Alternative Life-History Styles of Animals

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Prologue.
• 1. The Tao of life: from the dynamic unity of polar opposites to self-organization.
• I. Theories, mechanisms and examples.
• 2. Developmental biology and alternative life styles.
• 3. On divergent and progressive evolution.
• 4. Direct and indirect development in fishes — examples of alternative life-history styles.
• 5. Alternative life-history styles in anuran amphibians: evolutionary and ecological implications.
• 6. Alternative life-history styles in reptiles.
• 7. Environmentally guided phenotype plasticity in mammals and some of its consequences to theoretical and applied biology.
• 8. Sex change as an alternative life-history style.
• 9. Environmental restraints and life strategies: a habitat templet matrix.
• 10. Alternative life-history styles of small mammals.
• II. Theories contested or tested.
• 11. Ontogeny and evolution: saltatory or otherwise?.
• 12. Alternative sexual tactics in male bladder grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Pneumoridae).
• 13. Alternative life-history styles of mutillid wasps (Insecta, Hymenoptera).
• 14. Alternative life-history styles in Simuliidae (Insecta, Diptera).
• 15. The evolution of alternative life styles in Coleoptera.
• 16. Alternative life-history styles in salmonine fishes with emphasis on arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus.
• 17. Metamorphosis in the frog Arthroleptella lightfooti (Anura, Ranidae) with emphasis on neuro-endocrine mechanisms.
• 18. Allometry and the breeding biology of some plovers.
• 19. Alternative life-history styles of South African birds.
• 20. Life-history styles of southern African Mastomys natalensis, Otomys irroratus and Rhabdomys pumilio (Mammalia, Rodentia).
• 21. The megaherbivore syndrome: alternative life style or different time frame?.
• 22. The constraint of maternal nutrition on the trajectory of fetalgrowth in humans.
• III. Are new paradigms emerging?.
• 23. The epigenetic mechanisms of bifurcation and alternative life-history styles.
• 24. The ecological significance of alternative life-history styles.
• Transcript of discussions.
• What is the difference between neo-Darwinism and epigenetics?.
• The Okavango debate on bifurcation.
• List of contributors.
• Scientific and subject index.