Biogeography and Adaptation: Patterns of Marine Life

by Geerat J. Vermeij

Overview

The driving forces of natural selection leave their traces in the shapes of living creatures and their patterns of distribution. In this thoughtful and wide-ranging discussion of evolutionary process and adaptive response, Geerat Vermeij elucidates the general principles that underlie the great diversity of marine forms found in the world's great oceans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674073760
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1978
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.38(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

1. Climate and Limitations of Form

Part 1: Patterns of Adaptation along Gradients

2. Shelled Gastropods

3. Bivalves

4. Sessile Organisms

Part 2: Interoceanic Patterns of Adaptation

5. Predation and Grazing

6. Relation to Present-Day Conditions

Part 3: Geography and Evolution

7. Extinction and Speciation

8. Patterns of Biotic History

9. Barriers and Biotic Exchange

Appendix

References

Index

Editorial Reviews

A valuable addition to the literature and represents a significant contribution to our understanding of the ways in which biological interactions influence the structural design of living organisms.

Nature

This Darwinian book—there is hardly higher praise—is a step towards understanding, which will probably challenge our technical methods more than the broad insights of that clever naturalist on the Beagle did.

Scientific American

A valuable addition to the literature and represents a significant contribution to our understanding of the ways in which biological interactions influence the structural design of living organisms.

Nature Lib