This volume features an important collection of review articles highlighting the top science and developments in the field of evolutionary biology. NOTE: Annals volumes are available for sale as individual books or as a journal. For information on institutional journal subscriptions, please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/nyas. ACADEMY MEMBERS: Please contact the New York Academy of Sciences directly to place your order (www.nyas.org). Members of the New York Academy of Science receive full-text access to the Annals online and discounts on print volumes. Please visit http://www.nyas.org/MemberCenter/Join.aspx for more information about becoming a member.

Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Biology, Four Volume Set is the definitive go-to reference in the field of evolutionary biology. It provides a fully comprehensive review of the field in an easy to search structure. Under the collective leadership of fifteen distinguished section editors, it is comprised of articles written by leading experts in the field, providing a full review of the current status of each topic. The articles are up-to-date and fully illustrated with in-text references that allow readers to easily access primary literature. While all entries are authoritative and valuable to those with advanced understanding of evolutionary biology, they are also intended to be accessible to both advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Broad topics include the history of evolutionary biology, population genetics, quantitative genetics; speciation, life history evolution, evolution of sex and mating systems, evolutionary biogeography, evolutionary developmental biology, molecular and genome evolution, coevolution, phylogenetic methods, microbial evolution, diversification of plants and fungi, diversification of animals, and applied evolution. Presents fully comprehensive content, allowing easy access to fundamental information and links to primary research Contains concise articles by leading experts in the field that ensures current coverage of each topic Provides ancillary learning tools like tables, illustrations, and multimedia features to assist with the comprehension process

The first detailed collation of the evolution, ecology and conservation of some of South America's least-known, and most endangered, primates.

Cities occupy about 3 per cent of the Earth's habitable land area and are home to one out of two humans worldwide; both estimates are predicted to grow. Urban space is thus becoming an important, novel ecological niche for humans and wildlife alike. Building on knowledge gathered by urban ecologists during the last half century, evidence of evolutionary responses to urbanization has rapidly emerged. Urban evolutionary biology is a nascent yet fast-growing field of research--and a fascinating testing ground for evolutionary biologists worldwide. Urbanization offers a great range of opportunities to examine evolutionary processes because of the radically altered and easily quantifiable urban habitat, and the large number of cities worldwide, enabling rigorous, replicated tests of evolutionary hypotheses. Urban populations are increasingly exhibiting both neutral and adaptive evolutionary changes at levels ranging from genotypes to phenotypes. The novelty of urban evolutionary biology is that these changes are driven by the cities we have built, including effects of infrastructure, pollution, and social characteristics of our urban neighbourhoods. It will thereby enrich the field of evolutionary biology with emergent yet incredibly potent new research themes where the urban habitat is key. In a series of sixteen chapters written by leading evolutionary biologists working on urban drivers of evolution, Urban Evolutionary Biology is the first academic book in the field. It synthesizes current knowledge on evolutionary processes occurring literally on our doorstep, across the globe, and in each city independently.--Provided by publisher.

The annual Evolutionary Biology Meetings in Marseilles serve to gather leading evolutionary biologists and other scientists using evolutionary biology concepts, e.g. for medical research. The aims of these meetings are to promote the exchange of ideas and to encourage interdisciplinary collaborations. This book collects 19 selected contributions presented at the 15th meeting, which took place in September 2011. It starts with a description of the life and work of J.B.S. Haldane, a remarkable evolutionary biologist of the 20th century. The remaining chapters are grouped under the following three themes: · New Concepts in Evolutionary Biology · Macroevolution: Mechanisms and Trends · Genome Evolution Offering an up-to-date overview of recent results in the field of evolutionary biology, this book is an invaluable source of information for scientists, teachers and advanced students.

This book is the first in a projected series on Evolutionary Cell Biology, the intent of which is to demonstrate the essential role of cellular mechanisms in transforming the genotype into the phenotype by transforming gene activity into evolutionary change in morphology. This book —Cells in Evolutionary Biology — evaluates the evolution of cells themselves and the role cells have been viewed to play as agents of change at other levels of biological organization. Chapters explore Darwin’s use of cells in his theory of evolution and how Weismann’s theory of the separation of germ plasm from body cells brought cells to center stage in understanding how acquired changes to cells within generations are not passed on to future generations. Chapter 7 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Phylogenetic comparative approaches are powerful analytical tools for making evolutionary inferences from interspecific data and phylogenies. The phylogenetic toolkit available to evolutionary biologists is currently growing at an incredible speed, but most methodological papers are published in the specialized statistical literature and many are incomprehensible for the user community. This textbook provides an overview of several newly developed phylogenetic comparative methods that allow to investigate a broad array of questions on how phenotypic characters evolve along the branches of phylogeny and how such mechanisms shape complex animal communities and interspecific interactions. The individual chapters were written by the leading experts in the field and using a language that is accessible for practicing evolutionary biologists. The authors carefully explain the philosophy behind different methodologies and provide pointers – mostly using a dynamically developing online interface – on how these methods can be implemented in practice. These “conceptual” and “practical” materials are essential for expanding the qualification of both students and scientists, but also offer a valuable resource for educators. Another value of the book are the accompanying online resources (available at: http://www.mpcm-evolution.com), where the authors post and permanently update practical materials to help embed methods into practice.

A groundbreaking, evidence-based text to the growing field of evolutionary medicine Evidence-Based Evolutionary Medicine offers a comprehensive review of the burgeoning field of evolutionary medicine and explores vital topics such as evolution, ecology, and aging as they relate to mainstream medicine. The text integrates Darwinian principles and evidence-based medicine in order to offer a clear picture of the underlying principles that reflect how and why organisms have evolved on a cellular level. The authors—noted authorities in their respective fields—address evolutionary medicine from a developmental cell-molecular perspective. They explore the first principles of physiology that explain the generation of existing tissues, organs, and organ systems. The text offers an understanding of the overall biology as a vertically integrated whole, from unicellular to multicellular organisms. In addition, it addresses clinical diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, both traditional and cell-homeostatic. This groundbreaking text: • Offers a much-needed, logical, and fundamental approach to biology and medicine • Provides a clear explanation of complex physiology and pathophysiology • Integrates topics like evolution, ecology and aging into mainstream medicine, making them more relevant • Contains the first evidence-based text on evolutionary medicine Written for medical and graduate students in biology, physiology, anatomy, endocrinology, reproductive biology, medicine, pathology, systems biology, this vital resource offers a unique text of both biology as an integrated whole with universal properties; and of medicine seeing the individual as a whole, not an inventory of parts and diseases.

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar, L) is an anadromous species contributing to major fishery catches and comprising a significant part of the aquaculturally produced fish for human consumption. The aim of this book is to incite the interest in the field of knowledge gathered from a broad scope of disciplines that have investigated this fish species. Und

"The present book is intended as a progress report on [the] synthetic approach to evolution as it applies to the plant kingdom." With this simple statement, G. Ledyard Stebbins formulated the objectives of Variation and Evolution in Plants, published in 1950, setting forth for plants what became known as the "synthetic theory of evolution" or "the modern synthesis." The pervading conceit of the book was the molding of Darwin's evolution by natural selection within the framework of rapidly advancing genetic knowledge. At the time, Variation and Evolution in Plants significantly extended the scope of the science of plants. Plants, with their unique genetic, physiological, and evolutionary features, had all but been left completely out of the synthesis until that point. Fifty years later, the National Academy of Sciences convened a colloquium to update the advances made by Stebbins. This collection of 17 papers marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Stebbins' classic. Organized into five sections, the book covers: early evolution and the origin of cells, virus and bacterial models, protoctist models, population variation, and trends and patterns in plant evolution.