Biology of Subterranean Fishes

ISBN-13: 9781578086702 / Angielski / Twarda / 2010 / 516 str.

Eleonora Trajano

Opis

In most habitats, adaptations are the single most obvious aspects of an organism's phenotype. However, the most obvious feature of many subterranean animals are losses, not adaptations. Even Darwin saw subterranean animals as degenerates: examples of eyelessness and loss of structure in general. For him, the explanation was a straightforward Lamarckian one, and one that did not involve adaptation and the struggle of existence. This volume is a comprehensive account of all known species of subterranean fishes. It includes an extensive introduction, history of investigations, consideration of non-stygobitic fishes in caves, and detailed analysis of the conservation status of these very rare animals.

Spis treści

Cavefish: Retrospective and Prospective. Biodiversity and Distribution of the Subterranean Fishes of the World. Conservation of Subterranean Fishes. Behavioral Patterns in Subterranean Fishes. The Evolutionary Genetics of Cave Fishes: Convergence, Adaptation and Pleiotropy. Development as an Evolutionary Process in Astyanax Cavefishes. Subterranean Fishes of North America: Amblyopsidae. Subterranean Fishes of Mexico (Poecilia mexicana, Poeciliidae). Subterranean Fishes of Brazil. Subterranean Fishes of Africa. Subterranean Fishes of China. Subterranean Fishes of India.

O autorze

Eleonora Trajano, Maria Elina Bichuette, B.G. Kapoor