Showing all 6 results
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The lives of Hawai’i’s dolphins and whales: natural history and conservation
Artist/Author: Baird, Robin W.$45.00 Add to cartAlthough this book covers the well-known resident spinner dolphins and the visiting humpback whales, it particularly highlights the ten species of lesser-known open-ocean dolphins and whales that are resident to the marine slopes of the islands. These include endangered false killer whales, deep-diving Cuvier’s and Blainville’s beaked whales, abundant spotted dolphins, coastal bottlenose dolphins, cryptic dwarf sperm whales, family units of short-finned pilot whales, and social melon-headed whales, among others. Also described are thirteen species of dolphins and whales found in offshore waters or that visit the Hawaiian waters seasonally or occasionally, including killer whales, the iconic sperm whale, and even blue whales and North Pacific right whales.
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Teeth: a very short introduction.
Artist/Author: Ungar, Peter S.$16.00 Add to cartTeeth are amazing – the product of half a billion years of evolution. They provide fuel for the body by breaking apart other living things; and they must do it again and again over a lifetime without themselves being broken in the process. This means that plants and animals have developed tough or hard tissues for protection, and teeth have evolved ways to sharpen or strengthen themselves to overcome those defences. And just as different jobs require different tools, animals with different diets have different shaped teeth to deal with the variety of foods that they eat. In this Very Short Introduction, Peter S. Ungar, an award-winning author and leading scientist, presents the story of teeth. Ungar outlines the key concepts, including insights into the origin of teeth and their evolution. Considering why teeth are important, he describes how they are made, and how they work, including their fundamental importance in the fossil record. Ungar finishes with a review of mammal teeth, looking at how they evolved and how recent changes to our diet are now affecting dental health.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable. -
Evolution of island mammals: adaptation and extinction of placental mammals on islands.
Artist/Author: van der Geer, Alexandra et al.$157.00 Add to cartEvolution on islands differs in a number of important ways from evolution on mainland areas. Over millions of years of isolation, exceptional and sometimes bizarre mammals evolved on islands, such as pig-sized elephants and hippos, giant rats and gorilla-sized lemurs that would have been formidable to their mainland ancestors. This timely and innovative book is the first to offer a much-needed synthesis of recent advances in the exciting field of the evolution and extinction of fossil insular placental mammals. It provides a comprehensive overview of current knowledge on fossil island mammals worldwide, ranging from the Oligocene to the onset of the Holocene. The book addresses evolutionary processes and key aspects of insular mammal biology, exemplified by a variety of fossil species. The authors discuss the human factor in past extinction events and loss of insular biodiversity. This accessible and richly illustrated textbook is written for graduate level students and professional researchers in evolutionary biology, palaeontology, biogeography, zoology, and ecology.
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Beautiful Minds: The Parallel Lives of Great Apes and Dolphins
Artist/Author: Bearzi, Maddalena and Craig B. Stanford.$40.00 Add to cartApes and dolphins: primates and cetaceans. Could any animals appear to be more different? Yet both are large-brained intelligent mammals with complex communication and social interaction. In the first book to study apes and dolphins side by side, Maddalena Bearzi and Craig B. Stanford, a dolphin biologist and a primatologist who have spent their careers studying these animals in the wild, combine their insights with compelling results. This book explains how and why apes and dolphins are so distantly related yet so cognitively alike and what this teaches us about another large-brained mammal: Homo sapiens. Noting that apes and dolphins have had no common ancestor in nearly 100 million years, Bearzi and Stanford describe the parallel evolution that gave rise to their intelligence. And they closely observe that intelligence in action, in the territorial grassland and rainforest communities of chimpanzees and other apes, and in groups of dolphins moving freely through open coastal waters. The authors detail their subjects’ ability to develop family bonds, form alliances, and care for their young. They offer an understanding of their culture, politics, social structure, personality, and capacity for emotion. The resulting dual portrait – with striking overlaps in behaviour – is key to understanding the nature of “beautiful minds.”
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Echolocation in bats and dolphins.
Artist/Author: Thomas, Jeanette et al.$79.00 Add to cartConsists of six sections: mechanisms of echolocation signal production; the anatomy and physiology of signal reception and interpretation; performance and cognition; ecological and evolutionary aspects of echolocation in mammals; theoretical and methodological topics; and possible echolocation capabilities in other mammals, including shrews, seals, and baleen whales. Also available in hardcover, POA.
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Origins of intelligence: the evolution of cognitive development in monkeys, apes, and humans.
Artist/Author: Parker, Sue Taylor and Michael L. McKinney.$40.00 Add to cartDrawing evidence from scores of studies on monkeys, great apes, and human children, this book provides unique insights into ontogenetic constraints that have interacted with selective forces to shape the evolution of cognitive development in our lineage.
