Animal Behaviour - Mechanism,Development, Function and Evolution

Chris Barnard

Pearson Education Limited

2004

757 páginas

1d 1h 14m

ISBN-10: 0130899364

Animal behaviour has been one of the most exciting and fastest-growing scientific disciplines of recent years. Its impact on the whole way we think about biology has spawned lucid ‘best sellers’ such as The Selfish Gene and widespread scientific and public debate about our view of the natural world and our place in it. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the study of behaviour, from its basis in the animal’s anatomy and physiology to its adaptive value in the environment. It is aimed at undergraduate students in the biological sciences and psychology and is designed to serve as both a detailed introduction and an extensive, up-to-date source of reference enabling students to pursue topics in the primary literature. Animal behaviour is a subject rich in debate, much of it fundamental to our understanding of biology as a whole. The book therefore highlights issues currently occupying researchers and examines their implications for underlying theory and empirical studies. The overall theme of the book is evolutionary, showing how the different levels at which behaviour can be studied ultimately relate to the consequences of behaviour for the animal’s reproductive success – mechanism and development serve function through evolution, as it says in Chapter 2.