World-class palaeontologists and biologists summarise the state-of-the-art on fish evolution and development.

Fish, or lower vertebrates, occupy the basal nodes of the vertebrate phylogeny, and are therefore crucial in interpreting almost every feature of more advanced vertebrates, including amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Recent research focuses on combining evolutionary observations - primarily from the fish fossil record - with developmental data from living fishes, in order to better interpret evolutionary history and vertebrate phylogeny. This book highlights the importance of this research in the interpretation of vertebrate evolution, bringing together world-class palaeontologists and biologists to summarise the most interesting, current and cutting-edge topics in fish evolution and development. It will be an invaluable tool for researchers in early vertebrate palaeontology and evolution, and those particularly interested in the interface between evolution and development.

Annual Fishes: Life History Strategy, Diversity, and Evolution is the first comprehensive reference on current knowledge of diverse species that exhibit unique survival strategies and provide important models for basic and applied research. This work fills a void, covering the life cycle, reproductive biology, evolutionary ecology, reproductive beh

What, precisely, is a primitive fish? Most biologists would agree that the living cyclostomes, selachians, crossopterygians, etc. cannot be considered truly primitive. However, they and the fossil record have served to provide the information which forms the basis for speculation concerning the nature of the original vertebrates. This symposium of biologists from a variety of disciplines was called together to create collectively, from the best available current evidence, a picture of the probable line of evolution of the prototype primitive fishes. The symposium was designed to follow one that took place in Stockholm in 1967, convened for a similar purpose, with about the same number of participants. It is a matter of interest that almost the entire 1967 symposium (Nobel Symposium 4) dealt only with the hard tissues, whether fossil or modern. In charting the course of the present symposium it was felt that the intervening years have produced numerous lines of new evidence that could be employed in the same way that a navigator determines his position. Each field, be it adult morphology, geology, ecology, biochemistry, development or physiology, generates evidence that can be extrapolated backward from existing vertebrate forms and forward from invertebrate forms. If the intersect of only two lines of evidence produces a navigational "fix" of rather low reliability, then an intersect, however unfocussed, of multiple guidelines from more numerous disciplines might provide a better position from which to judge early vertebrate history.

An up-to-date compilation of the development of non-teleost fishes has so far been unavailable. These fishes include the jawless fishes (hagfish and lampreys), the cartilaginous fishes (sharks, rays, skates and chimaeras), the forerunners of the teleostei: the cladistia (bichirs and reedfish), the chondrostei (sturgeon and paddlefish, the neopterygii (gar pike and bowfin), and, finally, the closest relations to the tetrapods: the lungfishes (the coelacanh [living fossil], Protopterus of Africa, Lepidosiren of South America and Neoceratodus of Australia). Therefore, the present volume has been devoted to closing the gap by an up-to-date scientific review of the early life-history of these non-teleost fishes (agnathi excepted).

In the compiling of this book, the vast literature dealing with the descriptive morphology, histology and cytology of teleost development has been combed and integrated. The book is divided into 21 chapters, starting with the egg and embryonic development up to hatching. This is followed by a description of ectodermal, mesodermal and entodermal derivatives and the development of various organs. The subject index, species index and the abundant illustrations add extra value to this long awaited book. Developmental Biology of Teleost Fishes will be a valuable tool for scientists and students in the fields of biology, developmental biology, molecular biology and fish biology.

The paleontologist and professor of anatomy who co-discovered Tiktaalik, the “fish with hands,” tells a “compelling scientific adventure story that will change forever how you understand what it means to be human” (Oliver Sacks). By examining fossils and DNA, he shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our heads are organized like long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genomes look and function like those of worms and bacteria. Your Inner Fish makes us look at ourselves and our world in an illuminating new light. This is science writing at its finest—enlightening, accessible and told with irresistible enthusiasm.

The Evolution of Fish explores what we know about fish evolution, from theories of the past to recent breakthroughs in research. This title also looks at the science behind the research, from studying fossils to analyzing DNA. Features include a glossary, references, websites, source notes, and an index. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

The Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary Environmental Biology of Fishes (EBF), in which defines the first meaning of a 'preface' as 'a my students and I contributed to the concept, its eucharistic prayer of thanksgiving forming in the main attraction became the chance to arrange most Roman rite an introduction to the canon'. Prayer, in one volume, with a new explanatory introduc thanks and introduction cover rather well what I tion and synthesis. During the past three decades interest in early have in mind (after a similar idea by Greenwood life history has mushroomed into a fruitful field of 1981), but to compare the rest of this book to a canon is obviously wishful thinking. May I there science with a steadily increasing breadth and so fore be forgiven for the latter and allowed to elab phistication. The emphasis, however, has been orate on the former. mostly on life histories from the population biology It is over 30 years ago that my first paper on fish point of view, limited to an interpretation of pat ontogeny appeared (Balon & Frank 1953). Many terns or a few easy to monitor variables (e. g. Roff such papers later, I began to formulate the life 1984, Thresher 1984). I had my share in this approach history models (Balon 1975a), classification of re (e. g.