Primate Evolution and Human Origins compiles, for the first time, the major ideas and publications that have shaped our current view of the evolutionary biology of the primates and the origin of the human line. Designed for freshmen-to-graduate students in anthropology, paleontology, and biology, the book is a unique collection of classic papers, culled from the past 20 years of research. It is also an important reference for academicians and researchers, as it covers the entire scope of primate and human evolution (with an emphasis on the fossil record). A comprehensive bibliography cites over 2000 significant articles not found in the main text.

"The irresistible enthusiasm of Great Adaptations couldn't come at a better time."-David P. Barash, Wall Street Journal "Be very amazed."-Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words and Becoming Wild How one scientist unlocked the secrets behind some of nature's most astounding animals From star-nosed moles that have super-sensing snouts to electric eels that paralyze their prey, animals possess unique and extraordinary abilities. In Great Adaptations, Kenneth Catania presents an entertaining and engaging look at some of nature's most remarkable creatures. Telling the story of his biological detective work, Catania sheds light on the mysteries behind the behaviors of tentacled snakes, tiny shrews, zombie-making wasps, and more. He shows not only how studying these animals can provide deep insights into how life evolved, but also how scientific discovery can be filled with adventure and fun. Beginning with the star-nosed mole, Catania reveals what the creature's nasal star is actually for, and what this tells us about how brains work. He explores how the deceptive hunting strategy of tentacled snakes leads prey straight to their mouths, how eels use electricity to control other animals, and why emerald jewel wasps make zombies out of cockroaches. He also solves the enigma of worm grunting-a traditional technique in which earthworms are enticed out of the ground-by teaming up with professional worm grunters. Catania demonstrates the merits of approaching science with an open mind, considers the role played by citizen scientists, and illustrates that most animals have incredible, hidden abilities that defy our imagination. Examining some strange and spectacular creatures, Great Adaptations offers a wondrous journey into nature's grand designs.

Alfred Crosby almost alone redirected the attention of historians to ecological issues that were important precisely because they were global. In doing so, he answered those who believed that world history had become impossible as a consequence of the post-war proliferation of new historical specialities, including not only ecological history but also new social histories, areas studies, histories of mentalities and popular cultures, and studies of minorities, majorities, and ethnic groups. In the introduction to this volume, Professor Crosby recounts an intellectual path to ecological history that might stand as a rationale for world history in general. He simply decided to study the most pervasive and important aspects of human experience. By focusing on human universals like death and disease, his studies highlight the epidemic rather than the epiphenomenal.

Never before have the four great works of Charles Darwin Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle (1845), The Origin of Species (1859), The Descent of Man (1871), and The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) been collected under one cover. Undertaking this challenging endeavor 123 years after Darwin's death, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson has written an introductory essay for the occasion, while providing new, insightful introductions to each of the four volumes and an afterword that examines the fate of evolutionary theory in an era of religious resistance. In addition, Wilson has crafted a creative new index to accompany these four texts, which links the nineteenth-century, Darwinian evolutionary concepts to contemporary biological thought. Beautifully slipcased, and including restored versions of the original illustrations, From So Simple a Beginning turns our attention to the astounding power of the natural creative process and the magnificence of its products."

Miller is a believer, but he is also certain that we evolved - and this book is about why the two are not mutually exclusive; in fact, the idea of each enriches the other. There is an enormous market out there for whom this issue is of real interest and import. Much of contemporary thought on evolution has centered on the mistaken assumption that evolution requires a strictly materialist view of the origins of all organisms - including human beings. This book will debunk that myth, arguing that the real world is less certain and far more interesting than either the scientific mainstream or creationists assume. Properly understood, evolution adds depth and meaning not only to a strictly scientific view of the world, but to a spiritual one, as well. Readers will find this fascinating, very clear, incisive, exciting, and thoughtful. This should sell like Gould and Wilson-brilliant, cutting-edge thinking.

Alfred Crosby almost alone redirected the attention of historians to ecological issues that were important precisely because they were global. In doing so, he answered those who believed that world history had become impossible as a consequence of the post-war proliferation of new historical specialities, including not only ecological history but also new social histories, areas studies, histories of mentalities and popular cultures, and studies of minorities, majorities, and ethnic groups. In the introduction to this volume, Professor Crosby recounts an intellectual path to ecological history that might stand as a rationale for world history in general. He simply decided to study the most pervasive and important aspects of human experience. By focusing on human universals like death and disease, his studies highlight the epidemic rather than the epiphenomenal.

While we joke that men are from Mars and women are from Venus, our gender differences can't compare to those of other animals. For instance: the male garden spider spontaneously dies after mating with a female more than fifty times his size. Female cichlids must guard their eggs and larvae--even from the hungry appetites of their own partners. And male blanket octopuses employ a copulatory arm longer than their own bodies to mate with females that outweigh them by four orders of magnitude. Why do these gender gulfs exist? Introducing readers to important discoveries in animal behavior and evolution, "Odd Couples" explores some of the most extraordinary sexual differences in the animal world. From the fields of Spain to the deep oceans, evolutionary biologist Daphne Fairbairn uncovers the unique and bizarre characteristics--in size, behavior, ecology, and life history--that exist in these remarkable species and the special strategies they use to maximize reproductive success. Fairbairn describes how male great bustards aggressively compete to display their gorgeous plumage and large physiques to watching, choosey females. She investigates why female elephant seals voluntarily live in harems where they are harassed constantly by eager males. And she reveals why dwarf male giant seadevils parasitically fuse to their giant female partners for life. Fairbairn also considers humans and explains that although we are keenly aware of our own sexual differences, they are unexceptional within the vast animal world.

Looking at some of the most amazing creatures on the planet, "Odd Couples" sheds astonishing light on what it means to be male or female in the animal kingdom.

This book focuses on the first vertebrates to conquer land and their long journey to become fully independent from the water. It traces the origin of tetrapod features and tries to explain how and why they transformed into organs that permit life on land. Although the major frame of the topic lies in the past 370 million years and necessarily deals with many fossils, it is far from restricted to paleontology. The aim is to achieve a comprehensive picture of amphibian evolution. It focuses on major questions in current paleobiology: how diverse were the early tetrapods? In which environments did they live, and how did they come to be preserved? What do we know about the soft body of extinct amphibians, and what does that tell us about the evolution of crucial organs during the transition to land? How did early amphibians develop and grow, and which were the major factors of their evolution? The Topics in Paleobiology Series is published in collaboration with the Palaeontological Association, and is edited by Professor Mike Benton, University of Bristol. Books in the series provide a summary of the current state of knowledge, a trusted route into the primary literature, and will act as pointers for future directions for research. As well as volumes on individual groups, the series will also deal with topics that have a cross-cutting relevance, such as the evolution of significant ecosystems, particular key times and events in the history of life, climate change, and the application of a new techniques such as molecular palaeontology. The books are written by leading international experts and will be pitched at a level suitable for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, and researchers in both the paleontological and biological sciences.

In this book, Glenn Barenthin provides a new solution to a key question in the cognitive and evolutionary study of religion: why do humans cooperate? What led humans, uniquely among animals, to have large-scale civilizations with unprecedented cooperation? One explanation, propagated by the Big God Proponents (BGP), argues that a moralizing God is the crucial motivator for the pro-social behaviour necessary for large scale civilization. To explore this idea, Barenthin provides a critical assessment of the evidence provided by the BGP, and also discusses the place of God in our moral thinking. However, using evidence from anthropology, history, cognitive science, psychology and game theory, Barenthin presents a new theory: that the evolutionary pressures faced by our forebears paved the way for emerging humans to engage in what he terms 'thin cooperation'. This type of cooperation requires individuals to comprehend the reasons for their actions, and it is often done with others in mind. Finally, Barenthin argues that humans also have the capacity for 'thick cooperation', which is made possible by those fighting for the rights of strangers in an attempt to make the world a fairer place for a greater number of people.

This volume is based on the symposium on controversies in 'Homo sapiens evolution' in Zagreb. It examines the competing models for modern human origins within the framework of present-day knowledge in the areas of human paleontology, paleolithic archaeology, and molecular genetics.

"Applies an ethnographic perspective to the study of primates " "Primate Ethnographies, 1/e, "is a collection of first-person accounts of immersive field studies of primates, people, and institutions, revealing the wide spectrum of primate science (primatology). Essays cover such primates as lemurs, New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, and apes. Readers experience the excitement of discovery and the challenges of primate field research. "Primate Ethnographies "can be used as a textbook or a companion reader. MySearchLab is a part of the Strier program. Research and writing tools, including access to academic journals, help students explore ethnography in even greater depth. To provide students with flexibility, students can download the eText to a tablet using the free Pearson eText app. NOTE: MySearchLab does not come automatically packaged with this text.To purchase the text with MySearchLab, order the package ISBN: 0205998631 / 9780205998630 Primate Ethnographies Plus MySearchLab with Pearson eText -- Access Card Package Package consists of: 0205214665 / 9780205214662 Primate Ethnographies 0205239927 / 9780205239924 MySearchLab with Pearson eText -- Valuepack Access Card

Physics underlies all complexity, including our own existence: how is this possible? How can our own lives emerge from interactions of electrons, protons, and neutrons? This book considers the interaction of physical and non-physical causation in complex systems such as living beings, and in particular in the human brain, relating this to the emergence of higher levels of complexity with real causal powers. In particular it explores the idea of top-down causation, which is the key effect allowing the emergence of true complexity and also enables the causal efficacy of non-physical entities, including the value of money, social conventions, and ethical choices.

Volume 8 opens with Darwin eagerly scrutinizing each new review, as one by one all the major media of the day carried notices of the book. To those who express their views privately in letters, Darwin responds patiently and thoughtfully, answering their objections and attempting to guide their fuller understanding of the operation of natural selection. His more personal thoughts emerge in letters to his friends Joseph Dalton Hooker, Charles Lyell, and Thomas Henry Huxley. This volume presents a wealth of detailed information, giving the full range of response to the Origin and revealing how Victorians coped with a theory that many recognized would revolutionize thinking about the organic world and human ancestry.

This book approaches two behavioral domains involved with human nature and actions related to dominance, an ancient animal, survival-linked, behavioral drive anchored in basal neural brain circuits. These domains result in latent or manifest conflicts among components of human animal nature and cultural profiles. The first domain refers to evolutive animal behavioral inertias that affect the basic construction of our brain/mind and social behavioral spectrum, underneath cultural and political enclosures. The second domain is considered a consequence of the previous one and involves the concept that the basic animal behavioral drive of dominance interferes with the expression of a truly human, cooperative social construction, and fosters conflicts (based on profit or comparative advantage). This drive tints or conditions our behavior in all its expressions (parochial, social, political, financial, religious, cognitive development). It also fosters social detachment of elite minorities -financially powerful and drivers of human evolutionary trends- from general concerns and collective needs of legions of subdued populations. Additionally, the latter promotes Star Wars factual chimeras and expanding dominance/prevalence and power grip beyond earthbound objectives that promote spatial exploration and scientific objectives. The quest for knowledge is embedded in our behavioral construction but employed by opportunistic - political - strategies that seek dominance/prevalence. Basic, ancestral, animal drives, here focused on dominance, lie underneath our sociocultural expressions, and feed construction of survival, ideology, class prejudices, submissiveness, cooperativity, and technological development. On top of this basic drive, humans have construed additional relational levels (whether of cognitive or emotional nature) expressed as cultural constructions that provide means to attempt to approach a socially acceptable format and public support. Whenever these processes collide or collapse, individual and collective standings tend to generate social changes or individual or collective pathologies. This book should be an exciting read for all those enthusiasts of the human mind, behavior, and cultural evolution ranging from fields such as neuroscience and biology to political sciences and anthropology. Given the breadth of studies as well as the clear language used by the author, students will find this book as a resourceful material for the undergraduate and graduate studies.

This volume will lay out the best methods for measuring net primary productivity (NPP) in ecological research. Primary productivity is the rate at which energy is stored in the organic matter of plants per unit area of the earth's surface. NPP is the beginning point of the carbon cycle, so our ability to accurately measure NPP is important. The book includes chapters for each of the critical biome types to offer special techniques that work best in each biome. For example, there are chapters that discuss grassland ecosystems, urban ecosystems, marine pelagic ecosystems, forest ecosystems, and salt marsh ecosystems, among others. All 26 LTER sites will be expected to collect and report data using these methods, but ecologists more generally should also find these methods useful and authoritative. Currently no standard methods or standards exist. Measuring NPP is fundamental to many ecosystem studies at thousands of sites, and having identified standards and methods would be extremely useful for comparing measurements among sites and for compiling a broad scale understanding of the environmental, biological, and nutrition controls on NPP. This book would resemble the Standard Soil Measurement volume in the LTER series in that it reaches well beyond any single LTER site to apply to any ecosystem. It should be rather more widely used than the soil measurements volume, in that measuring productivity is so fundamental to any ecological analyses as well as agronomy, forestry, fisheries, limnology and oceanography.

Our experience of the world is driven by processes common to all animals: growth, survival, reproduction and death. Evolution and Human Behaviour explores the complexities of the human experience through the lens of Darwinism, drawing on a long and vibrant tradition of different theories and interpretations. This textbook offers a compelling synthesis of key concepts, addressing human thought, feeling and behaviour in fundamental evolutionary terms. This is a essential text for undergraduate students taking courses in psychology, human biology, ethology, anthropology and human behavioural ecology, providing an insightful and comprehensive introduction for anyone who wishes to understand how human behaviour has evolved. New to this Edition: - Additional chapters on health and disease, homosexuality, the nature of adaptations and life history theory. - Includes brand-new material on epigenetics, patterns of crime, error management theory, moral foundations theory, religion and gene culture co-evolution. - Now accompanied by a companion website offering additional reading material and useful practice questions - New 'controversy' boxes in each chapter, providing ideas for essay topics and classroom discussion

Thisbookhasbeenwritten tomake a pointand tofulfill a need. Thepoint is that the importance and the distinctiveness of the process of selection have been undervalued by most biologists. There is, consequently, the need for a book that describes the principles of selection in a simple but reasonably comprehensive way. Selection Is a Distinct Kind ofProcess Although we are now well into the second century of Darwinism, the theorythatDarwinand Wallaceannouncedin 1858hasnotyetmademuch progress beyond a small coterie of professional biologists. The reason is thatit isjarringlyunfamiliar toournormalexperienceofhow things come to be. Few ofus would be able to design a light bulb or a lathe, still fewer the computerand itsattendant softwarewithwhich this sentence is being written. But we all have a clear idea of what is meant by "design," and we readily, too readily, transfer this notion to the natural world. A light bulb or a lathe are prefigured in the mind, and constructed according to a plan. It is entirely reasonable to assume that beetles and daisies must be constructed after the same fashion, especially because they are much morecomplicatedthananythingthathumaningenuityhassofarmanaged to devise. There is, however, a second route to complex organization, throughtheselectionofrandomvariantsthatpropagatenearlyexactcopies ofthemselves. Itisofverylittleconsequenceinourdailylives, becauseifis somuchmorelaboriousandexpensivethandeliberatedesign. However, it isanotherwayofconstructingthings. Indeed, sofarasIknow, itistheonly other way of constructing things that we have ever been able to imagine.

Originally published in 1974, this volume is primarily devoted to what is known about human infancy from an ethological, evolutionary viewpoint. Included are discussions of pan-specific traits, presumably shared by all infants; individual genetic variations on these behaviours (as judged by twin-studies); sex differences, presumably shared by infants of all ethnic groups; and genetically based ethnic differences. However, the author favours neither biological determinism nor cultural determinism, and does not consider 'interactionism' to be a viable solution. Instead, a monistic position is taken, stressing the inseparability of the innate and the acquired, of genetics and environment, and of biology and culture. The heredity-environment issue is tackled head-on throughout the volume. The interaction between the two (an implied dualism) is described as a statistical abstraction from measured populations, while the position here is that heredity and environment are not separable in any single organism. In the same vein, the author argues that on logical grounds everything one does, every 'cultural' act, has within it some biological component.

Because they prey upon a wide variety of conifers, bark beetles have a major impact upon western forests. In most of the western states, for example, we have witnessed bark beetles in epidemic outbreaks, attacking and damaging ponderosa pine, limber pine, and other hosts. The ecosystem of bark beetle and host tree is a highly coevolved community of organisms in which the evolution of one member of the community significantly influences the evolution of the other. Largely because of the enormous economic impact these insects exert on the management of our forests, few other such communities have been studied so extensively. Bark Beetles in North American Conifers brings together in one volume both theory and a wealth of empirical data gathered by researchers from all the fields in which bark beetles are studied: ecology, evolutionary biology, population genetics, entomology, and forestry. Topics covered include the life cycle of bark beetles and their population dynamics, their genetic variation and evolutionary mechanisms, the evolution and systematics of the major groups of bark beetles, pheromone production and its implications for coevolution among these organisms, the interaction between bark beetles and their predators, host resistance and susceptibility, the relationship of parasites and symbiotic micro-organisms in general, and management and control of bark beetles based on sound ecological and evolutionary concepts. The concluding section of the book summarizes the dynamics of the coevolved system of bark beetle and host tree and discusses controversial issues for which this system may provide important answers.

When the famous South African fish scientist Professor JLB Smith published Old Fourlegs - The Story of the Coelacanth in 1956 he created an international sensation. After all, this 400-million-year-old fish, known only from fossil remains, was thought to have become extinct around 66 million years ago! JLB Smith’s dramatic account of the discovery of the first and second coelacanths in 1938 and 1952 turned him into a cult figure and put South African science on the world map. His book was eventually published in six English editions and translated into nine foreign languages.

Mike Bruton’s The Annotated Old Fourlegs includes a facsimile reprint of the original book, to which he has added notes and images in the margins that provide an interesting and revealing commentary on Smith’s text, as well as new introductory and explanatory chapters that bring the coelacanth story up to date.

This book provides an overview of our current understanding of polyembryony in insects. The study of polyembronic insects has advanced considerably over the last several decades.The book shows the exciting potential of polyembryonic insects and their impact on life sciences. It describes the mechanisms of polyembryogenesis; tissue-compatible invasion of the host, which is the first case of compatible cellular interaction between phylogenetically distant organisms without rejection; the sex differences in defense; and the environmental regulation of caste structure. The first book devoted to polyembryony in insects, it draws on the author's research on polyembryonic wasps from 1990 to the present day, covering various topics such as polyembryogenesis in vitro, host-parasite interaction, sex differences in soldier function/humoral toxic factor, and the transcription analysis of polyembryogenesis.It is intended not only for researchers in the field of entomology, parasitology, ontogeny, reproductive biology, developmental biology, sociobiology, and evolutionary developmental biology (Evo-Devo), but also for postgraduate students in these fields.

First published in 1909, this book collects the author's lectures on the 'problem of evolution' and the resultant debate. The first considers the validity of the Theory of Evolution and whether it is in opposition to the Christian view of creation. The second examines the assertion that evolution harmonises only with Monism rather than Theism and which of the two views is preferable. It also looks at the popular identification of Darwinism with evolution, if it is scientific and the results this leads to. The third looks at man's position in the problem of evolution - whether we are bound to bring in considerations higher than the zoological - and the evidence for our descent from 'brutes'.

An adamant fan of Darwin, F.W. Headley attempts to argue the difficulties of believing in Socialism and Darwinism simultaneously and highlights issues which could prevent Socialism from being put into practice. Originally published in 1909, this study uses examples of communities in countries such as England and India to illustrate Headley's key belief that societies only function well if they do not interfere with the fight for existence and natural selection. This title will be of interest to students of Philosophy, Sociology and Anthropology.

The annual Evolutionary Biology Meetings in Marseilles serve to gather leading scientists, promote the exchange of ideas and encourage the formation of international collaborations.

This book contains the most essential contributions presented at the 14th Evolutionary Biology Meeting, which took place in September 2010. It comprises19 chapters organized according to the following categories:

. Evolutionary Biology Concepts

. Biodiversity and Evolution

. Macroevolution

. Genome Evolution

Offering an up-to-date overview of recent results in the field of evolutionary biology, this book is an invaluable source of information for scientists, teachers and advanced students. "

Advances in morphological and molecular methods continue to uncover new information on the origin and evolution of bats. Presenting some of the most remarkable discoveries and research involving living and fossil bats, this book explores their evolutionary history from a range of perspectives. Phylogenetic studies based on both molecular and morphological data have established a framework of evolutionary relationships that provides a context for understanding many aspects of bat biology and diversification. In addition to detailed studies of the relationships and diversification of bats, the topics covered include the mechanisms and evolution of powered flight, evolution and enhancement of echolocation, feeding ecology, population genetic structure, ontogeny and growth of facial form, functional morphology and evolution of body size. The book also examines the fossil history of bats from their beginnings over 50 million years ago to their diversification into one of the most globally wide-spread orders of mammals living today.