This informative book details the important effects sexual selection has on barn swallow mating behavior, mating competition, parental care, host-parasite interactions, and migration strategies. The first two chapters present a concise, insightful review of the two main components of sexual selection theory--male-male competition and female choice. Citing evidence from the author's long-term field work on the monogamous barn swallow, subsequent chapters investigate the advantages held by males with colorful plumage and by females who are choosy when selecting a mating partner. In his...

In this book, Ito presents data on tropical wasps which suggest that kin-selection has been overemphasized as an evolutionary explanation of sociality. He concentrates on the Vespidae (paper wasps and hornets), a group much discussed by evolutionary biologists because it exhibits all stages of social evolution: subsociality, primitive eusociality, and advanced eusociality. The author reports field observations by himself and others in Central America, Asia, and Australia, showing that multiple egg-layers in a nest are not uncommon. Because coexistence of many 'queens' leads to lower...

In this book, noted biologist Eric Charnov uses ideas about symmetry, invariance, and scaling laws to explain many formerly puzzling regularities in population biology. Aspects of life history evolution and population dynamics are illuminated by his synthesis of symmetry and symmetry-breaking arguments. For example, he develops sex allocation evolution to reveal how symmetry-breaking leads to biased sex ratios, and also demonstrates how the process plays an important role in the evolution of alternative male life histories. A detailed evolutionary theory is developed and tested for the...

This book examines our current understanding of the population dynamics of one kind of interaction--that between insect parasitoids and their hosts. Parasitoids are amongst the most abundant of all animals, and make up about 10% or more of metazoan species. Almost no insect species escape their attack. Host-parasitoid interactions were first modelled over fifty years ago, but for many years there was little good empirical information on the important factors that affect host and parasitoid populations. The models were very simple, and their predictions rather divorced from the complexity of...

This book provides the first synthesis of quantitative information on brown trout ecology. By comparing the brown trout to closely related species such as the Atlantic salmon, the Pacific salmon, and the rainbow trout, the author illuminates key issues regarding animal ecology in general. Topics include the global success of the brown trout, long-term case studies of the dynamics of one brown trout population, ecological differences between brown trout populations, natural selection and genetic differences between brown trout, and the mechanisms responsible for population regulation in...

Why does nature love symmetry? In this up-to-date review of symmetry and its evolutionary implications, Anders Moller and John Swaddle argue that symmetry is related to genetic stability and fitness and that symmetric individuals appear to have quantifiable and significant advantages over their asymmetric counterparts. In contrast, asymmetry, a common measure of developmental instability, is the result of environmental or genetic disruptions of developmental processes, such as pollutants, competition, parasitism, inbreeding, genetic mutation, and hybridization. Moller and Swaddle maintain...

Population dynamics and animal behavior are two subjects which have developed almost independently, despite widespread acceptance of the idea that they must be related. This book provides a novel framework for combining these two subjects and considers a range of conservation issues. The author suggests how to extrapolate from behavioral interactions to population-level phenomena; each chapter presents a combination of theory and empirical examples, including modelling techniques. Students and researchers in animal behavior, population ecology, and conservation biology will welcome this new...

In combination with predation and competition for resources, infectious disease is a key ecological factor that influences the evolution of animal mating and social systems. Studies also illuminate the central role that infectious disease plays in the lives of some mammals.

The field of molecular evolution has experienced explosive growth in recent years due to the rapid accumulation of genetic sequence data, continuous improvements to computer hardware and software, and the development of sophisticated analytical methods. The increasing availability of large genomic data sets requires powerful statistical methods to analyse and interpret them, generating both computational and conceptual challenges for the field.
Computational Molecular Evolution provides an up-to-date and comprehensive coverage of modern statistical and computational methods used in...

Proteins are an integral part of molecular and cellular structure and function and are probably the most purified type of biological molecule. In order to elucidate the structure and function of any protein it is first necessary to purify it. Protein purification techniques have evolved over the past ten years with improvements in equipment control, automation, and separation materials, and the introduction of new techniques such as affinity membranes and expanded beds. These developments have reduced the workload involved in protein purification, but there is still a need to consider how...