The Terrestrial Environment and the Origin of Land Vertebrates
Title | The Terrestrial Environment and the Origin of Land Vertebrates PDF eBook |
Author | Alec L. Panchen |
Publisher | Academic Press |
Pages | 656 |
Release | 1980 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN |
The Terrestrial environment and the origin of land vertebrates
Title | The Terrestrial environment and the origin of land vertebrates PDF eBook |
Author | Alec Leonard Panchen |
Publisher | |
Pages | 633 |
Release | 1980 |
Genre | |
ISBN | 9780125447805 |
The Terrestrial Invasion
Title | The Terrestrial Invasion PDF eBook |
Author | Colin Little |
Publisher | CUP Archive |
Pages | 332 |
Release | 1990 |
Genre | Nature |
ISBN | 9780521336697 |
The theme of this book is the invasion of land by animal lines which originated in aquatic environments. It brings together physiological and ecological evidence to show both the likely routes taken out of the sea by the aquatic ancestors of terrestrial animals and the changes in structure and function associated with these routes. The author takes an ecophysiological approach, and by using representative examples, provides a novel background against which both the terrestrial adaptations of individual species and the make up and function of terrestrial ecosystems can be considered. Dr Little is the author of the highly acclaimed book The Colonisation of Land, which discusses the phylogeny and physiology of terrestrial and semi-terrestrial animals. The Terrestrial Invasion takes a fresh approach and provides an excellent introduction to the origins of land animals suitable for ecologists, physiologists and evolutionary biologists.
How Vertebrates Left the Water
Title | How Vertebrates Left the Water PDF eBook |
Author | Michel Laurin |
Publisher | Univ of California Press |
Pages | 276 |
Release | 2010-11-02 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 0520947983 |
More than three hundred million years ago—a relatively recent date in the two billion years since life first appeared—vertebrate animals first ventured onto land. This usefully illustrated book describes how some finned vertebrates acquired limbs, giving rise to more than 25,000 extant tetrapod species. Michel Laurin uses paleontological, geological, physiological, and comparative anatomical data to describe this monumental event. He summarizes key concepts of modern paleontological research, including biological nomenclature, paleontological and molecular dating, and the methods used to infer phylogeny and character evolution. Along with a discussion of the evolutionary pressures that may have led vertebrates onto dry land, the book also shows how extant vertebrates yield clues about the conquest of land and how scientists uncover evolutionary history.
A New Paradigm for the Conquest of Land by Vertebrates That Includes Exaptations
Title | A New Paradigm for the Conquest of Land by Vertebrates That Includes Exaptations PDF eBook |
Author | Mauro Luís Triques |
Publisher | BRILL |
Pages | 244 |
Release | 2024-04-02 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 9004684913 |
A new view for studying and understanding biological evolution emerges when the concepts of phylogenetic systematics and exaptation are combined. A new definition of macroevolution is created. Preadaptation is shown to be a null concept and its comparison with exaptation is shown to be inappropriate. This book criticizes the prevailing view, the adaptationist, microevolutionary outlook, which considers adaptation as being the exclusive or main evolutionary process responsible for vertebrates having occupied the terrestrial environment. The authors argue that the macroevolutionary processes are significantly more important to explain an improbable evolutionary event. Their research shows that macroevolutionary processes are the dominant factors involved in the origin of terrestriality. This book is a revised and expanded English translation from the original Portuguese edition Peixes conquistam a terra firme: nova abordagem para um evento acidental único (Editora Baraúna, 2017).
The Colonisation of Land
Title | The Colonisation of Land PDF eBook |
Author | Colin Little |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 312 |
Release | 1983-12-15 |
Genre | Nature |
ISBN | 9780521252188 |
The book traces the ways in which terrestrial animals have evolved from aquatic ancestors and discusses the means by which they are adapted to life on land. The most important physiological adaptations are those involving salt and water balance, the excretion of nitrogen, reproductive mechanisms and the sense organ and these are given priority. Evidence from fossil history is combined with that from the ecology and physiology of present-day species to assess the probable routes along which various evolutionary lines had moved on to land. Individual chapters are concerned with specific animal groups and emphasis is placed on comparisons of physiological mechanisms between closely related animals before attempting wider generalisations. The book closes with a brief account of the recolonisation of the sea and fresh waters by terrestrial animals.
Terrestrial Ecosystems Through Time
Title | Terrestrial Ecosystems Through Time PDF eBook |
Author | Anna K. Behrensmeyer |
Publisher | University of Chicago Press |
Pages | 588 |
Release | 1992-08-15 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 0226041557 |
Breathtaking in scope, this is the first survey of the entire ecological history of life on land—from the earliest traces of terrestrial organisms over 400 million years ago to the beginning of human agriculture. By providing myriad insights into the unique ecological information contained in the fossil record, it establishes a new and ambitious basis for the study of evolutionary paleoecology of land ecosystems. A joint undertaking of the Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems Consortium at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and twenty-six additional researchers, this book begins with four chapters that lay out the theoretical background and methodology of the science of evolutionary paleoecology. Included are a comprehensive review of the taphonomy and paleoenvironmental settings of fossil deposits as well as guidelines for developing ecological characterizations of extinct organisms and the communities in which they lived. The remaining three chapters treat the history of terrestrial ecosystems through geological time, emphasizing how ecological interactions have changed, the rate and tempo of ecosystem change, the role of exogenous "forcing factors" in generating ecological change, and the effect of ecological factors on the evolution of biological diversity. The six principal authors of this volume are all associated with the Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems program at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.