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The present book combines three main aspects: five major mass extinctions; contributions on some other minor extinctions; and more importantly contributions on the current mass extinction. All three aspects are introduced through interesting studies of mass extinctions in diverse organisms ranging from small invertebrates to mammals and take account of the most accepted subjects discussing mass extinctions in insects, mammals, fishes, ostracods and molluscs.
This book offers a thorough and up-to-date treatment of the use of morphometric procedures in a wide variety of contexts. As one of the most dynamic and popular fields on the contemporary biological scene, morphometrics is gaining notice among researchers and students as a necessary complement to molecular studies in the understanding and maintenance of biodiversity. This is the first reference to meet that growing need.
Why do some animals migrate? How does migration affect the gene pool? This book discusses these questions and more, in light of the high evolutionary costs and risks of mass movement. The editor presents a collection of topics explaining the migration of organisms through many examples of different groups of marine and non-marine organisms, from micro-invertebrates to large mammals.
Computational paleontology is simply a term applied to using computers and its facilities in the field of paleontology. However, we should be exactly precise in describing the term through explaining the main themes of this motivating and attractive scientific field. The uppermost aim of this book is to explain how computation could be competent in fetching fossils to life and the past to present. Computers for paleontologists save time and costs, interpret mysterious events precisely and accurately, visualize the ancient life definitely and undeniably.
Predation is considered one of the distinct phenomena related to the interrelationships between species on the Earth. In general, predation is widespread not only in wildlife but also in marine environments where big fishes eat small fishes and other organisms of the sea. This book considers predation in organisms and is aimed at the prevention of predation in wildlife and marine environments.
From the Foreword: "Predator-prey interactions are among the most significant of all organism-organism interactions....It will only be by compiling and evaluating data on predator-prey relations as they are recorded in the fossil record that we can hope to tease apart their role in the tangled web of evolutionary interaction over time. This volume, compiled by a group of expert specialists on the evidence of predator-prey interactions in the fossil record, is a pioneering effort to collate the information now accumulating in this important field. It will be a standard reference on which future study of one of the central dynamics of ecology as seen in the fossil record will be built." (Richard K. Bambach, Professor Emeritus, Virginia Tech, Associate of the Botanical Museum, Harvard University)
This introduction to morphometrics does not rely on complex mathematics and statistics. It includes application case studies in fields ranging from paleontology to evolutionary ecology, and it discusses software for analyzing and comparing shape.
The award-winning author of The Experience of Place delivers an "upbeat and engaging account of the remarkable progress being made to preserve vast wild spaces for animals to roam" (The Wall Street Journal)—and an urgent call to protect 50 percent of the earth's land by 2050—thereby saving millions of its species. Beginning in the vast North American Boreal Forest that stretches through Canada, and roving across the continent, from the Northern Sierra to Alabama's Paint Rock Forest, from the Appalachian Trail to a ranch in Mexico, Tony Hiss sets out on a journey to take stock of the "superorganism" that is the earth: its land, its elements, its plants and animals, its greatest threats--a...
From the Pampas lowlands of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil to the Altiplano plateau that stretches between Chile and Peru, the plains of Latin America have haunted the literature and culture of the continent. Bringing these landscapes into focus as a major subject of Latin American culture, this book outlines innovative new ecocritcial readings of canonical literary texts from the 19th century to the present. Tracing these natural landscapes across national borders the book develops a new transnational understanding of Hispanic culture in South America and expands the scope of the contemporary environmental humanities. Texts covered include works by: Ciro Alegría, Manoel de Barros, Ezequiel Martínez Estrada, Rómulo Gallegos, José Eustasio Rivera, João Guimarães Rosa, and Domingo Sarmiento.
Since the appearance of Homo sapiens on the planet hundreds of thousands of years ago, human beings have sought to exploit their environments, extracting as many resources as their technological ingenuity has allowed. As technologies have advanced in recent centuries, that impulse has remained largely unchecked, exponentially accelerating the human impact on the environment. Humans versus Nature tells a history of the global environment from the Stone Age to the present, emphasizing the adversarial relationship between the human and natural worlds. Nature is cast as an active protagonist, rather than a mere backdrop or victim of human malfeasance. Daniel R. Headrick shows how environmental c...