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Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Zoology & animal sciences > Vertebrates > Mammals
Although the behavior and ecology of primates has been more thoroughly studied than that of any other group of mammals, there have been very few attempts to compare the communities of living primates found in different parts of the world. In Primate Communities, an international group of experts compares the composition, behavior, and ecology of primate communities in Africa, Asia, Madagascar, and South America. They examine the factors underlying the similarities and differences among these communities, including their phylogenetic history, climate, rainfall, soil type, forest composition, competition with other vertebrates, and human activities. As it brings together information about primate communities from around the world for the very first time, it will quickly become an important source book for researchers in anthropology, ecology, and conservation, and a readable and informative text for undergraduate and graduate students studying primate ecology, primate conservation, or primate behavior.
Many mammals, such as otters, live in close association with rivers and streams, feeding in them, or using them as a place of safety or means of escape from predators. The distinct adaptations that riparian mammals have evolved in order to live in these environments also handicap them for living elsewhere. These animals are therefore threatened by alterations to their environment. In recent years, our rivers have become highly polluted, and have been subject to bankside modifications for agriculture and forestry, enhanced or decreased water flow, and recreation. As a result, they have become less and less suitable for these highly specialized animals. This book looks at the habitat utilization, adaptation, feeding ecology, and conservation status of a range of riparian mammals. It gives insights into the problems facing these fascinating animals, and how they might be overcome.
This book aims to explain the intelligence of monkeys and apes, and the huge brain expansion that marked human evolution. In 1988, Machiavellian Intelligence was the first book to assemble the early evidence suggesting a new answer: that the evolution of intellect was primarily driven by selection for manipulative, social expertise within groups where the most challenging problem faced by individuals was dealing with their companions. Since then a wealth of new information and ideas has accumulated. This new book will bring readers up to date with the most important developments, extending the scope of the original ideas and evaluating them empirically from different perspectives. It is essential reading for reseachers and students in many different branches of evolution and behavioral sciences, primatology and philosophy.
The Fourth Edition of Knobil & Neill will continue to serve
as a reference aid for research, to provide the historical context
to current research, and most importantly as an aid for graduate
teaching on a broad range of topics in human and comparative
reproduction. In the decade since the publication of the last
edition, the study of reproductive physiology has undergone
monumental changes. Chief among these advances are in the areas of
stem cell development, signaling pathways, the role of inflammation
in the regulatory processes in the various tissues, and the
integration of new animal models which have led to a greater
understanding of human disease. This new edition will seek to
synthesize all of this new information at the molecular, cellular,
and organismal levels of organization and present modern physiology
a more understandable and comparative context.
*The leading comprehensive work on the physiology of
reproduction
*Edited and authored by the world's leading scientists in the
field
*Is a synthesis of the molecular, cellular, and organismic levels
of organization
*Bibliogrpahics of chapters are extensive and cover all the
relevant literature
This book is about the social life of monkeys, apes and humans. The central theme is the importance of social information and knowledge to a full understanding of primate social behavior and organization. Its main purpose is to stress evolutionary continuity, i.e. that there are direct connections between human and nonhuman society. This view is often downplayed elsewhere in the anthropological literature where the notion that humans have culture and animals do not is prevalent. Topics covered include an overview of the contexts of behavior; a comparison of blind strategies and tactical decision-making; social cognition; a review of intentionalist interpretations of behavior; kinship; language and its social implications; and the constraints of culture.
Conflict between males and females over reproduction is
ubiquitous in nature due to fundamental differences between the
sexes in reproductive rates and investment in offspring. In only a
few species, however, do males strategically employ violence to
control female sexuality. Why are so many of these primates? Why
are females routinely abused in some species, but never in others?
And can the study of such unpleasant behavior by our closest
relatives help us to understand the evolution of men s violence
against women?
In the first systematic attempt to assess and understand
primate male aggression as an expression of sexual conflict, the
contributors to this volume consider coercion in direct and
indirect forms: direct, in overcoming female resistance to mating;
indirect, in decreasing the chance the female will mate with other
males. The book presents extensive field research and analysis to
evaluate the form of sexual coercion in a range of species
including all of the great apes and humans and to clarify its role
in shaping social relationships among males, among females, and
between the sexes.
Colobine monkeys have a unique digestive system, analogous to that
of ruminants, which allows them to exploit foliage as a food
source. This gives them a niche in Old World forests where they are
often the only abundant medium-sized arboreal folivorous mammal.
From a possible Miocene origin, Colobine monkeys have radiated into
a wide variety of forms inhabiting a range of tropical woodlands in
Africa and Asia. Most of the extant species have been subject to
long term field studies, but until this book, no synthesis of work
on this group has been available. The central theme is that of
adaptive radiation, showing how the special features of Colobine
anatomy interacted with a range of ecosystems to produce the
distinctive species of today. The book also discusses parallels
with other mammalian groups.
What does it mean to be a horse? The definitive and bestselling
book explaining the mysteries of the horse using insights of modern
science. What makes a winning racehorse? How intelligent are
horses? What are horses trying to tell us when they stamp their
hooves and snort? Do horses talk to each other? The horse, long
symbol of beauty and athletic prowess, has made and lost fortunes
and transformed human history and culture, and yet has retained
mysteries that baffle even those who work with them every day.
There has recently been an explosion of scientific research on the
horse. In this book Stephen Budiansky brings the insights of modern
science to a wider audience of horse enthusiasts and animal-lovers.
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