Conceptual Breakthroughs In Comparative Animal Physiology

Conceptual Breakthroughs in Comparative Physiology focuses on milestones and research achievements in comparative animal physiology. The book looks at the future of the field, illustrating how advances in technology continue to help us understand how animals work and adapt to their environments. Written by a leading expert in comparative physiology, the book follows the chronological order of discoveries and developments in the field. It covers the origins of comparative physiology in the 16th century, moving on to describe new topics such as developmental, diving and renal physiology. In addition, it examines new developments in ecological physiology and the birth of evolutionary physiology. This is an essential resource for undergraduates, graduate students and researchers interested in physiology with its comprehensive synopsis on the field’s foundational history and significant advances. Provides a single-source, historical overview of the field Examines more than 70 significant achievements in the history of comparative animal physiology Written in a comprehensive and easy-to-read format

Conceptual Breakthroughs in Ethology and Animal Behavior highlights, through concise summaries, the most important discoveries and scientific revolutions in animal behavior. These are assessed for their relative impact on the field and their significance to the forward motion of the science of animal behavior. Eighty short essays capture the moment when a new concept emerged or a publication signaled a paradigm shift. How the new understanding came about is explained, and any continuing controversy or scientific conversation on the issue is highlighted. Behavior is a rich and varied field, drawing on genetics, evolution, physiology, and ecology to inform its principles, and this book embraces the wealth of knowledge that comes from the unification of these fields around the study of animals in motion. The chronological organization of the essays makes this an excellent overview of the history of animal behavior, ethology, and behavioral ecology. The work includes such topics as Darwin’s role in shaping the study of animal behavior, the logic of animal contests, cognition, empathy in animals, and animal personalities. Succinct accounts of new revelations about behavior through scientific investigation and scrutiny reveal the fascinating story of this field. Similar to Dr. John Avise’s Contemporary Breakthroughs in Evolutionary Genetics, the work is structured into vignettes that describe the conceptual revolution and assess the impact of the conceptual change, with a score, which ranges from 1-10, providing an assessment of the impact of the new findings on contemporary science. Features a lively, brisk writing style and brief entries to enable easy, enjoyable access to this essential information Includes topics that cover the range of behavioral biology from mechanism to behavioral ecology Can also be used as supplemental material for an undergraduate animal behavior course, or as the foundational text for an upper level or graduate discussion course in advanced animal behavior

Through the ages natural historians have puzzled over how animals work, wavering between a vitalist belief in a soul animating bodily functions and a mechanistic outlook in which animal body parts are seen as pieces of organic machinery. Animal as Machine explores the life, work, and ideas of scientists who, branding themselves as physiologists, subscribed to mechanistic concepts to explain how animals acquire and process food, breathe, circulate their blood, and sense their environment. As medical physiology thrived in the nineteenth century, zoologists struggled to forge their own distinctive physiology predicated on understanding animal functions in a context of environmental adaptation and evolutionary forces. Physiological schools with distinct emphases that shaped their outlook sprang up around the world. Dividing their time between fieldwork in marine stations and laboratory experimentation, animal physiologists stood in awe of the diversity and ingenuity of the functional strategies by which animals survived. Animal as Machine tells a remarkable and insightful story of the larger-than-life personalities and gripping historical episodes that marked the emergence and blossoming of animal physiology.

Advances in Physiological Sciences, Volume 20: Advances in Animal and Comparative Physiology covers the proceedings of the symposia of the 28th International Congress of Physiology. The book discusses several studies that tackle issues about the advances in animal and comparative study. The text is comprised of 61 chapters in which Chapter 4 and the succeeding chapters are grouped into eight parts based on the topic of the studies. The opening chapter explains sensory modalities beyond human perception, while Chapter 2 discusses trends in the physiology of domesticated animals. Chapter 3 reviews muscles in living animals, which is followed by topics grouped into parts. The first part deals with fetal homeostasis, while the second part discusses control of corpora lutea function of ruminant and non-ruminant domesticated animals. The third part deals with the comparative physiology of lactation in farm animals, while the fourth part tackles digestion in non-ruminant herbivorous animals. Parts 5 and 6 cover topic on diving, which includes metabolism, physiology, and control. The seventh part discusses phylogenesis of hormones and hormone receptors, and the last part covers neuromuscular transmission in invertebrates. Researchers whose line of work concerns the physiological properties of animals will find this book as a great source of related literatures.

When survival is challenged by the cold, animals react by employing both behavioral and physiological solutions. Depending on the magni tude of the cold stress and the nature of the adjustment, simple avoidance or sophisticated capacity or resistance compensations may be used. Thus, migration, shelter seeking, metabolic and insulative compen sation, torpor, and freezing avoidance and tolerance are successful tac tics used by diverse groups of animals. To understand and appreciate the benefits of these tactics, it is necessary to examine not only the well being of the whole animal but also their basic underlying mechanisms. In ad dition, it is also of fundamental importance to grasp how seasonal cold affects the survivorship and reproductive success of populations when confronted by a general reduction in primary productivity and an elevated energy cost for maintenance (e. g. in endotherms). In this regard, a synthetic overview which integrates aspects of cell biology, biochem istry, physiology, neurobiology, behavior, and population biology should be a fruitful approach in providing a holistic understanding on how animals adapt to cold. The present volume is an attempt to achieve such an overview; its objective is to provide a depth and breadth of coverage that is essential to a full appreciation of animal adaptation to cold. It is the hope of the contributing authors that this book will serve as an effective reference text for all senior undergraduate and graduate students as well as research scientists with an interest in cold physiology.

Advances in Compararative and Environmental Physiology helps biologists, physiologists, and biochemists keep track of the extensive literature in the field. Providing comprehensive, integrated reviews and sound, critical, and provocative summaries, this series is a must for all active researchers in environmental and comparative physiology. Cellular volume and osmolality in animals is a well studied topic and this specific volume in the series provides the reader with a thorough grounding in this area of physiology. Consisting of two parts, the text discusses osmolality and volume control in terms of both inorganic and organic ions which as a result gives an excellent overview to those working and interested in this field.

Intended for students in the biological and agricultural sciences, ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY, International Edition has been written to promote the true conceptual understanding necessary to keep pace with today's rapid advances in the biological sciences.ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY, International Edition takes an "integrative systems" approach, designed to illustrate the individual organization as well as the collective interdependence of each complete physiological system. The text begins with chapters on integrative principles and on the genomic, molecular, and cellular basis of physiology, then proceeds to chapters on individual organ systems. For each organ system, evolutionary forces as well as current cellular and molecular research are discussed. To clearly illustrate system interdependence-how integrated organ systems yield a whole, functioning animal-each systems chapter contains a summary, titled "Chapter in Perspective: Homeostasis and Integration." In addition, special integrative chapters-"Fluid and Acid-Base Balance" and "Energy Balance and Thermal Physiology"-focus on crucial whole-body phenomena that are dependent on more than one organ system.To make the text even more accessible to students, the authors also incorporate a comparative approach to animal physiology-examining the basic physiology of many vertebrate and invertebrate animals as well as their primary diseases and ability to respond to environmental changes. These comparisons between types of animals are included to explain important universal functions and principles, thus emphasizing the unity of life. Unique or striking adaptations are featured to reveal the diversity that can result from evolutionary adaptation. Finally, the authors incorporate detailed coverage of those animal species, particularly vertebrates, which will be of relevance to students preparing for animal-related careers.

In the past 5 years there has been an enormous increase of evidence that the ion channels activated by mechanical force are common to a wide variety of cell types. Mechanosensitive (MS) ion channels form a small proportion of the total channel population. They are now found in more than 30 cell types from E. coli, yeast, to plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate cells, where they occur in virtually all types of cells from bone to smooth muscle, as well as neurons. The majority of MS channels are permeable to monovalent cations and are slightly selective for K+ over Na +. How 2 ever, there are several reports of anion-selective MS channels, MS Ca + channels, and MS channels with large conductances that do not dis criminate markedly between cations and anions. Recently B. Hille has postulated possible evolutionary relationships between several types of ion channels, with mechanosensitive channels predating even the eukaryotes. Two voltage-gated channel types originate with the stem eukaryotes, as deduced from the presence of voltage-gated K+ 2 and Ca + channels in protozoa, algae, or higher plants. Agonist-gated chan nels as well as voltage-gated Na + channels appear with the earliest metazoan animals, as deduced from the presence of Na + spikes and fast chemical synapses in cnidaria (coelenterates), ctenophores, and all higher animals.