![]() |
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
||
|
Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Zoology & animal sciences > Vertebrates > Mammals > General
The family Rhinocerotidae has a long and amazing history in North America. From their first appearance about forty million years ago, they diversified into an incredible array of taxa, with a variety of ecologies that do not resemble any of the five living species. They ranged from delicate long-legged dog-sized forms, to huge hippo-like forms that apparently lived in rivers and lakes. This book includes a systematic review of the entire North American Rhinocerotidae, with complete descriptions, measurements, and figures of every bone in every species - the first such review in over a century. More importantly, it discusses the biogeographic patterns of rhinos, their evolutionary patterns and paleoecology, and what rhinos tell us about the evolution of North American landscapes and faunas over 35 million years. It is a complete and authoritative volume that will be a reference of interest to a variety of scientists for years to come.
Mammalian hair has always had a use in human society: as fur for clothing, in the production of cloth, or in the production of brushes. Scientists, too, make use of mammalian hair as a diagnostic tool in areas such as animal ecology, wildlife biology, and nature management. The identification of hairs found in the field, in the intestine or feces of carnivores, or in the pellets of birds of prey, can yield valuable information on the distribution of mammals and the diet of their predators. With photographs and keys, this atlas aids correct identification by providing data on the color, form, and length of hair and the structure of the cuticula, medulla, and cross-sections.
The second edition of "Tigers of the World" explores tiger
biology, ecology, conservation, management, and the science and
technology that make this possible. In 1988, when the first edition
was published, tiger conservation was still in its infancy, and two
decades later there has been a revolution not only in what is
known, but how information about tigers is obtained and
disseminated. In the fast changing world of conservation, there is
a great need to summarize the vast and current state-of-the-art, to
put this into historical perspective, and to speculate in what yet
remains to be done. "Tigers of the World, 2e" fulfills this need by
bringing together in a unique way the world s leading tiger experts
into one volume. Despite the challenges ahead, there are bright
spots in this story and lessons aplenty not only for tiger
specialists but large carnivore specialists, conservation
biologists, wildlife managers, natural resource policymakers, and
most importantly the caring public. *Examines the past twenty years of research from the world s leading tiger expertson biology, politics, and conservation. *Describes latest methods used to disseminate and obtaininformation needed for conservation and care of this species. *Includes coverage on genetics and ecology, policy, poaching and trade, captive breeding and farming, and the status of Asia s last wild tigers. *Excellent resource for grad courses in conservation biology, wildlife management, and veterinary programs. *New volume continues the classic Noyes Series in Animal Behavior, Ecology, Conservation and Management. "
1 Introduction The esophagus is a relatively simple though vital organ. It consists of a two-layered muscular tube whose lumen is lined by squamous strati?ed epithelium. Beyond its role of propelling food from the pharynx to the stomach by a propulsive contraction wave representing the esophageal phase of deglutition (Conklin and Christensen 1994; Jean 2001), it is more and more recognized as a sensory organ from which a variety of respiratory and cardiovascular re?exes can be triggered, thus coop- ating with the larynx in protecting the lower airways from aspiration (Barthelemy et al. 1996; Lang et al. 2002; Lang et al. 2001; Loomis et al. 1997; Medda et al. 2003). In ruminants, there is additional antiperistalsis for regurgitation. During emesis, the esophagus is a merely passive conduit except for some antiperistalsis in its upper part. In the interval between swallows, both oral and aboral ends of the esophagus are tonically closed by the upper and lower esophageal sphincters, UES and LES respectively, while the tubular esophagus is ?accid and partly ?lled with air. Despite this apparent simplicity, neuronal control of esophageal functions is quite complex.
African mole-rats are a unique taxon of subterranean rodents that range in sociality from solitary-dwelling species to two "eusocial" species, the Damaraland mole-rat and the naked mole-rat. The naked mole-rat is arguably the closest that a mammal comes to behaving like social insects such as bees and termites, with large colonies and a behavioral and reproductive division of labor. As a family, the Bathyergidae represent a model system with which to study the evolution and maintenance of highly social cooperative breeding strategies. In this book, Nigel Bennett and Chris Faulkes provide a synthesis of the current knowledge of bathyergid systematics, ecology, reproductive biology, behavior, and genetics. They explore the role of these factors in the evolution of sociality in the Bathyergidae in the context of both vertebrates and invertebrates. This volume will be an important new resource for anyone interested in the evolution of sociality, specifically in mole-rats.
Once famous for the beauty of its white beaches, reef-ringed islands, and lush forests, today the Philippines is known as an example of the deep costs of ecological decline. In less than a generation, large and small users alike felled the forests, shattered the coral reefs, and over-fished the oceans. The rapid harvest of the once-abundant resources has brought environmental changes: droughts, deadly flash floods, and the collapse of vital fisheries. The consequences have reverberated throughout the country. As the rural economy weakened, millions migrated to the cities, overwhelming the infrastructure and deepening the problems of urban health. Pioneering efforts have been launched to curtail the environmental damage and manage the resources that remain. Trained as a botanist and plant ecologist, writer Barbara Goldoftas traveled extensively throughout the archipelago to document the loss of the natural resources, the dramatic human costs, and efforts to reverse the decline. Along the forest frontier, she met villagers whose fields had been washed away by mudslides and church workers risking their lives to defend the dwindling forests. In coastal villages, she spoke with fishermen who, having watched their catches diminish with the dying reefs, enforced the boundaries of no-take zones. In towns and villages alike, she interviewed local politicians and leaders of non-governmental organizations working to combine conservation and development and keep their communities intact. Written about a country often described as an environmental worst-case scenario, The Green Tiger offers an unusually close look at the consequences of ecological decline and determined efforts to reverse them. Itargues that, rather than destroying a natural resource base, development should integrate conservation and economic growth. It gives a realistic, but optimistic vision of the long process of "nation-building" that is the backdrop of environmental work in a developing country and a new democracy.
Throughout North America, non-native wild pigs have become an ecologically and economically destructive invasive species. Though they are regarded as a popular game species by some, provide economic benefits to others, and are even engrained into societal heritage in some areas, wild pigs are responsible for an extraordinary amount of damage in both natural and anthropogenic systems throughout North America. As the density and range of wild pig habitat have substantially increased over the last several decades, the magnitude and diversity of their negative impacts are not yet fully realized or quantified. With various conflicts continually emerging, wild pig management is difficult and expensive to achieve. As a result, wild pigs represent one of the greatest wildlife management challenges North America faces in the 21st century. Invasive Wild Pigs in North America: Ecology, Impacts, and Management addresses all aspects of wild pig biology, ecology, damage, and management in a single comprehensive volume. It assimilates and organizes information on the most destructive introduced vertebrate species in the United States, establishing a foundation from which managers, researchers, policy makers, and other stakeholders can build upon into the future. The book provides comprehensive coverage of wild pig biology and ecology, techniques for management and research, and regional chapters. It is an asset to readers interested in wild pigs, the resources they impact, and how to mitigate those impacts, and establishes a vision of the future of wild pigs in North America. Features: Compiles valuable knowledge for a broad audience including wild pig managers, researchers, adversaries, and enthusiasts from across North America Addresses taxonomy, morphology, genetics, physiology, spatial ecology, population dynamics, diseases and parasites, and the naturalized niche of wild pigs Includes chapters on damage to resources, management, research methods, human dimensions and education, and policy and legislation Contains full color images and case studies of interesting and informative situations being created by wild pigs throughout North America Includes a chapter on wild pigs at the wildland-urban interface, a more recent and especially challenging issue
Humans and Hyenas examines the origins and development of the relationship between the two to present an accurate and realistic picture of the hyena and its interactions with people. The hyena is one of the most maligned, misrepresented and defamed mammals. It is still, despite decades of research-led knowledge, seen as a skulking, cowardly scavenger rather than a successful hunter with complex family and communal systems. Hyenas are portrayed as sex-shifting deviants, grave robbers and attackers of children in everything from African folk tales through Greek and Roman accounts of animal life, to Disney's The Lion King depicting hyenas with a lack of respect and disgust, despite the reality of their behaviour and social structures. Combining the personal, in-depth mining of scientific papers about the three main species and historical accounts, Keith Somerville delves into our relationship with hyenas from the earliest records from millennia ago, through the accounts by colonisers, to contemporary coexistence, where hyenas and humans are forced into ever closer proximity due to shrinking habitats and loss of prey. Are hyenas fated to retain their bad image or can their amazing ability to adapt to humans more successfully than lions and other predators lead to a shift in perspective? This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in the environmental sciences, conservation biology, and wildlife and conservation issues.
This book is an up-to-date comprehensive resource on the names (scientific, English and vernacular) of the mammals of South Asia. This work is first of its kind that deals with explanation of names of mammals at the species and subspecies level.
This is the only book entirely devoted to the sensory circumventricular organs. It reviews research into their detailed anatomy, neurochemistry, neural connections, and functions, and provides the reader with many illustrations previously unpublished.
In this unique book, Sir Donald Harrison draws on his wide-ranging experience as a surgeon and comparative anatomist to produce an authoritative and detailed account of the anatomy and physiology of the mammalian larynx. His investigation of the larynx has involved the study of over 1400 specimens of mammalian larynges from around the world, as well as using data from his own clinical experiences. The comparative morphology of the larynx is discussed from a developmental and functional perspective and the involvement of the larynx in respiration, locomotion and vocalisation is highlighted. Throughout the book the relationship of structure to function is drawn out and the clinical relevance of features of the human larynx is emphasised. This book will be an invaluable reference for all researchers and clinicians involved in laryngology as well as for anatomists, zoologists and anaesthesiologists.
Key features: Beautifully illustrated with detailed, full-colour images - very user-friendly for investigators, students, and technicians who work with animals Provides essential information for research and clinical purposes, describing some structures not usually shown in any other anatomy atlas In each set of illustrations, the same view is depicted in the mouse and the rat for easy comparison Text draws attention to the anatomical features which are important for supporting the care and use of these animals in research Endorsed by the American Association of Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) Comparative Anatomy of the Mouse and Rat: a Color Atlas and Text provides detailed comparative anatomical information for those who work with mice and rats in animal research. Information is provided about the anatomical features and landmarks for conducting a physical examination, collecting biological samples, making injections of therapeutic and experimental materials, using imaging modalities, and performing surgeries.
Beginning in 1984, Eric Dinerstein led a team directly responsible for the recovery of the greater one-horned rhinoceros in the Royal Chitwan National Park in Nepal, where the population had once declined to as few as 100 rhinos. The Return of the Unicorns is an account of what it takes to save endangered large mammals. In its pages, Dinerstein outlines the multifaceted recovery program-structured around targeted fieldwork and scientific research, effective protective measures, habitat planning and management, public-awareness campaigns, economic incentives to promote local guardianship, and bold, uncompromising leadership-that brought these extraordinary animals back from the brink of extinction. In an age when scientists must also become politicians, educators, fund-raisers, and activists to safeguard the subjects that they study, Dinerstein's inspiring story offers a successful model for large-mammal conservation that can be applied throughout Asia and across the globe.
The aim of this study was to investigate the development and diffferentiation of the adrenal glands in the grass snake during early stages of ontogenesis. After light microscopy and ultrastructural investigation, six developmental phases were distinguished in the grass snake adrenal glands. Similar developmental phases were described in pig embryos but they slightly differ from those presented above. In reptile and mammal embryos a similar direction of changes is observed in primaordia of both tissues forming adrenal glands.
However well the anatomy of the gastrointestinal tracts of a wide range of mammals are described and quantified, there can be no real explanation of observed patterns without consideration of the mechanical and chemical properties of the food consumed, and digestive stages involved in its processing. This book aims to integrate findings from the many different types of investigations of mammalian digestive systems into a coherent whole. Using the themes of food, form and function, researchers discuss models of digestive processes, linking this with evolutionary aspects of food utilization. Macroscopic and ultrastructural studies of the gastrointestinal tract are also presented, as are physiological, ecological and biochemical aspects of the digestion of different food types. The book ends with an integrative chapter, bringing together the themes running through the earlier sections.
Rodents are the predominant experimental animals found in life-sciences research laboratories. The body temperature of a rodent is markedly affected by surgical, chemical or environmental manipulation. Because temperature regulation is controlled essentially by a 'holistic' regulatory system, meaning that its responses affect the activities of all other psychological and behavioural processes, it is clear that researchers working with rodents must be familiar with thermoregulatory physiology. With the help of extensive data tables and figures, this book explains the key facets of rodent thermal physiology, including neurological control and gender and intraspecies variations. There is a novel chapter on the effects of trauma, toxic chemicals and other factors. The book should therefore find use in government, academic or industrial laboratories whose researchers are working with rodents.
The Asian elephant has had a unique cultural association with people. Unfortunately, elephants and people have also been in conflict, resulting in the decline in elephants throughout their former range in Southern Asia. This book provides an ecological analysis of elephant-human interaction and its implication for the conservation of elephants. The foraging habits of elephants and their impact on vegetation are considered, along with the interactions that occur between elephants and humans. The ecological data provide the basis for recommendations on elephant conservation and management, keeping in view the socio-economic imperatives of the Asian region. This first comprehensive account of Asian elephant ecology will be of particular interest to conservation biologists and mammalogists.
Morphogeny of the nasal skull was investigated in 92 embryos of 13 species of Cetacea. Compared to the original nasal capsule of land mammals, the nasal structures of Cetacea show many weighty transformations. As a result, the nostrils are translocated from the tip of the snout to the vertex of the head. Several structures of the embryonic nasal skull remain preserved even in adult cetaceans. The translocation of the nostrils to the highest point of the surfacing body is among the most perfect adaptations of cetaceans to the aquatic life habits. The morphogeny of the nasal skull suggests that all cetaceans are of common origin and form a single monophyletic order. The hitherto usual division of this order into two suborders, Mysticeti and Odontoceti, appears to be unsubstantiated. Rather, at least three closely related superfamilies should be distinguished within the order Cetacea, viz., Balaenopteroidea, Physeteroidea, and Delphinoidea. The results are in a
This work is a brief review of the pre- and postnatal development in the North American opossum (Didelphis virginiana) presented in two volumes. Volume I summarizes gametes and fertilization, blastocyst formation and early organogenesis, fetal membranes and placentation, parturition and migration to the pouch, general postnatal growth and development, and histogenesis/organogenesis of the integument, musculoskeletal system, cardiovascular system, blood and blood forming organs, lymphatic organs, nervous system, eye, and ear. Volume II summarizes the histogenesis/organogenesis of the respiratory, digestive, urinary, male and female reproductive and classical endocrine systems.
Only five years ago, nobody in his right mind would have consid ered publishing a book on reeler as a model for brain develop ment. Although this interesting mutation has been with us for half a century, it is fair to say that, in spite of a wave of enthusiasm in the late sixties and early seventies, generated primarily by Sidman, Caviness and colleagues, studies of reeler mice fell pro gressively out of fashion during the next two decades. All that changed almost overnight when the cloning of the reeler gene, dubbed reelin, was reported in Tom Curran's laboratory in 1995. The fact that the same gene was identified at the same time independently by two other groups using positional cloning sug gested strongly that reelin was the right candidate. Although the key experiments of transgenic rescue have not been made (and perhaps will never be), the equation "reeler is reelin" has been established beyond reasonable doubt, as alterations of the reelin gene and/or its expression have been found in at least five alleles of reeler and in the mutation Shaking Rat Kawasaki (SRK), an ortholog of reeler."
Due to their pronounced intraspecific variability and to difficulties in defining their evolutionary trends in mammalian phylogenies, peripheral blood vessels have been neglected in comparative studies. Supported by the Sonderforschungsbereich 89 (Car- diology) of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, we have reconstructed the ontoge- of the blood vessels of the tree shrew, Tupaia belangeri, on the netic morphogenesis basis of a series of developmental stages. The arteries of the lower extremity are described and discussed here. Besides describing the morphogenesis of the arteries in Tupaia, it is the aim of this study to explain the variability of the arteries of the pelvic extremity among mammals, and especially among primates including man, on the basis of a common developmen- tal pattern. This can be shown in the following example. In the popliteal region of most adult mammals the arteria poplitea profunda is situated under the musculus popliteus. In the adult Tupaia, as well as in primates, this artery is missing but, superficial to the musculus popliteus, an arteria poplitea super- ficialis exists. It seems difficult to explain such a case of "discontinuous evolution," because it is hard to imagine the position of the artery should have shifted through the muscle. The present investigation and the literature show that early in the embryonic development of a primate, man, and of Tupaia, both the arteria poplitea profunda and the arteria poplitea superficialis are present.
This work is a brief review of the pre- and postnatal development in the North American opossum (Didelphis virginiana) presented in two volumes. Volume I summarizes gametes and fertilization, blastocyst formationan and early organogenesis, fetal membranes and placentation, parturition and migration to the pouch, general postnatal growth and development, and histogenesis/organogenesis of the integument, musculoskeletal system, cardiovascular system, blood and blood forming organs, lymphatic organs, nervous system, eye, and ear. Volume II summarizes the histogenesis/organogenesis of the respiratory, digestive, urinary, male and female reproductive and classical endocrine systems.
During pubertal development of the testes, germ cells pass initially through the complete succession of spermatogenic differentiation. Using the golden hamster as a model, this volume presents a comprehensive analysis of that establishing period of mammalian spermatogenesis. Detailed morphological and cell kinetic data of the pubertal seminiferous epithelium reveal a level of cellular organization and synchronization coming near to the adult situation. Characteristic, temporarily occurring perturbations of spermatogenic progression are related to specific delays of Sertoli or Leydig cell maturation, respectively. These results emphasize and specify the close structural and functional interdependence of germ and somatic cell development.
1.1 Overview The precise knowledge of the three-dimensional (3-D) assembly of biological structures is still in its origin. As an example, a widely accepted concept and common belief of the structure of the airway network oflung is that of a regular, dichotomous branching pattern, also known as the trumpet model. This model, first introduced by Weibel in 1963, is often used in clinical and physiological applications. However, if this concept of dichotomy is used to model lung, a shape is obtained that is quite different from a real lung. As a matter of fact, many previous quantitative morphological and stereological investigations of lung did not concentrate on the spatial aspect of lung morphology but delivered data in a more statistical fashion. Accordingly, the functional behavior predicted by such a model becomes questionable and indeed, the morphometrically predicted lung capacity exceeds the physiological required capacity by a factor of 1.3 up to a factor of2. This problem has also been termed a paradox, as discussed by Weibel in 1983. In the rare cases where descriptive models of the mammalian bronchial tree exist, monopodial in small mammals, dichotomous in larger ones, the understanding of the historical and/or functional reasons for size-related changes in the general design is not explainable. This investigation is trying to overcome this gap by computer modeling and functional simulation.
Rory Putman addresses the question of how, in many temporate ecosystems, diverse and species-rich assemblies of ungulates manage to co-exist despite often quite extensive overlap in ecological requirements. Putman explores the potential for competition, competition tolerance and even positive facilitation amongst the members of such guilds of ungulates. As a central worked example, the author employs data resulting from over 20 years of personal research into the ecology and population dynamics of various large herbivores of the New Forest in Southern England. With these, he applies formal protocols in resource use, evidence for resource limitation and evidence for interaction between species in changing population size over the years. |
You may like...
Regulation of Genome Editing in Plant…
Hans-Georg Dederer, David Hamburger
Hardcover
R4,650
Discovery Miles 46 500
|