Evolution Driven By Organismal Behavior

Author : Rui Diogo
Publisher : Springer
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2017-03-08
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783319475813

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Evolution Driven by Organismal Behavior by Rui Diogo Pdf

This book proposes a new way to think about evolution. The author carefully brings together evidence from diverse fields of science. In the process, he bridges the gaps between many different--and usually seen as conflicting--ideas to present one integrative theory named ONCE, which stands for Organic Nonoptimal Constrained Evolution. The author argues that evolution is mainly driven by the behavioral choices and persistence of organisms themselves, in a process in which Darwinian natural selection is mainly a secondary--but still crucial--evolutionary player. Within ONCE, evolution is therefore generally made of mistakes and mismatches and trial-and-error situations, and is not a process where organisms engage in an incessant, suffocating struggle in which they can't thrive if they are not optimally adapted to their habitats and the external environment. Therefore, this unifying view incorporates a more comprehensive view of the diversity and complexity of life by stressing that organisms are not merely passive evolutionary players under the rule of external factors. This insightful and well-reasoned argument is based on numerous fascinating case studies from a wide range of organisms, including bacteria, plants, insects and diverse examples from the evolution of our own species. The book has an appeal to researchers, students, teachers, and those with an interest in the history and philosophy of science, as well as to the broader public, as it brings life back into biology by emphasizing that organisms, including humans, are the key active players in evolution and thus in the future of life on this wonderful planet.

Author : John Tyler Bonner
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2020-12-08
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780691222110

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The Evolution of Complexity by Means of Natural Selection by John Tyler Bonner Pdf

John Tyler Bonner makes a new attack on an old problem: the question of how progressive increase in the size and complexity of animals and plants has occurred. "How is it," he inquires, "that an egg turns into an elaborate adult? How is it that a bacterium, given many millions of years, could have evolved into an elephant?" The author argues that we can understand this progression in terms of natural selection, but that in order to do so we must consider the role of development--or more precisely the role of life cycles--in evolutionary change. In a lively writing style that will be familiar to readers of his work The Evolution of Culture in Animals (Princeton, 1980), Bonner addresses a general audience interested in biology, as well as specialists in all areas of evolutionary biology. What is novel in the approach used here is the comparison of complexity inside the organism (especially cell differentiation) with the complexity outside (that is, within an ecological community). Matters of size at both these levels are closely related to complexity. The book shows how an understanding of the grand course of evolution can come from combining our knowledge of genetics, development, ecology, and even behavior.

Author : F. John Odling-Smee,Kevin N. Laland,Marcus W. Feldman
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 488 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2013-02-15
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781400847266

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Niche Construction by F. John Odling-Smee,Kevin N. Laland,Marcus W. Feldman Pdf

The seemingly innocent observation that the activities of organisms bring about changes in environments is so obvious that it seems an unlikely focus for a new line of thinking about evolution. Yet niche construction--as this process of organism-driven environmental modification is known--has hidden complexities. By transforming biotic and abiotic sources of natural selection in external environments, niche construction generates feedback in evolution on a scale hitherto underestimated--and in a manner that transforms the evolutionary dynamic. It also plays a critical role in ecology, supporting ecosystem engineering and influencing the flow of energy and nutrients through ecosystems. Despite this, niche construction has been given short shrift in theoretical biology, in part because it cannot be fully understood within the framework of standard evolutionary theory. Wedding evolution and ecology, this book extends evolutionary theory by formally including niche construction and ecological inheritance as additional evolutionary processes. The authors support their historic move with empirical data, theoretical population genetics, and conceptual models. They also describe new research methods capable of testing the theory. They demonstrate how their theory can resolve long-standing problems in ecology, particularly by advancing the sorely needed synthesis of ecology and evolution, and how it offers an evolutionary basis for the human sciences. Already hailed as a pioneering work by some of the world's most influential biologists, this is a rare, potentially field-changing contribution to the biological sciences.

Author : Henry C. Plotkin
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 222 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 1988
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 0262161079

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The Role of Behavior in Evolution by Henry C. Plotkin Pdf

These six original essays focus on a potentially important aspect of evolutionary biology, the possible causal role of phenotypic behavior in evolution. Balancing theory with actual or potential empiricism, they provide the first full examination of this topic. Plotkin's opening chapter outlines the "conceptual minefields" that the contributors attempt to negotiate: What is an adequate theory of evolution? What is behavior and is it possible to maintain a distinction between behavior and other attributes of the phenotype? is all, or only a special subset, of behavior both a cause and a consequence of evolution? And what do the theoretical issues mean in empirical terms? He concludes that any attempt to understand the causal role of behavior in evolution requires a more complicated theoretical structure than that of orthodox neoDarwinism, a conceptualization of behavior as a distinctive set of phenotypic attributes, and the accumulation of more data. David L. Hull (Northwestern University) provides an alternative account of the evolutionary process by developing a hierarchy of replicators-interactors-lineages to replace the traditional one of genes-organisms-species. Robert N. Brandon (Duke University) also posits hierarchy as an appropriate architecture for the theoretical complexity needed to support an examination of the role of behavior in evolution. F. J. Odling-Smee (Brunei University) outlines a theoretical structure to encompass the behavior of phenotypes, concentrating on the unrestricted definition of behavior (everything that an animal does). The remaining chapters are as much concerned with evidence as with theory. Plotkin concentrates on a restricted definition of behavior (behavior that is a product of choosing intelligence), reviewing our empirical knowledge of how learning might influence evolution. R.I.M. Dunbar (University College, London) uses empirical studies of vertebrate social behavior to deal with the question of how the social systems, especially of primates, might have a causal role in species evolution. A Bradford Book

Author : David Westneat,Charles Fox
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2010-03-05
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780199715787

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Evolutionary Behavioral Ecology by David Westneat,Charles Fox Pdf

Evolutionary Behavioral Ecology is intended to be used as a text for graduate students and a sourcebook for professional scientists seeking an understanding of the evolutionary and ecological processes shaping behavior across a wide array of organisms and a diverse set of behaviors. Chapters are written by leading experts in the field, providing a core foundation, a history of conceptual developments, and fresh insight into the controversies and themes shaping the continuing development of the field. Essays on adaptation, selection, fitness, genetics, plasticity, and phylogeny as they pertain to behavior place the field in the broader context of ecology and evolution. These concepts, along with a diversity of theoretical approaches are applied to the evolution of behavior in a many contexts, from individual decision-making of solitary animals through to complex social interactions. Chapters integrate conceptual and theoretical approaches with recent empirical advances to understand the evolution of behavior, from foraging, dealing with risk, predator avoidance, and an array of social behaviors, including fighting and cooperation with conspecifics and conflict and cooperation between the sexes. The material emphasizes integrative and novel approaches to behavior, including cognitive ecology, personality, conservation biology, the links between behavior and evolution, the evolution of human social behavior, and ways in which modern genetic analyses can augment the study of behavior.

Author : Timothy H. Goldsmith,William F. Zimmerman
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 390 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2000-11-16
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780471182191

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Biology, Evolution, and Human Nature by Timothy H. Goldsmith,William F. Zimmerman Pdf

This book uses evolution as the unifying theme to trace the connections between levels of biological complexity from genes through nervous systems, animal societies, and human cultures. It examines the history of evolutionary theory from Darwin to the present, including: the impact of molecular biology and the emergence of evolutionary social theory.

Author : Laurent Keller
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2019-12-31
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780691207018

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Levels of Selection in Evolution by Laurent Keller Pdf

Ever since the groundbreaking work of George Williams, W. D. Hamilton, and Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologists have recognized that natural selection generally does not operate for the good of the group, but rather for the good of lower-level units such as the individual, the cell, even the gene. One of the fundamental problems of biology is: what keeps competition between these various levels of natural selection from destroying the common interests to be gained from cooperation? In this volume twelve prominent scientists explore this question, presenting a comprehensive survey of the current theoretical and empirical research in evolutionary biology. Recent studies show that at many levels of biological organization, mechanisms have evolved to prevent potential conflict in natural selection. Editor Laurent Keller's aim in this book is to bring together leading researchers from all biological disciplines to outline these potential conflicts and discuss how they are resolved. A multi-level approach of this kind allows important insights into the evolution of life, as well as bridging the long-standing conceptual chasm between molecular and organismal biologists. The chapters here follow a rigorous theoretical framework, giving the book an overall synergy that is unique to multi-authored books. The contributors, in addition to the editor, are H. Charles J. Godfray, Edward Allen Herre, Dawn M. Kitchen, Egbert Giles Leigh, Jr., Catherine M. Lessells, Richard E. Michod, Leonard Nunney, Craig Packer, Andrew Pomiankowski, H. Kern Reeve, John Maynard Smith, and Eörs Szathmáry.

Author : Solomon P. Wasser,Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern
Publisher : Academic Press
Page : 382 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2021-07-30
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780323907538

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New Horizons in Evolution by Solomon P. Wasser,Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern Pdf

New Horizons in Evolution is a compendium of the latest research, analyses, and theories of evolutionary biology. Chapters are collected from the international symposium held by the Board of Governors of the University of Haifa to honor Dr. Eviatar Nevo, founder and director of the Institute of Evolution. This book includes material written by top global scientists. Such detailed summaries and recent advances include topics like genomics, epigenetics, evolutionary theory, and the evolution of cancer. This book analyzes evolutionary biology of animals, such as lizards and subterranean mammals. It also discusses agricultural evolution, specifically the vital wheat crop in various climates and locations. Each chapter contributes the most up-to-date knowledge of evolution’s role in speciation, adaptation, and regulation. New Horizons in Evolution is a valuable resource for researchers involved in evolution, evolutionary biology, and evolutionary theory. Advanced undergraduate and graduate students in evolutionary biology courses will also find this useful due to the high expertise level and latest knowledge available through this resource. Examines the evolution of species in extreme conditions Discusses the role of evolution in medicine and cancer research Features the latest data and advances in evolution theory

Author : Richard C. Lewontin
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 152 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0674001591

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The Triple Helix by Richard C. Lewontin Pdf

Rejecting the notion that genes determine the organism, which then adapts to the environment, he explains that organisms, influenced in their development by their circumstances, in turn create, modify, and choose the environment in which they live."--BOOK JACKET.

Author : John Cartwright
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 376 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Behavior evolution
ISBN : 0333714571

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Evolution and Human Behaviour by John Cartwright Pdf

During the 1990s there was an upsurge of interest in the application of evolutionary thinking to the study of human behaviour. Darwin's basic ideas concerning natural and sexual selection have been revised, refined and extended in scope. This book is a response to the need for a student textbook dealing explicitly with Darwinism and human affairs. It provides an overview of the key theoretical principles of human sociobiology and evolutionary psychology and shows how they illuminate the way humans think and behave. It should be of value to psychology and biology undergraduates but specifically those studying evolutionary psychology, animal behaviour and evolutionary theory, sociobiology, biological anthropology and behavioural ecology.

Author : Eytan Avital,Eva Jablonka
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2000-11-23
Category : Science
ISBN : 0521662737

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Animal Traditions by Eytan Avital,Eva Jablonka Pdf

Despite its almost universal acclaim, the authors contend that evolutionary explanations must take into account the well-established fact that in mammals and birds, the transfer of learned information is both ubiquitous and indispensable. Animal Traditions maintains the assumption that selection of genes supplies both a sufficient explanation of evolution and a true description of its course. The introduction of the behavioral inheritance system into the Darwinian explanatory scheme enables the authors to offer new interpretations for common behaviors such as maternal behaviors, behavioral conflicts within families, adoption, and helping. This approach offers a richer view of heredity and evolution, integrates developmental and evolutionary processes, suggests new lines for research, and provides a constructive alternative to both the selfish gene and meme views of the world. This book will make stimulating reading for all those interested in evolutionary biology, sociobiology, behavioral ecology, and psychology.

Author : Nathan Lyons
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2019-02-28
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780190941284

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Signs in the Dust by Nathan Lyons Pdf

Modern thought is characterized by a dichotomy of meaningful culture and unmeaning nature. Signs in the Dust uses medieval semiotics to develop a new theory of nature and culture that resists this familiar picture of things. Through readings of Thomas Aquinas, Nicholas of Cusa, and John Poinsot (John of St. Thomas), it offers a semiotic analysis of human culture in both its anthropological breadth as an enterprise of creaturely sign-making, and its theological height as a finite participation in the Trinity, which can be understood as an absolute 'cultural nature'. Signs in the Dust then extends this account of human culture backwards into the natural depth of biological and physical nature. It puts the biosemiotics of its medieval sources, along with Félix Ravaisson's philosophy of habit, into dialogue with the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis that is emerging in contemporary biology, to show how all living things participate in semiosis, so that that a cultural dimension is present through the whole order of nature and the whole of natural history. It also retrieves Aquinas' doctrine of intentions in the medium to show how signification can be attributed in a diminished way to even inanimate nature, with the ontological implication that being as such should be reconceived in semiotic terms. The phenomena of human culture are therefore to be understood not as breaks with a meaningless nature, but instead as heightenings and deepenings of natural movements of meaning that long precede and far exceed us. Against the modern divorce of nature and culture, Signs in the Dust argues that culture is natural and nature is cultural, through and through.

Author : Rui Diogo
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 439 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2024-07-03
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9783031490552

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Darwin’s Racism, Sexism, and Idolization by Rui Diogo Pdf

Author : Susan N. Sincerbox,Elizabeth A. DiGangi
Publisher : Academic Press
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2017-11-15
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780128132630

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Forensic Taphonomy and Ecology of North American Scavengers by Susan N. Sincerbox,Elizabeth A. DiGangi Pdf

Forensic Taphonomy and Ecology of North American Scavengers compiles research on vertebrate scavenging behavior from numerous academic fields, including ecology and forensic anthropology. Scavenging behavior can displace remains from their depositional context, confound postmortem interval estimation, destroy osteological markers, and inflict damage that mimics or disguises perimortem trauma. Consequently, the actions of vertebrate scavengers can significantly impact the medicolegal investigation of human remains. It is therefore critical when interpreting a death scene and its associated evidence that scavenging be recognized and the possible effects of scavenging behavior considered. This book is an ideal reference for both students and medicolegal professionals, serving as a field manual for the identification of common scavenging species known to modify human remains in North America. In addition, this book presents a framework to guide investigators in optimizing their approach to scavenged cases, promoting more complete recovery of human remains and the accuracy of forensic reconstructions of peri- and postmortem events. Examines scavenging behavior through an evolutionary and ecological lens, integrating research from diverse fields. Includes brief summaries of the taphonomic signatures and ecological contexts of common or well-studied North American scavenging taxa Proposes strategies to maximize the recovery of vertebrate-scavenged human remains and improve forensic reconstructions of peri- and postmortem events

Author : Rui Diogo,Janine M. Ziermann,Julia Molnar,Natalia Siomava,Virginia Abdala
Publisher : CRC Press
Page : 933 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2018-04-17
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9781351334938

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Muscles of Chordates by Rui Diogo,Janine M. Ziermann,Julia Molnar,Natalia Siomava,Virginia Abdala Pdf

Chordates comprise lampreys, hagfishes, jawed fishes, and tetrapods, plus a variety of more unfamiliar and crucially important non-vertebrate animal lineages, such as lancelets and sea squirts. This will be the first book to synthesize, summarize, and provide high-quality illustrations to show what is known of the configuration, development, homology, and evolution of the muscles of all major extant chordate groups. Muscles as different as those used to open the siphons of sea squirts and for human facial communication will be compared, and their evolutionary links will be explained. Another unique feature of the book is that it covers, illustrates, and provides detailed evolutionary tables for each and every muscle of the head, neck and of all paired and median appendages of extant vertebrates. Key Selling Features: Has more than 200 high-quality anatomical illustrations, including evolutionary trees that summarize the origin and evolution of all major muscle groups of chordates Includes data on the muscles of the head and neck and on the pectoral, pelvic, anal, dorsal, and caudal appendages of all extant vertebrate taxa Examines experimental observations from evolutionary developmental biology studies of chordate muscle development, allowing to evolutionarily link the muscles of vertebrates with those of other chordates Discusses broader developmental and evolutionary issues and their implications for macroevolution, such as the links between phylogeny and ontogeny, homology and serial homology, normal and abnormal development, the evolution, variations, and birth defects of humans, and medicine.