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Do sharks lay eggs or give birth to live young? Do sharks sleep? How long do they live? How likely are shark attacks? This book answers your questions about some of nature’s most misunderstood animals. Answering every conceivable question about sharks, authors Gene Helfman and George H. Burgess describe the fascinating biology, behavior, diversity (there are more than 1,000 species worldwide), and cultural importance of sharks, their close relationship to skates and rays, and their critical role in healthy ecosystems. Helfman and Burgess take readers on a round-the-world tour of shark habitats, which include oceans as well as lakes and even rivers (as far up the Mississippi as St. Louis). ...
Fish Conservation offers, for the first time in a single volume, a readable reference with a global approach to marine and freshwater fish diversity and fishery resource issues. Gene Helfman brings together available knowledge on the decline and restoration of freshwater and marine fishes, providing ecologically sound answers to biodiversity declines as well as to fishery management problems at the subsistence, recreational, and commercial levels. Written in an engaging and accessible style, the book: considers the value of preserving aquatic biodiversity offers an overview of imperiled fishes on a taxonomic and geographic basis presents a synthesis of common characteristics of imperiled fis...
One fish, two fish, red fish, nearly thirty thousand species of fish -- or fishes, as they are properly called when speaking of multiple species. This is but one of many things the authors of this fascinatingly informative book reveal in answering common and not-so-common questions about this ubiquitous group of animals. Fishes range in size from tiny gobies to the massive Ocean Sunfish, which weighs thousands of pounds. They live in just about every body of water on the planet. Ichthyologists Gene Helfman and Bruce Collette provide accurate, entertaining, and sometimes surprising answers to over 100 questions about these water dwellers, such as "How many kinds of fishes are there?" "Can fis...
This book is about the behaviour of teleosts, a well-defined, highly successful, taxonomic group of vertebrate animals sharing a common body plan and forming the vast majority of living bony fishes. There are weH over 22000 living species of teleosts, including nearly all those of importance in com mercial fisheries and aquaculture. Teleosts are represented injust about every conceivable aquatic environment from temporary desert pools to the deep ocean, from soda lakes to sub-zero Antarctic waters. Behaviour is the primary interface between these effective survival machines and their environment: behavioural plasticity is one of the keys to their success. The study of animal behaviour has un...
Among the fishes, a remarkably wide range of biological adaptations to diverse habitats has evolved. As well as living in the conventional habitats of lakes, ponds, rivers, rock pools and the open sea, fish have solved the problems of life in deserts, in the deep sea, in the cold antarctic, and in warm waters of high alkalinity or of low oxygen. Along with these adaptations, we find the most impressive specializations of morphology, physiology and behaviour. For example we can marvel at the high-speed swimming of the marlins, sailfish and warm-blooded tunas, air-breathing in catfish and lung fish, parental care in the mouth-brooding cichlids and viviparity in many sharks and toothcarps. More...
Molecular approaches have opened new windows on a host of ecological and evolutionary disciplines, ranging from population genetics and behavioral ecology to conservation biology and systematics. Molecular Markers, Natural History and Evolution summarizes the multi-faceted discoveries about organisms in nature that have stemmed from analyses of genetic markers provided by polymorphic proteins and DNAs. The first part of the book introduces rationales for the use of molecular markers, provides a history of molecular phylogenetics, and describes a wide variety of laboratory methods and interpretative tools in the field. The second and major portion of the book provides a cornucopia of biologic...
The author spent much of 1989 and 1990 living within the Muscovite community and came into contact with people at all levels, from pimps to philosophers. He provides a portrait of a society which is struggling to survive the traumas and changes of the Gorbachev years. In some ways more medieval and Oriental than modern and Western, Moscow is a city in which tales of flying saucers and masonic conspiracies co-exist with endless queues, corruption, anti-semitism and a black market in guns. Durden-Smith also discovered in Moscow an intellectual passion and energy which puts most Western capitals to shame and which makes Moscow not only one of the most important, but also one of the most complex, contradictory and fascinating cities on earth.
"Understanding reproduction in marine fishes is critical to their conservation. It is also a fascinating topic in its own right. This book is now the best single reference on the subject, with original insights, analysis, and information. Anyone interested in the fascinating diversity of ways fish reproduce will want to have a copy of this book handy."--Peter Moyle, co-author of Protecting Life on Earth "Cole has assembled the internationally recognized authorities and they successfully cover topics of critical interest to behaviorists, ecologists, anatomists, physiologists, and conservation biologists. These experts demonstrate the amazing diversity and complexity of sexual and reproductive...
Pacific salmon are an important biological and economic resource of countries of the North Pacific rim. They are also a unique group of fish possessing unusually complex life histories. There are seven species of Pacific salmon, five occurring on both the North American and Asian continents (sockeye, pink, chum, chinook, and coho) and two (masu and amago) only in Asia. The life cycle of the Pacific salmon begins in the autumn when the adult female deposits eggs that are fertilized in gravel beds in rivers or lakes. The young emerge from the gravel the following spring and will either migrate immediately to salt water or spend one or more years in a river or lake before migrating. Migrations ...
The cichlid fishes are an important group, being widely used in scientific research and as popular fish with aquarists. This group contains mainly small species which adjust quickly to captivity, exhibiting a readiness to breed and long periods of parental care for the young. This books comprehensive volume describes the current knowledge on the behaviour and ecology of the cichlid fishes.