Crustaceans are increasingly used as model organisms in all fields of biology, including neurobiology, developmental biology, animal physiology, evolutionary ecology, biogeography, and resource management. One reason for the increasing use of crustacean examples is the wide range of phenotypes found in this group and the diversity of environments they inhabit; few other taxa exhibit such a variety of body shapes and adaptations to particular habitats and environmental conditions. A good overview of their functional morphology is essential to understanding many aspects of their biology.
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The Crustacea is one of the dominant invertebrate groups, displaying staggering diversity in form and function, and spanning the full spectrum of Earth's environments. Crustaceans are increasingly used as model organisms in all fields of biology, as few other taxa exhibit such a variety of body shapes and adaptations to particular habitats and environmental conditions. Physiology is the fourth volume in The Natural History of the Crustacea series, and the first book in over twenty-five years to provide an overview of the comparative physiology of crustaceans. An understanding of...

This second volume in the Natural History of the Crustacea series examines how crustaceans-the different body shapes and adaptations of which are described in volume 1-make a living in the wide range of environments they inhabit, and how they exploit food sources. The contributions in the volume give synthetic overviews of particular lifestyles and feeding mechanisms, and offer a fresh look at crustacean life styles through the technological tools that have been applied to recent crustacean research. These include SEM (scanning electron microscope) techniques, micro-optics, and long-term...