Photopigments are molecules that react to light and mediate a number of processes and behaviours in animals. Visual pigments housed within the photoreceptors of the eye, such as the rods and cones in vertebrates are the best known, however, visual pigments are increasingly being found in other tissues, including other retinal cells, the skin and the brain. Other closely related molecules from the G protein family, such as melanopsin mediate light driven processes including circadian rhythmicity and pupil constriction. This Volume examines the enormous diversity of visual pigments and traces the evolution of these G protein coupled receptors in both invertebrates and vertebrates in the context of the visual and non-visual demands dictated by a species' ecological niche.

The book is the first thorough study of the role of phosphorus chemistry in the origin of life. This book starts with depiction of the phosphorus role in life creation and evolution. Then it outlines in vital processes how different phosphorus-containing compounds participate as biomarker in life evolution. Written by renowned scientists, it is suitable for researchers and students in organic phosphorus chemistry and biochemistry.

This revealing book details recent developments in the study of the relationship between sulfur and the microbial agents that affect its metabolism. In recent years, new methods have been applied to study the biochemistry and molecular biology of reactions of the global sulfur cycle, the microorganisms involved and their physiology, metabolism and ecology. These activities have uncovered fascinating new insights for the understanding of aerobic and anaerobic sulfur metabolism.

'Intimate and thoughtful... Exciting... [A] sweeping evolutionary history.' Science The author of the bestselling Your Inner Fish gives us a brilliant, up-to-date account of the great transformations in the history of life on Earth. This is a story full of surprises. If you think that feathers arose to help animals fly, or lungs to help them walk on land, you'd be in good company. You'd also be entirely wrong. Neil Shubin delves deep into the mystery of life, the ongoing revolutions in our understanding of how we got here, and brings us closer to answering one of the great questions - was life on earth inevitable...or was it all an accident?

Over time the complex idea of "species" has evolved, yet its meaning is far from resolved. This comprehensive work is a fresh look at an idea central to the field of biology by tracing its history from antiquity to today. Species is a benchmark exploration and clarification of a concept fundamental to the past, present, and future of the natural sciences. In this edition, a section is added on the debate over species since the time of the New Synthesis, and brings the book up to date. A section on recent philosophical debates over species has also been added. This edition is better suited non-specialists in philosophy, so that it will be of greater use for scientists wishing to understand how the notion came to be that living organisms form species. Key Selling Features: Covers the philosophical and historical development of the concept of "species" Documents that variation was recognized by pre-Darwinian scholars Includes a section on the debates since the time of the New Synthesis Better suited to non-philosophers

In recent decades the humanities have been in thrall to postmodern skepticism, while Darwinists, brimming with confidence in the genuine progress they have made in the sciences of biology and psychology, have set their sights on rescuing the humanities from the ravages of postmodernism. In this volume, Eugene Goodheart attacks the neo-Darwinist approach to the arts and articulates a powerful defense of humanist criticism.

E. O. Wilson, the distinguished Harvard biologist, has spoken of converting philosophy into science, substituting science for religion, and formulating a biological theory of literature and the arts in "Consilence: The Unity of Knowledge." Goodheart demonstrates that Wilson's efforts, and those of his colleagues Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, and Daniel Dennett among others, have resulted in scientism rather than science. If, for example, Dawkins had contented himself in "The Selfish Gene" with the claim that Darwinism had made worthless other answers to the question of how we have evolved, he would have given offense only to creationists, but questions of meaning and purpose are of another order.

Contemporary Darwinist critiques err in assuming that art and traditional criticism aspire to truths that can be codified in terms of scientific laws. If this were so, we would have to regard the speculations of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Montaigne, Shakespeare, and Rousseau as worthless. Goodheart exposes the philistinism of literary Darwinism, the bad faith and inverted fundamentalism of the Darwinian approach to religion, and the dangers of the eff ort to create a Darwinian ethical system. Taken together, Goodheart's arguments show that in moving beyond their area of competence, the neo -Darwinists commit an ideology, not a science.

Parrotfish are found on almost every coral reef in the world. This ubiquity and uniqueness of their feeding action make them one of the most important groups of fishes within coral reef ecosystems. But why, exactly, are parrotfish so important to reefs? Can the evolution of a particular jaw morphology and feeding action really have had such a large impact on the health and functioning of the world's coral reefs? This book introduces the reader to this fascinating group of fishes (Labridae, Scarinae), from the morphological innovation of a jaw that has the power to bite through solid calcium carbonate, to the threats currently faced by parrotfish populations around the world. It contains new insights into their diet and food processing ability, and lifehistories, and concludes with an overview of emerging and future research directions.

A persistent argument among evolutionary biologists and philosophers revolves around the nature of natural selection. Evolution by Natural Selection: Confidence, Evidence and the Gap explores this argument by using a theory of persistence as an intentional foil to examine ways in which similar theories can be misunderstood. It discusses Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, including what the theory says, what it aims to explain, and how it manages to explain natural selection. Darwin's theory is so familiar today that it feels universally understood. However, the fact that there are so divergent views about the theory means that not everyone who thinks he or she understands it can be right. This book describes the history of evolutionary theory as a sequence of theoretical developments, not all of which can be considered improvements. In particular, it suggests that some attempts to use the theory of natural selection end up reshaping the concepts involved so that they can be applied more easily to the world. As a result, the theory is stripped of some of its explanatory power and becomes detached from the empiricism that good scientific examination requires. With these issues in mind, Evolution by Natural Selection shows there are aspects of the theory of natural selection that are not totally understood. These misunderstandings create problems in uses of the theory. At a time when selectionist explanations are being brought forward to explain an ever-widening range of phenomena, this book analyzes the explanatory structure of Darwin's theory. It takes a much-needed thoughtful look into the working parts of the theory of natural selection to provide better understanding of the theory and its role in contemporary science and life.

This book gathers together much of the author's work - both old and new - to explore a number of the key increases in complexity seen in the natural world, seeking to explain each of them purely in terms of the features of fitness landscapes. In a very straightforward manner, the book introduces basic concepts to help readers follow the main ideas. By using variations of the NK model and including the concept of the Baldwin effect, the author presents new abstract models that are able to explain why sources of evolutionary innovation (genomes, symbiosis, sex, chromosomes, multicellularity) have been selected for and hence how complexity has increased over time in some lineages.

This book introduces a 'Big History' perspective to understand the acceleration of social, technological and economic trends towards a near-term singularity, marking a radical turning point in the evolution of our planet. It traces the emergence of accelerating innovation rates through global history and highlights major historical transformations throughout the evolution of life, humans, and civilization. The authors pursue an interdisciplinary approach, also drawing on concepts from physics and evolutionary biology, to offer potential models of the underlying mechanisms driving this acceleration, along with potential clues on how it might progress. The contributions gathered here are divided into five parts, the first of which studies historical mega-trends in relation to a variety of aspects including technology, population, energy, and information. The second part is dedicated to a variety of models that can help understand the potential mechanisms, and support extrapolation. In turn, the third part explores various potential future scenarios, along with the paths and decisions that are required. The fourth part presents philosophical perspectives on the potential deeper meaning and implications of the trend towards singularity, while the fifth and last part discusses the implications of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Given its scope, the book will appeal to scholars from various disciplines interested in historical trends, technological change and evolutionary processes.

Originally published in 1991, The New Evolutionary Paradigm provides an innovative and cross disciplinary look at evolution. While Darwin's theory of evolution was originally restricted to the life sciences, in recent years the same principles have been applied successfully to historical, social and natural sciences. The papers included in The New Evolutionary Paradigm analyse the facts, observations, and accumulated data from the significance of a general evolution theory cannot be overemphasised; a new understanding of the cosmos and man's relationship to it could lead to the systemization of the irreversible change that takes place in society and nature. This book will appeal to scientists, sociologists and those interested in transdisciplinary evolution theories.

For many agricultural crops, bees play a vital role as pollinators, and this book discusses the interplay among bees, agriculture, and the environment. Although honey bees are well recognized as pollinators, managed bumble bees and solitary bees are also critical for the successful pollination of certain crops, while wild bees provide a free service. As bees liberally pass pollen from one plant to the next, they also impact the broader ecosystem, and not always to the benefit of humankind. Bees can enhance the unintentional spread of genes from genetically engineered plants, and may increase the spread of invasive weeds. Conversely, genetically engineered plants can impact pollinators, and invasive weeds can supply new sources of food for these insects. Bees' flower-visiting activities also can be exploited to help spread biological control agents that control crop pests, and they are important for native plant reproduction. Managing bees for pollination is complex and the factors that must be taken into consideration are treated here, including bee natural history, physiology, pathology, and behavior. Furthermore, transporting bees from native ranges to new areas for pollination services can be controversial, and needs to be done only after assuring that it will not disrupt various ecosystems. Even though bees are small, unobtrusive creatures, they play large roles in the ecosystem. The connection between bees and humankind also is symbolic of a broader interconnection between humans and the natural world.

This book demonstrates how the primate hand combines both primitive and novel morphology, both general function with specialization, and both a remarkable degree of diversity within some clades and yet general similarity across many others. Across the chapters, different authors have addressed a variety of specific questions and provided their perspectives, but all explore the main themes described above to provide an overarching "primitive primate hand" thread to the book. Each chapter provides an in-depth review and critical account of the available literature, a balanced interpretation of the evidence from a variety of perspectives, and prospects for future research questions. In order to make this a useful resource for researchers at all levels, the basic structure of each chapter is the same, so that information can be easily consulted from chapter to chapter. An extensive reference list is provided at the end of each chapter so the reader has additional resources to address more specific questions or to find specific data.

It has been nearly 150 years since Darwin published On the Origin of Species, and his theory of natural selection still ignites a forest of heated debate between scientific fundamentalists on the one hand and religious fundamentalists on the other. But both sides actually agree more than they disagree, and what has long been needed is a third way to view evolution, one that focuses more on the aspect of life and "being alive," one that can guide us through, and perhaps out of, the fiery thicket. This book, a seminal work in the burgeoning field of Biosemiotics, provides that third way, by viewing living beings as genuine agents designing their communication pathways with, and in, the world.

Already hailed as the best account of biological hermeneutics, Life As Its Own Designer: Darwin's Origin and Western Thought is a wholly unique book divided into two parts. The first part is philosophical and explores the roots of rationality and the hermeneutics of the natural world with the overriding goal of discovering how narrative can help us to explain life. It analyzes why novelty is so hard to comprehend in the framework of Western thinking and confronts head-on the chasm between evolutionism and traditional rationalistic worldviews. The second part is scientific. It focuses on the life of living beings, treating them as co-creators of their world in the process of evolution. It draws on insights gleaned from the global activity of the Gaian biosphere, considers likeness as demonstrated on homology studies, and probes the problem of evo-devo science from the angle of life itself.

This book is both timely and vital. Past attempts at a third way to view evolution have failed because they were written either by scientists who lacked a philosophical grounding or New Age thinkers who lacked biological credibility. Marko and his coworkers form an original group of thinkers supremely capable in both fields, and they have fashioned a book that is ideal for researchers and scholars from both the humanities and sciences who are interested in the history and philosophy of biology, biosemiotics, and the evolution of life."

On December 21, 1972, sixteen young survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 were rescued after spending ten weeks stranded at the crash site of their plane, high in the remote Andes Mountains. The incident made international headlines and spawned several best-selling books, fueled partly by the fact that the young men had resorted to cannibalism to survive.

Matt Rossano examines this story from an evolutionary perspective, weaving together findings and ideas from anthropology, psychology, religion, and cognitive science. During their ordeal, these young men broke "civilized" taboos to fend off starvation and abandoned "civilized" modes of thinking to maintain social unity and individual sanity. Through the power of ritual, the survivors were able to endure severe emotional and physical hardship. Rossano ties their story to our story, seeing in the mortal rituals of this struggle for survival a reflection of what it means to be human.

The evolutionary origins of hydrogenosomes have been the subject of considerable debate. This volume closes the gap between the endosymbiotic theory for the origin of organelles and their incorporation into evolutionary theory. It reveals that identifying the genetic contribution to eukaryotes of the mitochondrial endosymbiosis, and revealing the functions of its descendent organelles, are key to understanding eukaryotic biology and evolution.

Phylogenomics: A Primer, Second Edition is for advanced undergraduate and graduate biology students studying molecular biology, comparative biology, evolution, genomics, and biodiversity. This book explains the essential concepts underlying the storage and manipulation of genomics level data, construction of phylogenetic trees, population genetics, natural selection, the tree of life, DNA barcoding, and metagenomics. The inclusion of problem-solving exercises in each chapter provides students with a solid grasp of the important molecular and evolutionary questions facing modern biologists as well as the tools needed to answer them.

Phylogenetic comparative approaches are powerful analytical tools for making evolutionary inferences from interspecific data and phylogenies. The phylogenetic toolkit available to evolutionary biologists is currently growing at an incredible speed, but most methodological papers are published in the specialized statistical literature and many are incomprehensible for the user community. This textbook provides an overview of several newly developed phylogenetic comparative methods that allow to investigate a broad array of questions on how phenotypic characters evolve along the branches of phylogeny and how such mechanisms shape complex animal communities and interspecific interactions. The individual chapters were written by the leading experts in the field and using a language that is accessible for practicing evolutionary biologists. The authors carefully explain the philosophy behind different methodologies and provide pointers - mostly using a dynamically developing online interface - on how these methods can be implemented in practice. These "conceptual" and "practical" materials are essential for expanding the qualification of both students and scientists, but also offer a valuable resource for educators. Another value of the book are the accompanying online resources (available at: http://www.mpcm-evolution.com), where the authors post and permanently update practical materials to help embed methods into practice.

Written over several decades and collected together for the first time, these richly detailed contextual studies by a leading historian of science examine the diverse ways in which cultural values and political and professional considerations impinged upon the construction, acceptance and applications of nineteenth century evolutionary theory. They include a number of interrelated analyses of the highly politicised roles of embryos and monsters in pre- and post- Darwinian evolutionary theorizing, including Darwin's; several studies of the intersection of Darwinian science and its practitioners with issues of gender, race and sexuality, featuring a pioneering contextual analysis of Darwin's theory of sexual selection; and explorations of responses to Darwinian science by notable Victorian women intellectuals, including the crusading anti-feminist and ardent Darwinian, Eliza Lynn Linton, the feminist and leading anti-vivisectionist Frances Power Cobbe, and Annie Besant, the bible-bashing, birth-control advocate who confronted Darwin's opposition to contraception at the notorious Knowlton Trial.

Pollination is one of the most important processes in plant reproduction. It directly influences reproductive success and fitness and the genetic structure of the plant population. Methods exist to infer the pattern and distance of pollen dispersal, but direct observation of the movements of individual pollen grains during pollination is not feasible owing to their small size. Single-pollen genotyping is a novel technique for genotyping a single pollen grain. In this book, the principles, the experimental protocol, and several applications of this method in studies of plant ecology, reproductive biology, and evolutionary genetics have been described. More specifically, the information is useful for the analysis of linkage disequilibrium, intraspecific genetic variation, chromosome mapping, and the origins of polyploidy. It is also essential for achieving sustainable and optimal crop yield and is vital to agriculture and forestry. Written by pioneer researchers, the book provides novel research approaches that are proving useful in a growing number of fields. This volume is intended to encourage new and continued applications of single-pollen genotyping" "among" "many disciplines in the future.

Originally published in 1899, The History of Creation was the first book of its kind to apply a doctrine to the whole range of organic morphology and make use of the effect Darwin had on biological sciences during the 19th century. Haeckel looks at Darwin's reform of Descent Theory and its establishment through the doctrine of selection. He introduces Descent Theory into the systematic classification of animals and plants and finds a "natural system" on the basis of genealogy - that is, to construct hypothetical pedigrees for the various species of organisms. The book will be of interest to those studying natural history and the origins of modern scientific thought, it will appeal to researchers both in the natural sciences and in history.

First published in 1911. The first chapter in this fascinating study devotes itself to a short preliminary introduction to Darwin's ideas, and some remarks on the thoughts of the ancients on the subject and how matters stood in the period immediately preceding the appearance of Darwin himself. The second and third chapters discuss Darwin's theory and a suggested alternative hypothesis. The concluding chapter is devoted to the philosophical aspect of the case, and to some general reflections after a close perusal of Darwin's works.