This comprehensive volume on the blood-gas barrier (BGB) among vertebrates covers its structure and composition along with aspects of evolution, bioengineering, and morphometry. The book also discusses the embryological development of the BGB, including chronology of events and molecular control in vertebrates; modulation of the barrier function, including cyclic stretch-induced increases in alveolar epithelial permeability; mechanisms of lung vascular/epithelial permeability; transport mechanisms of the BGB, including sodium transport channels; factors affecting trans-barrier traffic of fluids, such as chronic elevation of pulmonary microvascular pressure; stress failure; regulation and repair in acute lung injury; chronic lung disease; and lung transportation. Ten authoritative chapters approach the blood-gas barrier holistically, from basic structure and development to pathology and treatment. Properties of the BGB are discussed in the earlier chapters, followed by prenatal and post-natal development and mechanisms of the healthy BGB. The latter half of the book delves into the pathology of the BGB, analyzing common afflictions and exploring options for treatment, including its alterations during lung transplantation. Intuitively structured and comprehensive, The Vertebrate Blood-Gas Barrier in Health and Disease is ideal for researchers and clinicians interested in pneumology and angiology.

This book addresses how skeletons can inform us about behavior by describing skeletal lesions in the Gombe chimpanzees, relating them to known life histories whenever possible, and analyzing demographic patterns in the sample. This is of particular interest to both primatologists and skeletal analysts who have benefited from published data on a smaller, earlier skeletal sample from Gombe. The Gombe skeletal collection is the largest collection of wild chimpanzees with known life histories in existence, and this work significantly expands the skeletal sample from this long-term research site (49 chimpanzees). The book explores topics of general interest to skeletal analysts such as demographic patterns, which injuries leave signs on the skeleton, and rates of healing, and discusses both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the patterning of lesions. The book presents the data in a narrative style similar to that employed in Dr. Goodall's seminal work The Chimpanzees of Gombe. Readers already familiar with the Gombe chimpanzees are likely to appreciate summaries of life events correlated to observable skeletal features. The book is especially relevant at this time to remind primate conservationists of the importance of the isolated chimpanzee population at Gombe National Park as well as the availability of the skeletons for study, both within the park itself as well as at the University of Minnesota.

From the Preface
The major change in the format of the fifth edition is the presentation of the book in two volumes, necessitated by the rapidly increasing knowledge of metabolism, interactions, and requirements of trace elements ... The guiding principle was to present the minimum of results that would serve as a logical foundation for the description of the present state of knowledge.
Recent results of research were accommodated by devoting new chapters to the subjects "Methodology of Trace Element Research" and "Quality Assurance for Trace Element Analysis" and by expanding the discussion of lithium and aluminum in separate, new chapters. The first two subjects are of outstanding importance as determinants of future progress. The concern for the quality of analytical data motivated the authors of the individual chapters to review critically and, where necessary, revise analytical data presented in the previous editions. The rapid progress of trace analytical methodology since the mid-1970s has changed what had been accepted as normal for the concentrations of many trace elements in tissues and foods. The new data reflect the present state of the art in trace element analysis, but they may be subject to future revision.

Amateurs and professionals studying birds at the end of the nineteenth century were a contentious, passionate group with goals that intersected, collided and occasionally merged in their writings and organizations. Driven by a desire to advance science, as well as by ego, pride, honor, insecurity, religion and other clashing sensibilities, they struggled to absorb the implications of evolution after Darwin. In the process, they dramatically reshaped the study of birds. Daniel Lewis here explores the professionalization of ornithology through one of its key figures: Robert Ridgway, the Smithsonian Institution's first curator of birds and one of North America's most important natural scientists. Exploring a world in which the uses of language, classification and accountability between amateurs and professionals played essential roles, Lewis offers a vivid introduction to Ridgway and shows how his work fundamentally influenced the direction of American and international ornithology. He explores the inner workings of the Smithsonian and the role of collectors working in the field and reveals previously unknown details of the ornithological journal The Auk and the untold story of the color dictionaries for which Ridgway is known.

Fish, Justice, and Society is an in-depth look into the fishing industry, fish, and aquatic environments. This book delves past the facade of what may be known by the average fisherman, bringing to the surface new information about numerous species and aquatic habitats. It is the most comprehensive book on the subject of fish, law, and human behavior. It is a standalone work, but complements Cusack's Fish in the Bible (2017). It is a treatise on the subject of animal law while also serving the common fisherman information on compliance issues.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds, a radical investigation into the bird way of being, and the recent scientific research that is dramatically shifting our understanding of birds -- how they live and how they think. "There is the mammal way and there is the bird way." But the bird way is much more than a unique pattern of brain wiring, and lately, scientists have taken a new look at bird behaviors they have, for years, dismissed as anomalies or mysteries -- What they are finding is upending the traditional view of how birds conduct their lives, how they communicate, forage, court, breed, survive. They are also revealing the remarkable intelligence underlying these activities, abilities we once considered uniquely our own: deception, manipulation, cheating, kidnapping, infanticide, but also ingenious communication between species, cooperation, collaboration, altruism, culture, and play. Some of these extraordinary behaviors are biological conundrums that seem to push the edges of, well, birdness: a mother bird that kills her own infant sons, and another that selflessly tends to the young of other birds as if they were her own; a bird that collaborates in an extraordinary way with one species-ours-but parasitizes another in gruesome fashion; birds that give gifts and birds that steal; birds that dance or drum, that paint their creations or paint themselves; birds that build walls of sound to keep out intruders and birds that summon playmates with a special call-and may hold the secret to our own penchant for playfulness and the evolution of laughter. Drawing on personal observations, the latest science, and her bird-related travel around the world, from the tropical rainforests of eastern Australia and the remote woodlands of northern Japan, to the rolling hills of lower Austria and the islands of Alaska's Kachemak Bay, Jennifer Ackerman shows there is clearly no single bird way of being. In every respect, in plumage, form, song, flight, lifestyle, niche, and behavior, birds vary. It is what we love about them. As E.O Wilson once said, when you have seen one bird, you have not seen them all.

Amphibian species around the world are unusually vulnerable to a variety of threats, by no means all of which are properly understood. Volume 11 in this major series is published in parts devoted to the causes of amphibian decline and to conservation measures in regions of the world. This volume, Part 4 in the series, is concerned with Southern Europe (Italy, Malta, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Cyprus). Each chapter has been written by experts from each country, describing the ecological background and the conservation status of affected species, with an emphasis on native species. As well as infectious diseases and parasites, threats take the form of introduced and invasive species, pollution, destruction and alteration of habitat, and climatic change. These are discussed as they affect each species. All these countries have monitoring schemes and conservation programs, whose origins and activities are described. Recommendations for action are also made. Edited by leading scholars in the field, Volume 11, when complete, will provide a definitive survey of the amphibian predicament and a stimulus to further research with the objective of arresting the global decline of an entire class of animal.

This fascinating reference book delves into the origins of the vernacular and scientific names of sharks, rays, skates and chimeras. Each entry offers a concise biography, revealing the hidden stories and facts behind each species' name. Full of interesting facts and humorous titbits, the authors' extensive research and detective work has made this book a comprehensive source of knowledge on everyone associated with the naming of a species. A fascinating resource for anyone with an interest in sharks, from curious naturalist to professional ichthyologist, it is an essential addition to the library of anyone wishing to satisfy those tickling questions on the mysteries behind the names. Sometimes a name refers not to a person but to a fictional character or mythological figure. Eptatretus eos is named after the Greek goddess of the dawn in reference to the pink colouring of the hagfish. The Chilean Roundray Urotrygon cimar, named after Centro de Investigacion en Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia in honour of its 20th anniversary, and the Angular Angelshark Squatina Guggenheim, named after the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, are both named after institutions. The Whiteleg Skate Amblyraja taaf is just a shorthand way of describing a toponym - Territoire des Terres australes et antarctiques francaises. There are also entries which are light-hearted such as the one for a lady who told us "that decoration of her cakes have included roughtail skate Bathyraja trachura, red abalone Haliotis rufescens, and chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha." Following the success of their previous Eponym Dictionaries, the authors have joined forces to give the Elasmobranch group of fishes a similar treatment but they have also included the describers and authors of the original descriptions of the fishes involved, in addition to those names that are, or appear to be, eponyms. They have tracked down some 850 names of living as well as dead people. Of these half are eponyms after people who have fish named after them and may also have described a fish or fishes. The other half are ichthyologists, marine biologists and other scientists who have become involved in the description and naming of sharks, rays, skates and chimeras. For each person mentioned there is brief, pithy biography. Additionally there are some 50 entries for what sound like eponyms but turned out not to have any connection to a person, such as the Alexandrine Torpedo is named after the city in Egypt and not Alexander the Great. In some cases these are a reminder of the courage of scientists whose dedicated research in remote locations exposed them to disease and even violent death. The eponym ensures that their memory will survive, aided by reference works such as this highly readable dictionary. Altogether 1,577 fishes are listed.

Animal models and tests have become increasingly important for biomedical research, enabling a better understanding of pathogenic pathways involved in various human disorders. Over the last decades, zebrafish (Danio rerio) have become a very popular model organism in biomedical research. Recently, this fish has entered the waters of neuroscience and biological psychiatry, quickly becoming an indispensable model species in this field. With a high genetic homology to humans (~75% based on coding regions), it is not surprising that humans and fish are very similar physiologically (and behaviorally). Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that zebrafish can be an excellent model of human neuropsychiatric disorders. While some classical psychiatrists may not too easily be persuaded by this generalization, the current book "The rights and wrongs of zebrafish: principles of behavioral phenotyping and CNS disease modeling" explains, in a domain-by-domain manner, how exactly zebrafish models can be used to target a wide range of human brain disorders and aberrant phenotypes. The contributors to this book are leading international scholars whose work spearheads innovative zebrafish neuroscience research around the world. Written by top experts in the field, this book makes for a useful, balanced and up-to-date reading that outlines the use of zebrafish to study the pathological mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric disorders.

Mammals range in body size from the gigantic blue whale to the tiny Etruscan shrew. Elephants and man may live for nearly one hundred years, while most shrews die before they are three months old. During the past decade, mammalogists and evolutionary biologists have begun to unravel the numerous factors that shape the enormous diversity of mammal life histories. In this volume, leading scientists provide a variety of perspectives on the newest theories in this active field of study. The principle uniting all studies of life history evolution is adaptation by natural selection. The first chapters in the book discuss this topic, offering evolutionary interpretations of geographic variation in mammal life histories, explaining how natural selection operates in fluctuating environments, introducing evolutionary predictions of demographic mathematics, and integrating life histories with behavioral ecology. The next chapters offer functional interpretations of the importance of body size in the life history. Next, several essays explain how developments in quantitative genetics have enabled us to distinguish between genetic and environmental components of variation within and between species. With this as a basis, the chapters that follow draw from principles of natural selection, allometry, and genetics to interpret differences among species of mammals. The book concludes with speculations on various areas where research seems most urgent for the development of a comprehensive understanding of mammal life history evolution. According to the authors, the field is rich with questions, and opportunities abound for both theoretical and empirical research.

Amphibian Conservation is the fourth in the series of Synopses of Conservation Evidence, linked to the online resource www.ConservationEvidence.com. This synopsis is part of the Conservation Evidence project and provides a useful resource for conservationists. It forms part of a series designed to promote a more evidence-based approach to biodiversity conservation. Others in the series include bee, bird, farmland and bat conservation and many others are in preparation. Approximately 32% of the 7,164+ amphibian species are currently threatened with extinction and at least 43% of species are declining. Despite this, until recently amphibians and their conservation had received little attention. Although work is now being carried out to conserve many species, often it is not adequately documented. This book brings together and summarises the available scientific evidence and experience relevant to the practical conservation of amphibians. The authors consulted an international group of amphibian experts and conservationists to produce a thorough summary of what is known, or not known, about the effectiveness of amphibian conservation actions across the world. "The book is packed with literature summaries and citations; a veritable information goldmine for graduate students and researchers. It also admirably provides decision makers with a well-researched resource of proven interventions that can be employed to stem/reverse the decline of amphibian populations." -John G Palis, Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society

Amphibian Conservation is the fourth in the series of Synopses of Conservation Evidence, linked to the online resource www.ConservationEvidence.com. This synopsis is part of the Conservation Evidence project and provides a useful resource for conservationists. It forms part of a series designed to promote a more evidence-based approach to biodiversity conservation. Others in the series include bee, bird, farmland and bat conservation and many others are in preparation. Approximately 32% of the 7,164+ amphibian species are currently threatened with extinction and at least 43% of species are declining. Despite this, until recently amphibians and their conservation had received little attention. Although work is now being carried out to conserve many species, often it is not adequately documented. This book brings together and summarises the available scientific evidence and experience relevant to the practical conservation of amphibians. The authors consulted an international group of amphibian experts and conservationists to produce a thorough summary of what is known, or not known, about the effectiveness of amphibian conservation actions across the world. "The book is packed with literature summaries and citations; a veritable information goldmine for graduate students and researchers. It also admirably provides decision makers with a well-researched resource of proven interventions that can be employed to stem/reverse the decline of amphibian populations." -John G Palis, Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society

This book brings together scientific evidence and experience relevant to the practical conservation of bats. The authors worked with an international group of bat experts and conservationists to develop a global list of interventions that could benefit bats. For each intervention, the book summarises studies captured by the Conservation Evidence project, where that intervention has been tested and its effects on bats quantified. The result is a thorough guide to what is known, or not known, about the effectiveness of bat conservation actions throughout the world. Bat Conservation is the fifth in a series of Synopses that will cover different species groups and habitats, gradually building into a comprehensive summary of evidence on the effects of conservation interventions for all biodiversity throughout the world. By making evidence accessible in this way, we hope to enable a change in the practice of conservation, so it can become more evidence-based. We also aim to highlight where there are gaps in knowledge. Evidence from all around the world is included. If there appears to be a bias towards evidence from northern European or North American temperate environments, this reflects a current bias in the published research that is available to us. Conservation interventions are grouped primarily according to the relevant direct threats, as defined in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Unified Classification of Direct Threats (www.iucnredlist.org/technical-documents/classification-schemes).

"The Biology and Identification of the Coccidia (Apicomplexa) of Rabbits of the World" is a taxonomic summation of a damaging intestinal parasite found in rabbits and transmissible to other species, including humans. This book conceptually and historically summarizes the world's literature on the parasite and also provides a quick guide to isolation procedures, identification, strategies for management, and available chemotherapy. It is a vital source of knowledge about coccidia s real and potential transmission to humans, which can lead to dangerous health problems, like severe dehydration, vomiting, lethargy and even death.

Coccidiosis is an intestinal disease that affects several different animal species, including canines and humans, and is one of the most prevalent protozoal infections in North America. The causative agent is a protozoan that has the ability to multiply rapidly and cause major damage in the intestinal wall, rupturing the cells of the intestinal lining. The final stage, the oocyst, is extremely resistant to environmental stress and is difficult to completely remove from the environment. Oocysts are frequent contaminants of feed and water and when the sporulated oocysts are ingested by other animals, they start the life cycle over in the new host. With the demand for rabbits in scientific research and for rabbit meat for human consumption increasingly globally each year, rabbits are of epidemiologic significance for laboratory workers, university researchers, veterinarians, pet owners, and breeders.
Evaluates the scientific and scholarly merit of each of the publications written about coccidian from every rabbit species, providing a complete historical renditionA treatise for the identification of coccidia and their treatment as neededWritten in a style that can be understood by most educated lay persons and laboratory workersWritten by the first ranked author team among the world-class parasitologists who study coccidiaCombined in one single source, this book follows the gold standards in coccidian biology and identificationBrings all that information together in one volume and solves the problems faced by researchers, veterinarians, students and others in trying to find and navigate through this scattered literature"

Our landscape has long been shaped by its native tree cover, whether pine, oak, beech or birch. These habitats are full of life, and you'll see many different bird species in all kinds of woodlands throughout the year. But do you know a Nuthatch from a Treecreeper? And can you tell the difference between a Goshawk and a Common Buzzard when it's soaring overhead? The UK's woodlands are home to a diverse collection of our most beautiful wild bird species. RSPB ID Spotlight Woodland Birds is a reliable fold-out chart that presents illustrations of 63 of our most widespread and familiar woodland birds by renowned artist Stephen Message. * Species are grouped by family and helpfully labelled to assist with identification * Artworks are shown side by side for quick comparison and easy reference at home or in the field * The reverse of the chart provides information on the habitats, behaviour, life cycles and diets of our woodland birds, as well as the conservation issues they are facing and how the RSPB is working to support them * Information on research and conservation projects aimed at improving habitats for vulnerable woodland birds is also included The ID Spotlight charts help wildlife enthusiasts identify and learn more about our most common species using accurate colour illustrations and informative, accessible text.

Amphibian species around the world are unusually vulnerable to a variety of threats, by no means all of which are properly understood. Volume 11 in this major series will be published in parts devoted to the causes of amphibian decline and to conservation measures in regions of the world; this Part 3 is concerned with Western Europe (Britain, Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal). Experts from each country contribute a chapter describing the ecological background and the conservation status of affected species, with an emphasis on native species. As well as infectious diseases and parasites (also covered in a general chapter), threats take the form of introduced and invasive species, pollution, destruction and alteration of habitat, and climate change. These are discussed as they affect each species. All these countries have monitoring schemes and conservation programmes, whose origins and activities are described. Recommendations for action are also made. Edited by leading scholars in the field, Volume 11, when complete, will therefore provide a definitive survey of the amphibian predicament and a stimulus to further research with the objective of arresting the global decline of an entire class of animal.

Why do females in male-philopatric species seem to show larger variation in their life history strategies than males in female-philopatric species? Why did females in human societies come to show enormous variation in the patterns of marriage, residence and mating activities? To tackle these important questions, this book presents the latest knowledge about the dispersing females in male-philopatric non-human primates and in human societies. The non-human primates that are covered include muriquis, spider monkeys, woolly monkeys, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and some species of colobine monkeys. In these non-human primate species females typically leave their natal group before sexual maturation and start reproduction in other groups into which they immigrate. However, there is a large variation as some females may breed in their natal group with some risks of inbreeding with their male relatives and some females may associate with males of multiple groups at the same time after leaving their natal group. Such variation seems to provide better strategies for reproduction depending on local circumstances. Although knowledge about female dispersal patterns and life history is indispensable for understanding the dynamic structure of primate societies, it is still not known how females behave after leaving their natal groups, how many groups they visit before finally settling down and which kinds of groups they choose to immigrate into, due to the large variation and flexibility and the difficulty of tracking females after natal dispersal. To encourage further progress in this important field, this volume provides new insights on evolution of female dispersal by describing factors influencing variations in the dispersal pattern across primates and a hypothesis for the formation of human families from the perspectives of female life history. This book is recommended reading for researchers and students in primatology, anthropology, animal behavior and evolution and for anyone interested in primate societies and human evolution.

The vertebral spine is a key element of the human anatomy. Its main role is to protect the spinal cord and the main blood vessels. The axial skeleton, with its muscles and joints, provides stability for the attachment of the head, tail and limbs and, at the same time, enables the mobility required for breathing and for locomotion. Despite its great importance, the vertebral spine is often over looked by researchers because: a) vertebrae are fragile in nature, which makes their fossilization a rare event; b) they are metameric (seriated and repeated elements) that make their anatomical determination and, thus, their subsequent study difficult; and c) the plethora of bones and joints involved in every movement or function of the axial skeleton makes the reconstruction of posture, breathing mechanics and locomotion extremely difficult. It is well established that the spine has changed dramatically during human evolution. Spinal curvatures, spinal load transmission, and thoracic shape of bipedal humans are derived among hominoids. Yet, there are many debates as to how and when these changes occurred and to their phylogenetic, functional, and pathological implications. In recent years, renewed interest arose in the axial skeleton. New and exciting finds, mostly from Europe and Africa, as well as new methods for reconstructing the spine, have been introduced to the research community. New methodologies such as Finite Element Analysis, trabecular bone analysis, Geometric Morphometric analysis, and gait analysis have been applied to the spines of primates and humans. These provide a new and refreshing look into the evolution of the spine. Advanced biomechanical research regarding posture, range of motion, stability, and attenuation of the human spine has interesting evolutionary implications. Until now, no book that summarizes the updated research and knowledge regarding spinal evolution in hominoids has been available. The present book explores both these new methodologies and new data, including recent fossil, morphological, biomechanical, and theoretical advances regarding vertebral column evolution. In order to cover all of that data, we divide the book into four parts: 1) the spine of hominoids; 2) the vertebral spine of extinct hominins; 3) ontogeny, biomechanics and pathology of the human spine; and 4) new methodologies of spinal research. These parts complement each other and provide a wide and comprehensive examination of spinal evolution.

This book brings together scientific evidence and experience relevant to the practical conservation of wild birds. The authors worked with an international group of bird experts and conservationists to develop a global list of interventions that could benefit wild birds. For each intervention, the book summarises studies captured by the Conservation Evidence project, where that intervention has been tested and its effects on birds quantified. The result is a thorough guide to what is known, or not known, about the effectiveness of bird conservation actions throughout the world. The preparation of this synopsis was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and Arcadia.

This is a careful study of obstetrical mechanics in monkeys, apes, and extinct hominids in order to understand the present crisis in human reproduction. Current obstetrical problems have an anthropological origin. Cesarean section, almost unknown at the beginning of the century, is now considered necessary in more than 25% of deliveries. By studying the evolution of anatomical structures and the mode of delivery among other primates, strong reasons are apparent for the present crisis in human labor and delivery. This unique study points the way to further evolution of the human birth process.