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Author: David J. Gower
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2022-08-11
Total Pages: 489
ISBN-13: 1108837344
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Latest developments in understanding how, when and where the extraordinary body plan and ecology of snakes evolved from lizard ancestors.
Author: Michael Wayne Caldwell
Publisher: CRC Press
Published: 2019-06-28
Total Pages: 736
ISBN-13: 1351645102
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This book presents perspectives on the past and present state of the understanding of snake origins. It reviews and critiques data and ideas from paleontology and neontology (herpetology), as well as ideas from morphological and molecular phylogenetics. The author reviews the anatomy and morphology of extant snakes. Methods are also critiqued, including those empirical and theoretical methods employed to hypothesize ancestral ecologies for snakes. The modern debate on squamate phylogeny and snake ingroup phylogeny using molecules and morphology is examined critically to provide insights on origins and evolution. Key Features Important major evolutionary transformation in vertebrate evolution Continuing historical debate in vertebrate paleontology Of wide interest to a core audience of paleontologists, herpetologists, and morphologists Author acknowledged as prominent contributor to debate over snake origins Based on remarkable well preserved fossil specimens
Author: Harry W. Greene
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Published: 1997
Total Pages: 382
ISBN-13: 9780520224872
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →In clear, engaging prose, "Snakes" provides an up-to-date summary of every facet of the natural history of snakes--their diversity, evolution, and conservation--and, at the same time, makes a personal statement about why these animals are so compelling. 215 color photos. 3 tables.
Author: Hans-Dieter Sues
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2019-08-06
Total Pages: 401
ISBN-13: 1421428679
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Accurate, synthetic, and sweeping, The Rise of Reptiles is the definitive work on the subject.
Author: Olivier Rieppel
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2017-03-13
Total Pages: 216
ISBN-13: 0253025079
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Where do turtles hail from? Why and how did they acquire shells? These questions have spurred heated debate and intense research for more than two hundred years. Brilliantly weaving evidence from the latest paleontological discoveries with an accessible, incisive look at different theories of biological evolution and their proponents, Turtles as Hopeful Monsters tells the fascinating evolutionary story of the shelled reptiles. Paleontologist Olivier Rieppel traces the evolution of turtles from over 220 million years ago, examining closely the relationship of turtles to other reptiles and charting the development of the shell. Turtle issues fuel a debate between proponents of gradual evolutionary change and authors favoring change through bursts and leaps of macromutation. The first book-length popular history of its type, this indispensable resource is an engaging read for all those fascinated by this ubiquitous and uniquely shaped reptile.
Author: Matthew F. Bonnan
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2016-02-15
Total Pages: 545
ISBN-13: 0253018412
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →What can we learn about the evolution of jaws from a pair of scissors? How does the flight of a tennis ball help explain how fish overcome drag? What do a spacesuit and a chicken egg have in common? Highlighting the fascinating twists and turns of evolution across more than 540 million years, paleobiologist Matthew Bonnan uses everyday objects to explain the emergence and adaptation of the vertebrate skeleton. What can camera lenses tell us about the eyes of marine reptiles? How does understanding what prevents a coffee mug from spilling help us understand the posture of dinosaurs? The answers to these and other intriguing questions illustrate how scientists have pieced together the history of vertebrates from their bare bones. With its engaging and informative text, plus more than 200 illustrative diagrams created by the author, The Bare Bones is an unconventional and reader-friendly introduction to the skeleton as an evolving machine.
Author: Lynne A. Isbell
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 222
ISBN-13: 0674033019
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The global prominence of snakes in religion, myth, and folklore underscores our deep connection to them—but why, when few of us have firsthand experience? The answer, Isbell suggests, lies in snakes’ singular impact on primate evolution; predation pressure from snakes is ultimately responsible for the superior vision and large brains of primates.
Author: Richard A. Seigel
Publisher: MacMillan Publishing Company
Published: 1987
Total Pages: 552
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Author: Robert D. Aldridge
Publisher: CRC Press
Published: 2016-04-19
Total Pages: 758
ISBN-13: 1439858330
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Offering coverage of a wide range of topics on snake reproduction and phylogeny, this comprehensive book discusses everything from primordial germ migration in developing embryos to semelparity (death after reproduction) in the aspic viper. Beginning with a review of the history of snake reproductive studies, it presents new findings on development
Author: Michael Ruse
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2009-01-01
Total Pages: 992
ISBN-13: 0674062213
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Spanning evolutionary science from its inception to its latest findings, from discoveries and data to philosophy and history, this book is the most complete, authoritative, and inviting one-volume introduction to evolutionary biology available. Clear, informative, and comprehensive in scope, Evolution opens with a series of major essays dealing with the history and philosophy of evolutionary biology, with major empirical and theoretical questions in the science, from speciation to adaptation, from paleontology to evolutionary development (evo devo), and concluding with essays on the social and political significance of evolutionary biology today. A second encyclopedic section travels the spectrum of topics in evolution with concise, informative, and accessible entries on individuals from Aristotle and Linneaus to Louis Leakey and Jean Lamarck; from T. H. Huxley and E. O. Wilson to Joseph Felsenstein and Motoo Kimura; and on subjects from altruism and amphibians to evolutionary psychology and Piltdown Man to the Scopes trial and social Darwinism. Readers will find the latest word on the history and philosophy of evolution, the nuances of the science itself, and the intricate interplay among evolutionary study, religion, philosophy, and society. Appearing at the beginning of the Darwin Year of 2009Ñthe 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of SpeciesÑthis volume is a fitting tribute to the science Darwin set in motion.
