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Item Details
| Title:
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ANIMAL ARCHITECTURE
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| By: |
Mike Hansell |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| List price:
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£68.00 |
| Our price: |
£59.50 |
| Discount: |
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| You save:
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£8.50 |
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| ISBN 10: |
0198507526 |
| ISBN 13: |
9780198507529 |
| Availability: |
Usually dispatched within 3-5 days.
 Delivery
rates
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| Stock: |
Currently 1item in stock |
| Publisher: |
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS |
| Pub. date: |
27 January, 2005 |
| Series: |
Oxford Animal Biology Series |
| Pages: |
336 |
| Description: |
A monograph on the biology of animal building, embracing all animal groups from simple invertebrates to primate toolmakers. It looks at the behavioural and anatomical equipment animals have in order to build, and the nature of the materials available to them. It examines how animal architects are able, singly or collectively, to produce complex structures often much larger than themselves. It also looks at the costs of building, the properties of completedstructures, the ecological impact of them, and their effects on the evolution of animal builders. |
| Synopsis: |
Construction behaviour occurs across the entire spectrum of the animal kingdom and affects the survival of both builders and other organisms associated with them. Animal Architecture provides a comprehensive overview of the biology of animal building. The book recognizes three broad categories of built structure: homes, traps, and courtship displays. Even though some of these structures are complex and very large, the behaviour required to build them is generally simple and the anatomy for building unspecialized. Standardization of building materials helps to keep building repertoires simple, while self-organizing effects help create complexity. In a case-study approach to function, insects demonstrate how homes can remain operational while they grow, spiderwebs illustrate mechanical design, and the displays of bowerbirds raise the possibility of persuasion through design rather than just decoration. Studies of the costs to builders provide evidence of optimal designs and of trade-offs with other life history traits. As ecosystem engineers, the influence of builders is extensive and their effect is generally to enhance biodiversity through niche construction.Animal builders can therefore represent model species for the study of the emerging subject of environmental inheritance. Building, and in particular building with silk, has been demonstrated to have important evolutionary consequences. This book is intended for students and researchers in comparative animal biology, but will also be of relevance and use to the increasing numbers of architects and civil engineers interested in developing ideas from the animal kingdom. |
| Illustrations: |
numerous halftones and line drawings |
| Publication: |
UK |
| Imprint: |
Oxford University Press |
| Prizes: |
Winner of Author awarded the Neill Medal by the Royal Society of Edinburgh |
| Returns: |
Returnable |
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