How have humans colonised the entire planet and reshaped its ecosystems in the process? This unique and groundbreaking collection of essays explores human movement through time, the impacts of these movements on landscapes and other species, and the ways in which species have co-evolved and transformed each other as a result. Exploring the spread of people, plants, animals, and diseases through processes of migration, colonisation, trade and travel, it assembles a broad array of case studies from the Pliocene to the present. The contributors from disciplines across the humanities and natural sciences are senior or established scholars in the fields of human evolution, archaeology, history, and geography.

Sexual Selection: Perspectives and Models from the Neotropics presents new sexual selection research based upon neotropical species. As neotropical regions are destroyed at an alarming rate, with an estimated 140 species of rainforest plants and animals going extinct every day, it is important to bring neotropical research to the fore now. Sexual selection occurs when the male or female of a species is attracted by certain characteristics such as form, color or behavior. When those features lead to a greater probability of successful mating, they become more prominent in the species. Although most theoretical concepts concerning sexual selection and reproductive strategies are based upon North American and European fauna, the Neotropical region encompasses much more biodiversity, with as many as 15,000 plant and animal species in a single acre of rain forest. This book illustrates concepts in sexual selection through themes ranging from female cryptic choice in insects, sexual conflict in fish, interaction between sexual selection and the immune system, nuptial gifts, visual and acoustic sexual signaling, parental investment, to alternative mating strategies, among others. These approaches distinguish Sexual Selection from current publications in sexual selection, mainly because of the latitudinal and taxonomic focus, so that readers will be introduced to systems mostly unknown outside the tropics, several of which bring into question some well-established patterns for temperate regions. - Synthesizes sexual selection research on species from the Neotropics - Combines different perspectives and levels of analysis using a broad taxonomic basis, introducing readers to systems mostly unknown outside the tropics and bringing into question well-established patterns for temperate regions - Includes contributions exploring concepts and theory as well as discussions on a variety of Neotropical vertebrates and invertebrates, such as insects, fish, arthropods and birds

The 15th Meeting on Chemical Signals in Vertebrates (CSiV) reunited participants from 20 countries from 5 continents who "electronically commuted" to Dijon, France, during three days (3-5 November 2021). This virtual meeting was a great opportunity to share information on how amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals communicate through chemosignals and integrate their environment through chemical cues. Scientists from varied disciplines ranging from biology and psychology to chemistry and biostatistics attended the meeting to share their research on how vertebrates produce and release chemical cues and signals, how they detect, discriminate, process, and interpret them; how they respond to them behaviorally, physiologically, and/or neurally in adaptive ways; how the typical or atypical environment modulates such chemocommunication loops, and chemoreception in general. In total, this 2021 CSiV meeting presented important new findings, representative of the growing points in the rapidly expanding field of research on chemocommunication among vertebrates. As appreciated by D Müller-Schwarze (a well-known pioneer in the field and the founding father of the book series in question) in his foreword to the meeting, “Our field has broadened to new horizons: besides multicomponent cues, we now learn about multisource and multifunction chemical signals. The range of study animals and settings has become richer, and we have learned enough that practical applications are becoming realistic.” This proceedings documents key presentations from this virtual conference.