Mosaic Evolution of Subterranean Mammals: Regression, Progression, and Global Convergence

Nevo, Eviatar

ISBN 10: 0198575726 / ISBN 13: 9780198575726

Editore: Oxford University Press, 2000

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From publisher s library. Marking on the spine. Bookplate on inside cover and library stamp, otherwise book is new, never read, pages clean and crisp, spine unbroken. Oversized book, will incur additional shipping charges. 1020A.

Codice articolo A1020-004

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Mosaic Evolution of Subterranean Mammals: Regression, Progression, and Global Convergence
• Editore: Oxford University Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 2000
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0198575726
• ISBN 13: 9780198575726
• Rilegatura: Hardcover
• Edizione: 1st Edition
• Condizione: Fine

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

Life underground has evolved among different groups of mammals all over the globe. It is an extraordinary environment - with relatively constant temperature, few opportunities to meet organisms other than the immediate family, and a completely different sensory environment. Locomotion, communication, food-finding, navigation, circadian rhythms, and indeed the whole of the animals' physiology may be specialized to cope with underground life. From burrowing to blindness, magnetic communication to the weird bee-like eusociality of naked mole rats, specialization has been extreme - and, in turn, has led to speciation in a whole range of new contexts. That the subterranean way of life occurs in different species of mammals across the globe has provided scientists with one of nature's best studied global evolutionary demonstrations of adaptive radiation and speciation. The revolution in molecular biology that has occurred over the last ten years has massively expanded these horizons, allowing scientists to explore, map, and clone the genes underlying the basis of adaptation and speciation and translate their fascinating structural and functional evolution into genes and genomic language. This book draws together the burgeoning literature about all aspects of the biology of subterranean mammals. Beginning with their evolutionary history and the processes that led to the subterranean way of life, the author goes on to review ecology, behaviour, and physiology within the context of the highly stressful subterranean context, consider the specializations that have evolved in response, and then to compare the 11 families of extant subterranean mammals. The extraordinary circumstances surrounding subterranean mammals present a unique, global, 'natural experiment' in evolution that has implications throughout biology. As such this comprehensive survey will stand as an invaluable reference in years to come.

Informazioni sull?autore

Address for correspondence: Professor Eviatar Nevo, Director, Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Haifa, 31905, Israel. Tel 972 4 8240448 Fax 972 4 8246554 email nevo@research.haifa.ac.il