We are living in the early stages of a looming worldwide extinction crisis. Abundant evidence shows that the current rate of species extinctions is nearing its highest level since the asteroid collision 65 million years ago, and that humans are largely responsible. This book addresses the urgent need to understand and find solutions to this crisis. Written by an international team of contributors who are among the best-known and most active experimental biologists working in the field of conservation biology today, it provides a unique approach by focusing on individual species rather than whole plant and animal communities. Emphasizing throughout how conservation biology can benefit from an experimental approach, the book looks at a wide range of terrestrial and aquatic species - from giant pandas and tree snails to sea turtles and Steller sea lions - and demonstrates what can be done both to preserve rare species and to combat invasive organisms. Finally, contributors show how we can bridge the gap between policy makers and research scientists in order to develop lasting solutions to these problems.

This text provides a general overview of how plants and animals made the transition from water to land. It presents integrated summaries of the evidence from both fossils and living organisms, and from molecular to organismic levels. The authors consider when and where these transitions occurred; which groups of organisms were involved; and in what environments and environmental conditions they took place. They also discuss the biochemical, physiological, morphological, behavioural and ecological properties that permitted the organisms to make these transitions, and the changes that occurred as the transitions took place. The work gives equal emphasis to palaeobiology and neobiology, and incorporates the latest information relevant to water-land transitions, deriving from recent applications of micropalaeontological and molecular methods to classical issues.