Zoology: Home

One of the great pioneers of modern science examines how people and animals display varieties of emotions via their facial expressions. British naturalist Charles Darwin--who expounded the theory of evolution by natural selection, the principle that launched a scientific revolution--based this survey on his personal observations. Most of his findings were proven by later research, and today's behavioral scientists continue to draw upon this work for both knowledge and inspiration.

Life at the Zoo gives a veterinarian's personal account of the challenges presented by the evolution of zoos and the expectations of their visitors. Based on fifteen years of work at the world-laminas San Diego Zoo, this book reveals the hazards and rewards of running a modern age.

This book surveys the myriad of turtle anatomy, habitat, & life cycles throughout the ages. Project director of the International Wildlife Coalition, Orenstein presents a popular book about turtles, the term he uses for almost all marine, aquatic, and terrestrial species of the order Testudines. His own background is in ornithology rather than herpetology, but his work in wildlife conservation has made him aware of the plight of turtles throughout the world, and hopes people will help protect them if they get to know them a little better. He includes many color photographs. Turtles, almost alone among reptiles, have earned both human interest and affection. Our fascination with turtles, though, has not helped them much. Sought after for food, as pets, and for tortoiseshell, their habitats under attack on land and sea, turtle populations are in decline around the world. Understanding turtles is not only interesting, but also important. Turtles, tortoises, and terrapins have been on earth since the Triassic Period, approximately 200 million years ago. Their exact origins are uncertain, though - it is still unclear from which group of reptiles turtles sprang. Although the earliest fossils are clearly turtles, their anatomy has changed dramatically over time. In addition, turtle species vary greatly in such basic characteristics as anatomy and habitat preferences. Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins surveys the myriad of turtle anatomy, habitat, and life cycles throughout the ages. Human activities on the land and at sea pose the greatest threat that turtles have faced in the last 200 million years. The battle to save turtles goes on, and this book provides an important voice in turtle ecology. Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins is the perfect resource for anyone interested in all facets of these amazing and diverse reptiles.

In the final years of the twentieth century, a Chinese farmer made one of the most important fossil discoveries of the entire century--the first feathered dinosaur! Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History was one of the first western scientists to work with his Chinese colleagues to bring this news to an astonished world. As specimen after specimen poured out of the quarries of northeastern China, the public caught on to an idea that some scientists had accepted as early as 1870. Birds are the direct descendants of dinosaurs, and in the sense, dinosaurs live on! Through the eyes of Norell we see the remarkable events unfold, and get a sense of the enormous changes that China is going through on all fronts.

Paleontology has long had a troubled relationship with evolutionary biology. Suffering from a reputation as a second-tier science and conjuring images of fossil collectors and amateurs who dig up bones, paleontology was marginalized by Darwin himself, who worried that incompleteness in the fossil record would be used against his theory of evolution.
Pairing contributions from some of the leading actors of the transformation with overviews from historians and philosophers of science, the essays here capture the excitement of the seismic changes in the discipline.

Before the 19th century, the idea that a living species could evolve into a new species was inconceivable . In the early 1800's, examination of the fossil record and natural observations, such as the progression of form seen in both plants and animals, led a few natural scientists to the controversial view that living organism had changed over time. Through excerpts from influential documents, Young and Largent provide the history of evolution, in debate, from the pre-Darwinian ear, through the publication of Darwin's works, and up to the current debate over teaching of intelligent design creationism in public schools. Each chapter includes an overview of the debate in the era covered. A brief analysis accompanies each primary source.

The scientists discussed in this book have shaped humankind's knowledge and laid the foundation for virtually every scientific discipline, from basic biology to black holes. Some of these individuals were inclined to ponder questions about what was contained within the human body, while others were intrigued by celestial bodies. Their collective vision has been concentrated enough to examine microscopic particles and broad enough to unlock tremendous universal marvels such as gravity, relativity--even the nature of life itself.

Masquerading as a coffee table book, this volume is a serious summary of the natural history, history and prehistory of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Stretching as an arc of some 1,100 miles, the ten widely spaced isles and atolls of the northwestern chain are each about 150 miles apart. Although called "Leeward Islands," they are not in a lee of the eight main Hawaiian Islands, but are the eroded remains of much older islands. Remote and uninhabited for most of their history, they rarely appear on tourists' maps of Hawaii, and are largely unknown to visitors and residents of the main islands alike.

This highly illustrated history of zoos in America and Europe from the Renaissance aristocrat's menagerie through the 20th-century public zoological garden charts the changing relationship between human viewers and wild beasts in a range of urban settings, including London, Berlin, Moscow and various European cities. The authors show how the collecting of wild animals, with its roots in the study of Nature in order to classify and dominate it, led to our contemporary concern with the preservation of endangered species and a nostalgia for untamed wilderness.

Animal Evolution provides a comprehensive analysis of the evolutionary interrelationships and myriad diversity of the Animal Kingdom. It reviews the classical, morphological information from structure and embryology, as well as the new data gained from studies using immune stainings of nerves and muscles and blastomere markings which makes it possible to follow the fate of single blastomeres all the way to early organogenesis. Until recently, the information from analyses of gene sequences has tended to produce myriads of quite diverging trees. However, the latest generation of molecular methods, using many genes, expressed sequence tags, and even whole genomes, has brought a new stability to the field. For the first time this book brings together the information from these varied fields, and demonstrates that it is indeed now possible to build a phylogenetic tree from a combination of both morphology and gene sequences. This thoroughly revised third edition of Animal Evolution brings the subject fully up to date, especially in light of the latest advances in molecular techniques. The book is generously illustrated throughout with finely detailed line drawings and clear diagrams, many of them new.

This book focuses on recent advances in animal science and zoology research. In the first chapter, animal science is introduced along with major hurdles related to animal agriculture and then proposes a solution for these grand challenges on a global scale. In the second chapter, the author focuses on canine leptospirosis, a zoonotic disease of worldwide distribution, which affects both humans and animals with humans being an accidental host. The third chapter assesses the outcomes of current research and future directions for improving post-thaw viability of stallion sperm (since the first success of mammalian cell cryopreservation, it has become a major method of cell preservation for both human and veterinary medicine). The fourth chapter focuses on the evaluation of all main hematological, biochemical, and coproparazitologic changes, besides larval designation found within pastures of Dorper breed sheeps and females through peripartum. In the fifth chapter, in the search for new food sources that contribute to the optimization of livestock production, the authors discuss the possibility of using waste from a marine plant commonly found on the Mediterranean coasts. The next two chapters focus on penguin physiology, behavior as well as the identification of viruses capable of infecting both free-living healthy penguins, and the pathogens that may be related to the release of rehabilitated penguins and the implication of these agents in the conservation of the species. The remaining chapters of this book review current knowledge on the intra and inter-species behavior of Turkey vultures; molecular mechanisms operating in the Xenopus osmoregulatory organs and the physiological role of AQPs in Xenopus; and the impact of extended drought on the reproductive cycle of an endangered tropical killifish in the Brazilian semiarid region. The last chapter is a commentary on the the use of field sampling techniques and computerised video tracking in the study of directional grasshopper movement, influenced by climatic stimuli such as temperature, light, wind direction and habitat factors.

Humankind's fascination with the animal kingdom began as a matter of survival – differentiating the edible from the toxic, the ferocious from the tractable. Since then, our compulsion to catalogue wildlife has played a key role in growing our understanding of the planet and ourselves, inspiring religious beliefs and evolving scientific theories. The book unveils wild truths and even wilder myths about animals, as perpetuated by zoologists – revealing how much more there is to learn, and unlearn. Long before Darwin, our ancestors were obsessed with the visual similarities and differences between the animals. Early scientists could sense there was an order that unified all life and formulated a variety of schemes to help illustrate this. This human quest to classify living beings has left us with a rich artistic legacy, from the folklore and religiosity of the ancient and Medieval world through the naturalistic cataloging of the Enlightenment to the modern, computer-generated classificatory labyrinth. This book tells the fascinating, visual story of this process. The wonderful zoological charts reflect prevailing artistic trends and scientific discoveries, as well as telling us as much about ourselves as they do about the creatures depicted.

The ultimate guide to understanding the biology and behavior of the amazing and underappreciated American alligator.Few scenes put the senses on edge more than a submerged alligator, only eyes and snout showing, when peering across a southern lake on a misty morning. An iconic American predator, these reptiles grow to thirteen feet or more and can live as long as humans. Alligators are complex creatures, capable of terrific attacks and yet tending to their young in the same gentle way a mother duck looks after her brood. Once extremely numerous, alligators came close to extinction in the twentieth century, but thanks to conservation efforts have since made a comeback, reclaiming their rightful place as the monarchs of the southern wetlands.In this fascinating account, richly illustrated with more than 150 photographs from award-winning wildlife photographer Wayne Lynch, expert zoologist Kent A. Vliet introduces readers to the biology, ecology, and natural history of the American alligator. Sharing nuanced depictions of their hidden lives that will forever change the way you think of these giant reptiles, the book• combines captivating storytelling with the most current scientific facts• chronicles the life cycle of the alligator• explains why the alligator's precise anatomy and physiology make it so successful• covers a wide range of topics, from courtship and reproduction to communication, basking, nest-building, and hunting• reveals the alligator's sophisticated social life in detail• evaluates the alligator's environmental role as a keystone species• examines the complicated relationship between alligators and people.

The iconic and beautiful Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is home to one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. With contributions from international experts, this timely and fully updated second edition of The Great Barrier Reef describes the animals, plants and other organisms of the reef, as well as the biological, chemical and physical processes that influence them. It contains new chapters on shelf slopes and fisheries and addresses pressing issues such as climate change, ocean acidification, coral bleaching and disease, and invasive species. The Great Barrier Reef is a must-read for the interested reef tourist, student, researcher and environmental manager. While it has an Australian focus, it can equally be used as a reference text for most Indo-Pacific coral reefs.

In this sweeping history of more than 3 000 years, beginning with Ancient Egypt, scientist Marcus Byrne and writer, Helen Lunn capture the diversity of dung beetles and their unique behaviour patterns. Dung beetles'fortunes have followed the shifts from a world dominated by a religion that symbolically incorporated them into some of its key concepts of rebirth, to a world in which science has largely separated itself from religion and alchemy. With over 6 000 species found throughout the world, these unassuming but remarkable creatures are fundamental to some of humanity's most cherished beliefs and have been ever present in religion, art, literature, science and the environment. They are at the centre of current gene research, play an important role in keeping our planet healthy, and some nocturnal dung beetles have been found to navigate by the starry skies. Outlining the development of science from the point of view of the humble dung beetle is what makes this charming story of immense interest to general readers and entomologists alike.