Evolutionary Developmental Biology

Evolutionary Developmental Biology

Author: Brian K. Hall

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 485

ISBN-13: 940113961X

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Although evolutionary developmental biology is a new field, its origins lie in the last century; the search for connections between embryonic development (ontogeny) and evolutionary change (phylogeny) has been a long one. Evolutionary developmental biology is however more than just a fusion of the fields of developmental and evolutionary biology. It forges a unification of genomic, developmental, organismal, population and natural selection approaches to evolutionary change. It is concerned with how developmental processes evolve; how evolution produces novel structures, functions and behaviours; and how development, evolution and ecology are integrated to bring about and stabilize evolutionary change. The previous edition of this title, published in 1992, defined the terms and laid out the field for evolutionary developmental biology. This field is now one of the most active and fast growing within biology and this is reflected in this second edition, which is more than twice the length of the original and brought completely up to date. There are new chapters on major transitions in animal evolution, expanded coverage of comparative embryonic development and the inclusion of recent advances in genetics and molecular biology. The book is divided into eight parts which: place evolutionary developmental biology in the historical context of the search for relationships between development and evolution; detail the historical background leading to evolutionary embryology; explore embryos in development and embryos in evolution; discuss the relationship between embryos, evolution, environment and ecology; discuss the dilemma for homology of the fact that development evolves; deal with the importance of understanding how embryos measure time and place both through development and evolutionarily through heterochrony and heterotrophy; and set out the principles and processes that underlie evolutionary developmental biology. With over one hundred illustrations and photographs, extensive cross-referencing between chapters and boxes for ancillary material, this latest edition will be of immense interest to graduate and advanced undergraduate students in cell, developmental and molecular biology, and in zoology, evolution, ecology and entomology; in fact anyone with an interest in this new and increasingly important and interdisciplinary field which unifies biology.


The Social Life of Money

The Social Life of Money

Author: Nigel Dodd

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2016-02-09

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 1400880866

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A reevaluation of what money is—and what it might be Questions about the nature of money have gained a new urgency in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Even as many people have less of it, there are more forms and systems of money, from local currencies and social lending to mobile money and Bitcoin. Yet our understanding of what money is—and what it might be—hasn't kept pace. In The Social Life of Money, Nigel Dodd, one of today’s leading sociologists of money, reformulates the theory of the subject for a postcrisis world in which new kinds of money are proliferating. What counts as legitimate action by central banks that issue currency and set policy? What underpins the right of nongovernmental actors to create new currencies? And how might new forms of money surpass or subvert government-sanctioned currencies? To answer such questions, The Social Life of Money takes a fresh and wide-ranging look at modern theories of money. One of the book’s central concerns is how money can be wrested from the domination and mismanagement of banks and governments and restored to its fundamental position as the "claim upon society" described by Georg Simmel. But rather than advancing yet another critique of the state-based monetary system, The Social Life of Money draws out the utopian aspects of money and the ways in which its transformation could in turn transform society, politics, and economics. The book also identifies the contributions of thinkers who have not previously been thought of as monetary theorists—including Nietzsche, Benjamin, Bataille, Deleuze and Guattari, Baudrillard, Derrida, and Hardt and Negri. The result provides new ways of thinking about money that seek not only to understand it but to change it.


The Amphibians of Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Amphibians of Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Author: C. Kenneth Dodd

Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 9781572332751

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"Most guides to animals in parks are intended primarily as identification aids and include relatively little on the biology of the species. Dodd's book is much more, with detailed information on all aspects of the natural history of these species. Biologists, students, and visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park will find this an indispensable guide." --Arthur C. Echternacht Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Tennessee The Amphibians of Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the first book devoted entirely to the natural history of the forty-four species of amphibians known to occur presently or historically in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, in the most-visited national park in the United States. Features - The only comprehensive book on the natural history of the amphibians of Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Beautiful original illustrations of salamander and frog larvae taken from specimens within the park - History of research and management effects on amphibians within the park - Extensive new information on the natural history of amphibians, based on four years of intensive field research - Simplified identification table guide to amphibian larvae - Summary of information on distribution (with range maps) and biogeography - Comprehensive bibliography of the literature on amphibians within the park - Summary of new data on the conservation of southern Appalachian amphibians, particularly with regard to land use, the effects of UV light, and disease C. Kenneth Dodd is a research zoologist with the U.S. Geological Survey at the Florida Integrated Science Center and is president of The Herpetologists' League. He is the author of North American Box Turtles: A Natural History and numerous articles in Journal of Herpetology, Biological Conservation, Herpetologica, and other publications. He lives in Gainesville, Florida.


The Evolution and Fossil Record of Parasitism

The Evolution and Fossil Record of Parasitism

Author: Kenneth De Baets

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-05-07

Total Pages: 565

ISBN-13: 3030424847

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This two-volume edited book highlights and reviews the potential of the fossil record to calibrate the origin and evolution of parasitism, and the techniques to understand the development of parasite-host associations and their relationships with environmental and ecological changes. The book deploys a broad and comprehensive approach, aimed at understanding the origins and developments of various parasite groups, in order to provide a wider evolutionary picture of parasitism as part of biodiversity. This is in contrast to most contributions by parasitologists in the literature that focus on circular lines of evidence, such as extrapolating from current host associations or distributions, to estimate constraints on the timing of the origin and evolution of various parasite groups. This approach is narrow and fails to provide the wider evolutionary picture of parasitism on, and as part of, biodiversity. Volume one focuses on identifying parasitism in the fossil record, and sheds light on the distribution and ecological importance of parasite-host interactions over time. In order to better understand the evolutionary history of parasites and their relationship with changes in the environment, emphasis is given to viruses, bacteria, protists and multicellular eukaryotes as parasites. Particular attention is given to fungi and metazoans such as bivalves, cnidarians, crustaceans, gastropods, helminths, insects, mites and ticks as parasites. Researchers, specifically evolutionary (paleo)biologists and parasitologists, interested in the evolutionary history of parasite-host interactions as well as students studying parasitism will find this book appealing.