United States
£ GBP
This book presents the latest research findings on the laterality of fish and other animals. It describes all aspects of lateral asymmetry, including ecology, morphology, behaviour, dynamics of lefty and righty morphs, genetics and evolution, through field observations, experiments and modelling.
Lateral asymmetry in scale-eating cichlids gives a simple and beautiful example of negative frequency-dependent selection and resulting oscillation of lefty and righty morph frequencies. Lateral dimorphism is found not only in scale-eaters but in all orders of fish, shrimps and cuttlefish. Lateral asymmetry interacts between species through "cross-predation." Contrary to fish, lateral asymmetry in snails acts as, in most cases, positive frequency-dependent selection and provides deep insights into speciation. Especially, snakes eating righty snails facilitate the speciation of lefty snails.
As a collaborative work of field ecologists and theoretical biologists, this book covers a variety of topics on lateral asymmetry, which are consistently related to predation. The topics include behavioural ecology, population dynamics, physiology, evolution, genetics, development, learning and neuroscience, and statistics, with the subjects of fish, shrimp, prawn, and crayfish, crab, cuttlefish, and snake and snail. Chapters cover new research results such as cuttlefish laterality dynamics, the interaction between the laterality of snails and snakes, the evolution of the laterality genetic system, and statistical analysis of laterality oscillation. Readers will appreciate the simplicity and beauty of lateral asymmetry and its profound impact on ecology and evolution.
Chapter 1. Laterality of Fish - Anti-symmetry in Fish Populations Maintained by the Interspecific Interaction
Chapter 2. Universality of laterality among fish and invertebrates in aquatic communities
Chapter 3. Predominance of Cross Predation or Parallel Predation in Fish
Chapter 4. Behavioral laterality in the scale-eating cichlid fish: detailed movement, development, and neuronal mechanisms
Chapter 5. Models of Lateral Asymmetry Dynamics: Realistic Oscillations by Time Delay and Frequency Dependence
Chapter 6. Mathematical models of predators and prey with laterality
Chapter 7. Statistical Analysis of Lateral Asymmetry: Detect Antisymmetry and Oscillation from Unequal-Interval Binomial Data
Chapter 8. Models of Genetic System of LateralAsymmetry: Population Dynamics DriveEvolution of Genetic System
Chapter 9. Mechanisms Underlying Variations in the Dentition Asymmetry of Asian Snail-Eating Snakes
Chapter 10. Single-gene speciation, balanced polymorphism, and antagonistic coevolution in left-right asymmetry of land snails
