Evolution Of Neotropical Cricetine Rodents Muridae With Special Reference To The Phyllotine Group

A valuable resource for the latest research on rodents, highlighting links across palaeontology, developmental biology, functional morphology, phylogenetics and biomechanics.

The order Rodentia is the most abundant and successful group of mammals, and it has been a focal point of attention for compar ative and evolutionary biologists for many years. In addition, rodents are the most commonly used experimental mammals for bio medical research, and they have played a central role in investi gations of the genetic and molecular mechanisms of speciation in mammals. During recent decades, a tremendous amount of new data from various aspects of the biology of living and fossil rodents has been accumulated by specialists from different disciplines, ranging from molecular biology to paleontology. Paradoxically, our understanding of the possible evolutionary relationships among different rodent families, as well as the possible affinities of rodents with other eutherian mammals, has not kept pace with this information "explosion. " This abundance of new biological data has not been incorporated into a broad synthesis of rodent phylo geny, in part because of the difficulty for any single student of rodent evolution to evaluate the phylogenetic significance of new findings from such diverse disciplines as paleontology, embryology, comparative anatomy, molecular biology, and cytogenetics. The origin and subsequent radiation of the order Rodentia were based primarily on the acquisition of a key character complex: specializations of the incisors, cheek teeth, and associated mus culoskeletal features of the jaws and skull for gnawing and chewing.

Oliver P. Pearson’s studies on mammalian biology remain standard reading for ecologists, physiologists, taxonomists, and biogeographers. Reflecting this, the papers gathered here continue to expand our understanding of the ecology and evolution of subterranean mammals, and of ecology, taxonomy, and biogeography of Neotropical mammals, a group that was central to the latter half of Pearson’s career.

Since the appearance of the second edition of Sydney A. Asdell's widely used Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction in 1964, the field of reproductive physiology has expanded dramatically. Accordingly, this revision adopts a different structure from previous editions, substituting empirical delineations for physiological interpretations. With the emphases now on a presentation of the published facts of mammalian reproduction, it provides a thorough compilation of what is known about the basic reproductive biology of each of the 4300 mammalian species.To gather information, the authors examined more than 20,000 publications, dating up to 1992. They used primary sources as much as possible, supplementing them with English translations of Russian, Finnish, Chinese, and Japanese journals. The data are presented in taxonomic order. Each familial account summarizes the pattern of reproduction for the family and provides lists of citations arranged by topic of the literature on the endocrinology, reproductive anatomy, and reproductive physiology of the family. Following each account is a tabular listing of species-specific data for neonatal mass and size, weaning mass and size, litter size, age at sexual maturity, estrous cycle length, gestation length, lactation length, number of litters per year, and seasonality of reproduction. For each of these reproductive variables, the range of data gleaned from the literature is given, together with the source of each value listed.Virginia Hayssen is Assistant Professor of Biology at Smith College. Ari Van Tienhoven is Professor of Animal Physiology, Emeritus, at Cornell University. Ans Van Tienhoven assisted in the compilation of data for the book.

“An outstanding contribution. . . . The glossary and illustrations are excellent and most helpful. This book will be the standard for years to come.” —Robert M. Timm, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, and past president, American Society of Mammalogists Douglas A. Kelt and James L. Patton provide a long-overdue update to Timothy E. Lawlor’s Handbook to the Orders and Families of Living Mammals in their new, wholly original work, A Manual of the Mammalia. Complemented by global range maps, high-resolution photographs of skulls and mandibles by Bill Stone, and the outstanding artwork of Fiona Reid, this book provides an overview of biological attributes of each higher taxon while highlighting key and diagnostic characters needed to identify skulls and skins of all recent mammalian orders and most families. Kelt and Patton also place taxa in their currently understood supra-familial clades, and discuss current challenges in higher mammal taxonomy. Including a comprehensive review of mammalian anatomy to provide a foundation for understanding all characters employed throughout, A Manual of the Mammalia is both a handbook for students learning to identify higher mammal taxa and a uniquely comprehensive reference for mammalogists from across the globe. “[A] comprehensive, lavishly illustrated reference book.” —Nature “A success overall. Recommended.” —Choice “There is hardly a better manual for comparing old and new taxonomic and phylogenetic constructs for the Class Mammalia.” —Michael A. Mares, director, curator, and professor emeritus, Sam Noble Museum, University of Oklahoma, and past president, American Society of Mammalogists “Kelt and Patton take mammalogy from a 1990’s flip phone to iPhone 13. A Manual of the Mammalia is entirely on a higher plane.” —Journal of Mammalogy