Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707 88), was a French mathematician who was considered one of the leading naturalists of the Enlightenment. An acquaintance of Voltaire and other intellectuals, he worked as Keeper at the Jardin du Roi from 1739, and this inspired him to research and publish a vast encyclopaedia and survey of natural history, the ground-breaking Histoire Naturelle, which he published in forty-four volumes between 1749 and 1804. These volumes, first published between 1770 and 1783 and translated into English in 1793, contain Buffon's survey and descriptions of birds from the Histoire Naturelle. Based on recorded observations of birds both in France and in other countries, these volumes provide detailed descriptions of various bird species, their habitats and behaviours and were the first publications to present a comprehensive account of eighteenth-century ornithology. Volume 6 covers parrots, parakeets and other foreign birds.

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707 88), was a French mathematician who was considered one of the leading naturalists of the Enlightenment. An acquaintance of Voltaire and other intellectuals, he worked as Keeper at the Jardin du Roi from 1739, and this inspired him to research and publish a vast encyclopaedia and survey of natural history, the ground-breaking Histoire Naturelle, which he published in forty-four volumes between 1749 and 1804. These volumes, first published between 1770 and 1783 and translated into English in 1793, contain Buffon's survey and descriptions of birds from the Histoire Naturelle. Based on recorded observations of birds both in France and in other countries, these volumes provide detailed descriptions of various bird species, their habitats and behaviours and were the first publications to present a comprehensive account of eighteenth-century ornithology. Volume 7 covers woodpeckers and kingfishers.

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707 88) was a French mathematician who was considered one of the leading naturalists of the Enlightenment. An acquaintance of Voltaire and other intellectuals, he worked as Keeper at the Jardin du Roi from 1739, and this inspired him to research and publish a vast encyclopaedia and survey of natural history, the ground-breaking Histoire Naturelle, which he published in forty-four volumes between 1749 and 1804. These volumes, first published between 1770 and 1783 and translated into English in 1793, contain Buffon's survey and descriptions of birds from the Histoire Naturelle. Based on recorded observations of birds both in France and in other countries, these volumes provide detailed descriptions of various bird species, their habitats and behaviours and were the first publications to present a comprehensive account of eighteenth-century ornithology. Volume 8 covers domestic and foreign marine birds.

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707 88) was a French mathematician who was considered one of the leading naturalists of the Enlightenment. An acquaintance of Voltaire and other intellectuals, he worked as Keeper at the Jardin du Roi from 1739, and this inspired him to research and publish a vast encyclopaedia and survey of natural history, the ground-breaking Histoire Naturelle, which he published in forty-four volumes between 1749 and 1804. These volumes, first published between 1770 and 1783 and translated into English in 1793, contain Buffon's survey and descriptions of birds from the Histoire Naturelle. Based on recorded observations of birds both in France and in other countries, these volumes provide detailed descriptions of various bird species, their habitats and behaviours and were the first publications to present a comprehensive account of eighteenth-century ornithology. Volume 9 covers water fowl and related birds.

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was a British naturalist best remembered as the co-discoverer, with Darwin, of natural selection. His extensive fieldwork and advocacy of the theory of evolution led to him being considered one of the nineteenth century's foremost biologists. These volumes, first published in 1869, contain Wallace's acclaimed and highly influential account of extensive fieldwork he undertook in modern Indonesia, Malaysia and New Guinea between 1854 and 1862. Wallace describes his travels around the island groups, depicting the unusual animals and insects he encountered and providing ethnographic descriptions of the indigenous peoples. Wallace's analysis of biogeographic patterns in Indonesia (later termed the Wallace Line) profoundly influenced contemporary and later evolutionary and geological thought concerning both Indonesia and other areas of the world where similar patterns were found. Volume 1 covers the islands of Indonesia and Malaysia.

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was a British naturalist who is best remembered as the co-discoverer, with Darwin, of natural selection. His extensive fieldwork and advocacy of the theory of evolution led to him being considered one of the nineteenth century's foremost biologists. These volumes, first published in 1869, contain Wallace's acclaimed and highly influential account of extensive fieldwork he undertook in modern Indonesia, Malaysia and New Guinea between 1854 and 1862. Wallace describes his travels around the island groups, depicting the unusual animals and insects he encountered and providing ethnographic descriptions of the indigenous peoples. Wallace's analysis of biogeographic patterns in Indonesia (later termed the Wallace Line) profoundly influenced contemporary and later evolutionary and geological thought concerning both Indonesia and other areas of the world where similar patterns were found. Volume 2 covers the Molucca Islands and New Guinea.

After the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859 Darwin became fascinated with the potential for botanical experiments to provide evidence for the process of evolution. First published in 1877, this volume is based on a series of papers concerning heterostylous plants (species which produce different types of flowers) originally published in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnaen Society in 1862. Linnaeus had divided the sexual relations of flowers into four groups, which Darwin uses as the structure for this volume. Darwin examines in detail plants which produce different flower forms, presenting his conclusions in terms of adaptive evolution and so providing the first functional interpretation of heterostyly. He demonstrates that these plants are adapted for cross-fertilisation, not self-fertilisation as was widely believed. The concepts which Darwin introduces in this volume continue to provide the basis for research into plant reproductive biology.

A groundbreaking review of the seldom-studied semi-aquatic freshwater mammals, covering biology, behavior, and conservation. Semi-aquatic mammals are some of the rarest and most endangered mammals on earth. What binds them together in the minds of biologists, despite their diverse taxa and body forms, are evolutionary traits that allow them to succeed in two worlds-spending some time on land and some in the water. Semi-aquatic Mammals fills a crucial void in the literature by highlighting the important ecological roles and curious biology of these remarkable animals. In this unique book, wildlife ecologist Glynnis A. Hood presents the first comprehensive examination of a global suite of 140 freshwater semi-aquatic mammals. Each one has overcome the distinct ecological challenges of thriving in both aquatic and terrestrial habitats as part of everyday life. Covering millions of years, Hood's exploration begins with the extinct otter-like Buxolestes and extends to consider the geographical, physical, behavioral, and reproductive traits of its present-day counterparts. Hood explains how semi-aquatic mammals are able to navigate a viscous environment with almost no resistance to heat loss, reveals how they maintain the physical skills necessary to avoid predation and counter a more thermally changeable environment, and describes the array of adaptations that facilitate success in their multifaceted habitats. She also addresses specific conservation challenges faced by these mammals. Her analysis takes readers to the haunts of intriguing semi-aquatic mammals from around the world, * introducing the "paradoxical platypus," an Australian egg-laying monotreme that detects prey through electroreception * venturing into the swamps and mangroves of Southeast Asia, where fishing cats wave their paws above the water's surface to lure prey * trawling the streams and lakes of South America, where the female water opossum uses its backward-facing pouch to keep her babies warm during deep dives * spending time with species that engineer freshwater habitats into more productive and complex systems, including North American beavers and Africa's common hippopotamus Featuring award-winning artist Meaghan Brierley's stunning illustrations throughout, Semi-aquatic Mammals is an unparalleled reference on some of the world's most tenacious and fascinating mammals.

Members of the mammalian clade Carnivora have invaded nearly every continent and ocean, evolving into bamboo-eating pandas, clam-eating walruses and of course, flesh-eating sabre-toothed cats. With this ecological, morphological and taxonomic diversity and a fossil record spanning over sixty million years, Carnivora has proven to be a model clade for addressing questions of broad evolutionary significance. This volume brings together top international scientists with contributions that focus on current advances in our understanding of carnivoran relationships, ecomorphology and macroevolutionary patterns. Topics range from the palaeoecology of the earliest fossil carnivorans to the influences of competition and constraint on diversity and biogeographic distributions. Several studies address ecomorphological convergences among carnivorans and other mammals with morphometric and Finite Element analyses, while others consider how new molecular and palaeontological data have changed our understanding of carnivoran phylogeny. Combined, these studies also illustrate the diverse suite of approaches and questions in evolutionary biology and palaeontology.

A remarkable investigation into the hominoids of Flores Island, their place on the evolutionary spectrum-and whether or not they still survive. While doing fieldwork on the remote Indonesian island of Flores, anthropologist Gregory Forth came across people talking about half-apelike, half-humanlike creatures that once lived in a cave on the slopes of a nearby volcano. Over the years he continued to record what locals had to say about these mystery hominoids while searching for ways to explain them as imaginary symbols of the wild or other cultural representations. Then along came the 'hobbit'. In 2003, several skeletons of a small-statured early human species alongside stone tools and animal remains were excavated in a cave in western Flores. Named Homo floresiensis, this ancient hominin was initially believed to have lived until as recently as 12,000 years ago-possibly overlapping with the appearance of Homo sapiens on Flores. In view of this timing and the striking resemblance of floresiensis to the mystery creatures described by the islanders, Forth began to think about the creatures as possibly reflecting a real species, either now extinct but retained in 'cultural memory' or even still surviving. He began to investigate reports from the Lio region of the island where locals described 'ape-men' as still living. Dozens claimed to have even seen them. In Between Ape and Human, we follow Forth on the trail of this mystery hominoid, and the space they occupy in islanders' culture as both natural creatures and as supernatural beings. In a narrative filled with adventure, Lio culture and language, zoology and natural history, Forth comes to a startling and controversial conclusion. Unique, important, and thought-provoking, this book will appeal to anyone interested in human evolution, the survival of species (including our own) and how humans might relate to 'not-quite-human' animals. Between Ape and Human is essential reading for all those interested in cryptozoology, and it is the only firsthand investigation by a leading anthropologist into the possible survival of a primitive species of human into recent times-and its coexistence with modern humans.

Natural selection is more than the survival of the fittest: it is a force engendering higher biological complexity. Presenting a new explanation for the tendency of life to become more complex through evolution, this book offers an introduction to the key debates in evolutionary theory, including the role of genes and sex in evolution, the adaptive reasons for senescence and death and the origin of neural information. The author argues that biological complexity increased through the process of 'modularity transfer': modular phenotypes (proteins, somatic cells, learned behaviours) evolved into new modular information carriers (regulatory proteins, neural cells, words), giving rise to new information systems and higher levels of biological organisation. Modular Evolution makes sense of the unique place of humans in evolution, both as the pinnacle of biological complexity and inventors of non-biological evolution.

Understanding how simple molecules have given rise to the complex biochemical systems and processes of contemporary biology is widely regarded as one of chemistry's great unsolved questions. There are numerous theories as to the origins of life, the majority of which draw on the idea that DNA and nucleic acids are the central dogma of biology. The Singularity of Nature: A Convergence of Biology, Chemistry and Physics takes a systems-based approach to the origin and evolution of complex life. Readers will gain a novel understanding of physiologic evolution and the limits to our current understanding: why biology remains descriptive and non-predictive, as well as offering new opportunities for understanding relationships between physics and biology in the origins of biological life at the cellular-molecular level.

Shaping Primate Evolution is an edited collection of papers about how biological form is described in primate biology, and the consequences of form for function and behavior. The contributors are highly regarded internationally recognized scholars in the field of quantitative primate evolutionary morphology. Each chapter elaborates upon the analysis of the form-function-behavior triad in a unique and compelling way. This book is distinctive not only in the diversity of the topics discussed, but also in the range of levels of biological organization that are addressed from cellular morphometrics to the evolution of primate ecology. The book is dedicated to Charles E. Oxnard, whose influential pioneering work on innovative metric and analytic techniques has gone hand-in-hand with meticulous comparative functional analyses of primate anatomy. Through the marriage of theory with analytical applications, this volume will be an important reference work for all those interested in primate functional morphology.

In this book, Kate Distin proposes a theory of cultural evolution and shows how it can help us to understand the origin and development of human culture. Distin introduces the concept that humans share information not only in natural languages, which are spoken or signed, but also in artefactual languages like writing and musical notation, which use media that are made by humans. Languages enable humans to receive and transmit variations in cultural information and resources. In this way, they provide the mechanism for cultural evolution. The human capacity for metarepresentation - thinking about how we think - accelerates cultural evolution, because it frees cultural information from the conceptual limitations of each individual language. Distin shows how the concept of cultural evolution outlined in this book can help us to understand the complexity and diversity of human culture, relating her theory to a range of subjects including economics, linguistics, and developmental biology.

Charles Darwin (1809 1882) first published this work in 1868 in two volumes. The book began as an expansion of the first two chapters of On the Origin of Species: 'Variation under Domestication' and 'Variation under Nature', and it developed into one of his largest works; Darwin referred to it as his 'big book'. Volume 1 deals with the variations introduced into species as a result of domestication, through changes in climate, diet, breeding and an absence of predators. He began with an examination of dogs and cats, comparing them with their wild counterparts, and moved on to investigate horses and asses; pigs, cattle, sheep, and goats; domestic rabbits; domestic pigeons; fowl; and finally cultivated plants. The work is a masterpiece of nineteenth-century scientific investigation; it is a key text in the development of Darwin's own thought and of the wider discipline of evolutionary biology.

Charles Darwin (1809 1882) first published this work in 1868 in two volumes. The book began as an expansion of the first two chapters of On the Origin of Species: 'Variation under Domestication' and 'Variation under Nature' and it developed into one of his largest works; Darwin referred to it as his 'big book'. In volume 2, concerned with how species inherit particular characteristics, Darwin first published his 'provisional hypothesis' of pangenesis. This theory of 'gemmules' was not met with much acceptance and today is not valuable as scientific explanation, but it was important in laying down the key questions that needed to be answered regarding the processes of genetic inheritance. Darwin also used volume 2 to challenge the theories of evolution by design, expounded by the botanist Asa Gray. Darwin's arguments were some of the very first in a long debate that remains hot today.

This volume is part of the definitive edition of letters written by and to Charles Darwin, the most celebrated naturalist of the nineteenth century. It is already an important source for students and scholars in many academic disciplines. Notes and appendixes put these fascinating and wide-ranging letters in context, making the letters accessible to both scholars and general readers. Darwin depended on correspondence to collect data from all over the world, and to discuss his emerging ideas with scientific colleagues, many of whom he never met in person. The letters are published chronologically: Volume 18 includes letters from 1870, as well as a supplement of more than a hundred recently discovered or redated letters from before 1870. During 1870 Darwin was making final preparations for publication of Descent of Man, as well as continuing his research on expression in humans and animals.

This remarkable collection of private correspondence between Emma Darwin and members of her family, published in 1904, provides the reader with a delightful and informative account of life in the late nineteenth century, and a picture of an amusing, educated, and caring woman. Emma Darwin (1808 1896) was especially remembered for her patience and fortitude in dealing with her husband's long term illness, which became apparent shortly after their marriage. In nursing and humouring Charles through his many ups and downs, she was a crucial factor in her husband's scientific accomplishments. She was responsible for bringing up their large family, running their household, and hosting visits from relatives and scientists. This, the first of two volumes edited by her daughter Henrietta, focuses on Emma's parents and relatives, up to 1839. Both volumes are organised chronologically, and include delightful illustrations from the family archives.

This remarkable collection of private correspondence between Emma Darwin and members of her family, published in 1904, provides the reader with an enjoyable and informative account of prosperous middle-class life in the Victorian period, as well as a picture of an amusing, educated, and caring woman. Emma Darwin (1808 1896) was especially remembered for her patience and fortitude in dealing with her husband's long term illness, which became apparent shortly after their marriage. In nursing and humouring Charles through his many ups and downs, she was a crucial factor in her husband's scientific accomplishments. She was responsible for bringing up their large family, running their household, and hosting visits from relatives and scientists. This, the second of two volumes edited by her daughter Henrietta, covers the period from 1839 until Emma's death in 1896. The letters are organised chronologically, and the book includes delightful illustrations from the family archives.

To mark the birthday of the world's most renowned evolutionary biologist, Oxford University Press has reissued the definitive edition of Darwin's classic-a brilliantly entertaining and accessible exploration of human and animal behavior. Renowned psychologist Paul Ekman's edited version of this book is the first to appear the way Darwin ultimately intended, with all of the corrections and additions that were in Darwin's notes for a revision that was never published during his lifetime.
"Why do we shrug? Why do dogs wag their tails? Why do we scowl when angry and pout when sad rather than the other way around? What is the difference between guilt and shame? This would be an extraordinary book even if it had only answered these and scores of similar questions about the emotions in 1872 . . . Darwin enriched his arguments with hundreds of insightful observations, many with the pathos and humor of great literature, as when he describes the terror of a man being led to his execution or the comical dejection of his dog as soon as it sensed that a walk might end . . . This edition has the feel not of a lovingly restored museum piece but of a recent seminal work."--Steven Pinker, Science
"Darwin's most readable and human book . . . undiminished and intensely relevant even 125 years after publication."--Oliver Sacks, author of Musicophilia and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
"The Expression of the Emotions predates Freud, and it will still be illuminating human psychology long after Freud's discrediting is complete."--Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion
"Highly original . . . this is scholarship at its best."--Simon Baron-Cohen, Nature
"Ekman's edition is no mere reprint plus introduction."--Mark Ridley, Scientific American

Professor Parsons uses the colonizing species as a case study in the dynamics of microevolution at work in living systems. The colonizing species, a lie, and potentially disruptive force in a 'naive' habitat, is studied primarily as an ecological phenotype and more generally as an ecological behavioural phenotype. Conventional life-history traits and components of fitness, can be incorporated into these phenotypes. Integrating genetic change, natural selection, and the interaction of the species with its environment and other living systems therein, the colonizing species is transformed into a sophisticated and complex source of data for understanding evolutionary biology. Throughout the book it is emphasized that using the organism as the unit of selection is the most direct way of understanding the nature of successful colonizing phenotypes, and, by using specific phenotypic criteria, the prediction of likely successful colonists can be made. Such criteria include tolerance of extreme environments, resource utilization, reproductive capacity, and relative abundance.

Social scientists can learn a lot from evolutionary biology - from systematics and principles of evolutionary ecology to theories of social interaction including competition, conflict and cooperation, as well as niche construction, complexity, eco-evo-devo, and the role of the individual in evolutionary processes. Darwinian sociocultural evolutionary theory applies the logic of Darwinism to social-learning based cultural and social change. With a multidisciplinary approach for graduate biologists, philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, social psychologists, archaeologists, linguists, economists, political scientists and science and technology specialists, the author presents this model of evolution drawing on a number of sophisticated aspects of biological evolutionary theory. The approach brings together a broad and inclusive theoretical framework for understanding the social sciences which addresses many of the dilemmas at their forefront - the relationship between history and necessity, conflict and cooperation, the ideal and the material and the problems of agency, subjectivity and the nature of social structure. Please visit Marion Blute's blog at http: //bluteblog.com

Social scientists can learn a lot from evolutionary biology - from systematics and principles of evolutionary ecology to theories of social interaction including competition, conflict and cooperation, as well as niche construction, complexity, eco-evo-devo, and the role of the individual in evolutionary processes. Darwinian sociocultural evolutionary theory applies the logic of Darwinism to social-learning based cultural and social change. With a multidisciplinary approach for graduate biologists, philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, social psychologists, archaeologists, linguists, economists, political scientists and science and technology specialists, the author presents this model of evolution drawing on a number of sophisticated aspects of biological evolutionary theory. The approach brings together a broad and inclusive theoretical framework for understanding the social sciences which addresses many of the dilemmas at their forefront - the relationship between history and necessity, conflict and cooperation, the ideal and the material and the problems of agency, subjectivity and the nature of social structure.

Originally published in 1993, this second edition of a successful textbook describes and explains in a refreshingly clear way the origin and evolution of plants as revealed by the fossil record and summarises paleobotanical information relevant to our understanding of the relationships between the major plant groups, extant and extinct. As in the first edition, the text is profusely illustrated with line illustrations and half-tones. For those students with little knowledge of plant structure and morphology there is a brief resume of those features of extant plants that will be needed to gain a better understanding of the fossil record. Summarising charts are also used to help students visualise the interpretative material.

This book, originally published in 2004, is concerned with the links between human evolution and infectious disease. It has long been recognised that an important factor in human evolution has been the struggle against infectious disease and, more recently, it was revealed that complex genetic polymorphisms are the direct result of that struggle. As molecular biological techniques become more sophisticated, a number of breakthroughs in the area of host-pathogen evolution led to an increased interest in this field. From the historical beginnings of J. B. S. Haldane's original hypothesis to more recent research, this book strives to evaluate infectious diseases from an evolutionary perspective. It provides a survey of information regarding host-pathogen evolution related to major infectious diseases and parasitic infections, including malaria, influenza and leishmaniasis. Written by leading authorities in the field, and edited by a former pupil of Haldane, Infectious Disease and Host-Pathogen Evolution will be valuable for those working in related areas of microbiology, parasitology, immunology and infectious disease medicine, as well as genetics, evolutionary biology and epidemiology.