How do vertebrates get the oxygen they need, or even manage without it for shorter or longer periods of time? How do they sense oxygen, how do they take it up from water or air, and how do they transport it to their tissues? Respiratory system adaptations allow numerous vertebrates to thrive in extreme environments where oxygen availability is limited or where there is no oxygen at all. Written for students and researchers in comparative physiology, this authoritative summary of vertebrate respiratory physiology begins by exploring the fundamentals of oxygen sensing, uptake and transport in a textbook style. Subsequently, the reader is shown important examples of extreme respiratory performance, like diving and high altitude survival in mammals and birds, air breathing in fish, and those few vertebrates that can survive without any oxygen at all for several months, showing how evolution has solved the problem of life without oxygen.

This book is a concise study of the structure and function of vertebrate respiratory systems. It describes not only the individual organ systems, but also the relationship of these systems to each other and to the animal's environment. For example, the author emphasizes that a proper understanding of respiration involves a consideration of the external environment as a source of oxygen as well as the biochemistry of the cell; and, from the evolutionary point of view, that physiological changes in the respiratory and circulatory systems are dominated by the origin of the land habit. The author's approach to the subject exemplifies that trend to the amalgamation of Zoology and Physiology, which has become increasingly marked at universities and schools in recent years. This synthesis requires, broadly, a knowledge of classical comparative anatomy, ecology, evolution, physiology and biochemistry; an enormous task, but nevertheless one in which the zoologist holds a central position. This book indicates the nature of such an eclectic approach, with the animal, in its environment and its evolution, as its focal point. Covering a rapidly changing field of research the author refers to many recent views and indicates where these differ from those commonly accepted.

Hopefully, this book will be taken off of the shelf frequently to be studied carefully over many years. More than 40 researchers were involved in this project, which examines respiration, circulation, and metabolism from ?sh to the land vertebrates, including human beings. A breathable and stable atmosphere ?rst appeared about 500 million years ago. Oxygen levels are not stable in aquatic environments and exclusively water-breathing ?sh must still cope with the ever-changing levels of O 2 and with large temperature changes. This is re?ected in their sophisticated count- current systems, with high O extraction and internal and external O receptors. 2 2 The conquest for the terrestrial environment took place in the late Devonian period (355–359 million years ago), and recent discoveries portray the gradual transitional evolution of land vertebrates. The oxygen-rich and relatively stable atmospheric conditionsimpliedthatoxygen-sensingmechanismswererelativelysimpleandl- gain compared with acid–base regulation. Recently, physiology has expanded into related ?elds such as biochemistry, molecular biology, morphology and anatomy. In the light of the work in these ?elds, the introduction of DNA-based cladograms, which can be used to evaluate the likelihood of land vertebrates and lung?sh as a sister group, could explain why their cardio-respiratory control systems are similar. The diffusing capacity of a duck lung is 40 times higher than that of a toad or lung?sh. Certainly, some animals have evolved to rich high-performance levels.

The papers in this volume were presented at an international symposium, held in South Australia on September 8-10, 1983. The purpose of the meeting was to present the comparative physiology of gas exchange, water balance and energet ics of developing vertebrate embryos. contributions were invited from leading research workers in an attempt to represent the forefront of investigation of all vertebrate classes and to promote a broadly comparative approach to the study of embryonic physiology. These proceedings therefore reflect the current level of research activity focus ing on each group of vertebrates. While considerable expansion and specializa tion has occurred in the area of avian embryos over the last decade, work on reptilian embryos is less developed and that on fish and amphibians is still in its infancy. Although a great deal is known about respiration and metabolism in embryos of placental mammals, the physiology associated with the curious mode of development of monotreme and marsupial embryos has not been examined until recently. In this symposium. the well-studied vertebrate classes are repre sented primarily by specific research papers that document original work. These are balanced by more extensive reviews of the lesser known classes.

Air Breathing Fishes: Evolution, Diversity, and Adaptation is unique in its coverage of the evolution of air-breathing, incongruously because it focuses exclusively on fish. This important and fascinating book, containing nine chapters that present the life history, ecology, and physiology of many air-breathing fishes, provides an exceptional overview of air-breathing biology.Each chapter provides a historical background, details the present status of knowledge in the field, and defines the questions needing attention in future research. Thoroughly referenced, containing more than 1,000 citations, and well documented with figures and tables, Air-Breathing Fishes is comprehensive in its coverage and will certainly have wide appeal. Researchers in vertebrate biology, paleontology, ichthyology, vertebrate evolution, natural history, comparative physiology, anatomy and many other fields will find something new and intriguing in Air-Breathing Fishes. - Offers a complete overview of an important and immensely interesting area of research - Provides a perspective of air-breathing fish that spans 300 million years of vertebrate evolution - Contains numerous illustrations as well as comprehensive charts - Provides a synoptic treatment of all the known air-breathing species with important data on their morphological and physiological adaptations

This book discusses aerobic metabolism at all levels, from the gas exchange organs to mitochondria including aspects of morphology and physiology as well as the control of breathing in the central nervous system.

Medicine is grounded in the natural sciences, where biology stands out with regard to our understanding of human physiology and the conditions that cause dysfunction. Ironically though, evolutionary biology is a relatively disregarded field. One reason for this omission is that evolution is deemed a slow process. Indeed, the macroanatomical features of our species have changed very little in the last 300,000 years. A more detailed look, however, reveals that novel ecological contingencies, partly in relation to cultural evolution, have brought about subtle changes pertaining to metabolism and immunology, including adaptations to dietary innovations, as well as adaptations to the exposure to novel pathogens. Rapid pathogen evolution and evolution of cancer cells cause major problems for the immune system. Moreover, many adaptations to past ecologies have actually turned into risk factors for somatic disease and psychological disorder in our modern worlds (i.e. mismatch), among which epidemics of autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity, as well as several forms of cancer stand out. One could add depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric conditions to the list. The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Medicine is a compilation of up-to-date insights into the evolutionary history of ourselves as a species, exploring how and why our evolved design may convey vulnerability to disease. Written in a classic textbook style emphasising physiology and pathophysiology of all major organ systems, the Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Medicine is valuable reading for students as well as scholars in the fields of medicine, biology, anthropology and psychology.

Adaptation to altitude hypoxia is characterized by a variety offunctional changes which collectively facilitate oxygen trans port from the ambient medium to the cells of the body. All of these changes can be seen at one time or another in the course of hypoxic exposure. Yet, as already stressed (Hannon and Vogel, 1977), an examination of the literature gives only a sketchy and often conflicting picture of the exact nature of these changes and how they interact as a function of exposure duration. This is partly because of the limited number of variables explored in a given study, but it is also attributable to differences in experimental design, differences among species in susceptibility to hypoxia, nonstandardized experimental conditions, lack of proper control of physical (e. g. , temperature) and physiological variables (e. g. , body mass), failure to take measurements at key periods of exposure, and gaps in knowledge about some fundamental mechanisms. Furthermore the available data on animals native to high altitude are meager and/or inconclusive. Extensive further work under well-controlled experimental conditions is required before a detailed picture can be made. Nevertheless, it has been a guiding principle in the prepara tion of this monograph rather to summarize the vastly dis persed material that constitutes the comparative physiology of adaptation to high altitude into a coherent picture, than to provide a comprehensive survey of the field.

An up-to-date synthesis of comparative diving physiology research, illustrating the features of dive performance and its biomedical and ecological relevance.

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