This book recognizes and celebrates the contributions of Professor Ashok Sahni to the field of paleontology. Prof. Sahni established a School of Vertebrate Palaeontology at Panjab University, Chandigarh, India, where he trained many of today’s vertebrate paleontologists of India. The book covers topics on evolutionary patterns, macroevolutionary events, origination and radiation events, changes in physical environments & climate and their implications for biodiversity dynamics, intercontinental affinities and biogeographic connections in a plate tectonic framework. The book begins by exploring India in the age of the dinosaurs, discussing new fossil remains from the Jurassic Era, then moves through the Cretaceous and Eocene to provide a picture on faunal and floral changes in Gondwanaland in the context of plate tectonics. Furthermore, the book explores the evolutionary patterns and biotic dispersals that resulted from the northward drift of Indian plate during the Cretaceous and its collision with Asia in the Eocene. The respective chapters reveal the role of plate tectonics and climate in shaping the geographical distribution of plants and animals in Gondwana, specifically in India, as well as the post-India/Asia collision implications for biodiversity changes and biogeography in the region’s continental environments. Given its scope, the book will appeal to vertebrate paleontologists, evolutionary biologists, and paleobiogeographers.

Expanded edition of definitive guide for professionals and amateurs presents valuable information about finding, preserving, and studying fossils. Over 1,500 drawings and photographs. "Readable . . . and remarkably comprehensive." — Chicago Sunday Tribune.

Australian vegetation has interested botanists and naturalists since Europeans first encountered Australia and its plant life. This 1994 edition of Australian Vegetation reviews the vegetation of the continent as a whole. In the introductory section, chapters on phytogeography, vegetation history and alien plants set the scene for further sections covering all the major vegetation types. The plant life of extreme Australian habitats is also discussed, and the book closes with a chapter on the conservation of Australian vegetation. Each chapter, written by experts on each particular habitat type, will inform and stimulate the interests of students and professional botanists, especially those fortunate enough to see for themselves the unique vegetation and flora of Australia.

Thoroughly updated and reorganized, Strickberger's Evolution, Fourth Edition, presents biology students with a basic introduction to prevailing knowledge and ideas about evolution, discussing how, why, and where the world and its organisms changed throughout history. Keeping consistent with Strickberger's engaging writing style, the authors carefully unfold a broad range of philosophical and historical topics that frame the theories of today including cosmological and geological evolution and its impact on life, the origins of life on earth, the development of molecular pathways from genetic systems to organismic morphology and function, the evolutionary history of organisms from microbes to animals, and the numerous molecular and populational concepts that explain the earth's dynamic evolution. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images or content found in the physical edition.

This title in the Success Guides series covers biology at AS level. Covering every topic on a colourful and highly illustrated double-page spread, Success Guides use unique design and presentation to make revision simple and effective. Key points are clearly highlighted throughout and examiners' tips emphasize common mistakes or areas of importance. At the end of every topic a quick test recaps the main areas to ensure that students have understood the points covered.

Mammalogy is the study of mammals from the diverse biological viewpoints of structure, function, evolutionary history, behavior, ecology, classification, and economics. Thoroughly updated, the Sixth Edition of Mammalogy explains and clarifies the subject as a unified whole. The text begins by defining mammals and summarizing their origins. It moves on to discuss the orders and families of mammals with comprehensive coverage on the fossil history, current distribution, morphological characteristics, and basic behavior and ecology of each family of mammals. The third part of the text progresses to discuss special topics such as mammalian echolocation, physiology, behavior, ecology, and zoogeography. The text concludes with two additional chapters, previously available online, that cover mammalian domestication and mammalian disease and zoonoses.

Although the only publication with a realistic claim to the title "The plant diver sity of Malesia" is Flora Malesiana itself, we have hesitatingly chosen this title for the present proceedings volume. Past, present and future work on the Flora Malesiana project was the subject of a successful symposium held in August 1989. This book contains only a selection of the papers presented at that meet ing, yet it covers a much greater diversity of themes than just the inventory of botanical diversity. It even goes beyond the boundaries of the vast Flora Malesi ana region in several of its chapters. The role of the founder of the Flora Malesiana Project, Professor C.G.G.J. van Steenis, repeatedly recurs in several chapters; not only as director of and contributor to the project, but also as a pioneer in the fields of Malesian vege tation, conservation and biogeography, and as an enlightened systematist whose ideas and practical recommendations for taxonomic delimitation still largely apply. Botanical information made available in regional and local floras is of vital im portance for applications such as the exploitation of natural forests on a sus tainable yield basis. for establishing gene banks for the benefit of agriculture. forestry and horticulture. and not in the least for nature conservation. Several chapters are devoted to these themes. Floristic studies are also at the basis of the biogeographical essays and vegetation studies included in this book.