The Evolution of Flight

About this book

The Evolution of Flight will take you on an exciting journey made up of texts and images. Spectacular, large-scale photographs printed on double pages and accompanied by explanatory texts will arouse the reader's curiosity about evolution's accomplishments in the world of flying: from the botanical air fleet (pollen grains, flying seeds…), over flying snakes and fish, to penguins flying underwater and humans rising into the air. Mathematician and passionate animal photographer Georg Glaser has joined forces with the experienced evolutionary biologist Hannes Paulus and the exercise physiologist and flight biophysicist Werner Nachtigall in order to approach this topic with words and pictures in a way that is both generally comprehensible and scientifically sound.

Contents

Chapter 1: 400 Million Years of Flight Evolution
Chapter 2: Photographs of animals in flight
Chapter 3: From the perspective of the biophysicist
Chapter 4: Criteria of evolution
Chapter 5: Insects: The first flying animals
Chapter 6: Birds: The "classics" among flying animals
Chapter 7: Bats: Flying mammals
Chapter 8: The fascination remains

Customer Reviews

Biography

Georg Glaeser is Professor of Mathematics and Geometry at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. At the same time, he has passionately dedicated himself to being an animal photographer. Hannes F. Paulus was, up to his retirement as professor emeritus, Head of the Department of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Vienna. Now he works at the University of Vienna's Department of Integrative Zoology. Werner Nachtigall was, up to his retirement as professor emeritus, Head of the Department of Zoology of the University of Saarland. Amongst other things, he has done extensive research on physiology and biomechanics.