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About this book
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About this book
Although birds have rather uniform body plan and physiology, they exhibit marked variation in developmental type, parental care, and rate of growth. This makes them ideal for studying and understanding evolutionary adaptation. Presenting an integrative perspective of organism biology, ecology, and evolution, this book is a case study in the evolutionary diversification of life histories.
Contents
Introduction; 1. Patterns of Development: The Altricial-Precocial Spectrum; 2. Embryonic Development; 3. Structural Variants and Invariants in Avian Embryonic and Postnatal Development; 4. Energy Metabolism, Gas Exchange, and Ventilation; 5. Development of Temperature Regulation; 6. Development of Locomotion and Endothermy in altricial and precocial birds; 7. The Endocrine System; 8. The Immune System; 9. Development of Behavior; 10. Variation, Constraint, and Phylogeny. Comparative Analysis of Variation in Growth; 11. Internal Constraints on Growth in Birds; 12. Developmental Plasticity; 13. Genetic Aspects of Growth; 14. Causes of Growth Variation and its Consequences for Fitness; 15. Models for Avian Growth and Development; 16. The Evolution of Developmental Mode in Birds; 17. Data Set of Avian Growth Parameters; Summary, Conclusions, and Research Agenda
Customer Reviews
Edited By: J Matthias Starck and Robert E Ricklefs
441 pages, B/w photos, illus, figs, tabs
"When eggs hatch, neonatal birds range from naked, blind, highly altricial songbirds, totally dependent on parental warmth and feeding, through highly precocial megapods that use their fully functional beaks, legs, wings, and brains to dig their way out of incubation mounds, and raise themselves with no parental care. . . . In 17 technical chapters by 20 authors, this volume summarizes many current perspectives on the causes and consequences of this diversity, updating Margaret Nice's classic treatment of the field 40 years ago. . . . In a final, appendix-like chapter, the editors list 1117 estimates of a standard set of four avian growth parameters for 557 species, compiled and derived from the literature. They use these data to analyse growth rate patterns at different taxonomic levels in an earlier chapter. I expect others to use these data to test diverse hypotheses for years to come."--The Quarterly Review of Biology
"[T]his book should be present on the shelves of every ac
