop ments in nongame bird conservation, based on his pioneering work in the State of Minnesota. Alan Kamil discusses optimal experimental design for research in ornithology, a field in which experimental work is frequently difficult to pursue.

Constructional Morphology and Evolution

Constructional Morphology and Evolution PDF Author: Norbert Schmidt-Kittler
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642761569
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
Constructional morphology explains features of organisms from a constructional and functional point of view. By means of physical analysis it explains the operational aspects of organic structures - how they can perform the activities organisms are expected to fulfil in order to survive in their environment. Constructional morphology also explains options and constraints during the evolution determined by internal constructional needs, ontogenetic demands, inherited organizational preconditions and environmental clues.