The Differences Between the Sexes

ISBN-13: 9780521448789 / Angielski / Miękka / 1994 / 496 str.

E. Balaban; Roger V. Short; Evan Balaban

Opis

In most animals, from bees to bulls, mice to men, it is possible to see at a glance whether an individual is male or female. How and why these differences in appearance and behavior developed and the nature and extent of the differences between males and females is a complex subject. This book reviews the latest molecular, genetic, hormonal, anatomical, and behavioral data in a wide range of species in a series of lively and highly readable articles from the world's leading experts in this field. Unashamedly Darwinian, this book brings sexual selection up to date and discusses not only a dazzling array of differences between the sexes, but probes the mechanisms by which they are produced and the adaptive significance of the differences themselves. It should have a wide appeal, especially to undergraduates and graduates in the biological and medical sciences, and should help to bridge the gap between those who study genes and molecules in the laboratory and those who study the behavior of animals in the wild.

Recenzje

'This book will be read with pleasure by anyone who is a biology graduate and who has a deep curiosity about animals. Its outstanding strengths are the panoramic breadth of its subject matter, the authority of its authors and (with a few exceptions) the accessibility of its language. I would not hesitate to recommend it as an undergraduate text.' Trends in Genetics

Spis treści

Foreword; Preface; Part I. Overview: 1. Why sex? R. V. Short; 2. Constraints to parthenogenesis D. Crews; Part II. Somatic Dimorphisms Across the Species: 3. Explaining the evolution of unexpected sex differences J. D. Reynolds and P. H. Harvey; 4. Sexual dimorphism in the Hymenoptera J. W. Stubblefield and J. Seger; 5. Sex change in fishes - how and why D. Y. Shapiro; 6. Teeth, horn and antlers: weapons of sex G. A. Lincoln; 7. The evolution of sexual size dimorphism in primates R. D. Martin, L. A. Willner and A. Dettling; Part III. Sexual Dimorphisms in Organ Systems: 8. Translating gonadal sex into phenotypic sex J. D. Wilson; 9. Sexual dimorphisms in the gonads of marsupial mammals M. B. Renfree; 10. Regulation of sexual dimorphism in rat liver J.-A. Gustafsson; 11. Sex differences in sounds and their causes E. Balaban; 12. Brain structure: causes and consequences of brain sex M. Gahr; Part III. Sexual Dimorphisms in Behaviour: 13. Hormone-behaviour interactions and mating systems in male and female birds J. C. Wingfield; 14. Behavioural dimorphisms in African elephants J. H. Poole; 15. The costs of sex differences T. H. Clutton-Brock; 16. Pheromones: the fruit fly's perfumed garden J.-F. Ferveur, M. Cobb, Y. Oguma and J.-M. Jallon; Part IV. Genetic and Environmental Control of Gonadal Sex: 17. Evolution of mammalian sex chromosomes M. F. Lyon; 18. Mammalian sex-determining genes J. A. Marshall Graves; 19. Bizarre mammalian sex-determining mechanisms K. Fredga; 20. Environmental control of gonadal differentiation C. Pieau, M. Girondat, G. Desrages, M. Dorizzi, N. Richard-Mercier, P. Zaborski; Afterword; A man's a man for a' that R. V. Short; A few chromosomal differences among friends E. Balaban; Index.