Speciation is the process by which co-existing daughter species evolve from one ancestral species - e.g., humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas arising from a common ancestor around 5,000,000 years ago. However, many questions about speciation remain controversial. The Birds of Northern Melanesia provides by far the most comprehensive study yet available of a rich fauna, composed of the 195 breeding land and fresh-water bird species of the Bismarck and Solomon Archipelagoes east of New Guinea. This avifauna offers decisive ...
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Speciation is the process by which co-existing daughter species evolve from one ancestral species - e.g., humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas arising from a common ancestor around 5,000,000 years ago. However, many questions about speciation remain controversial. The Birds of Northern Melanesia provides by far the most comprehensive study yet available of a rich fauna, composed of the 195 breeding land and fresh-water bird species of the Bismarck and Solomon Archipelagoes east of New Guinea. This avifauna offers decisive advantages for understanding speciation, and includes famous examples of geographic variation discussed in textbooks of evolutionary biology. The book results from 30 years of collaboration between the evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr and the ecologist Jared Diamond. It shows how Northern Melanesian bird distributions provide snapshots of all stages in speciation, from the earliest (widely distributed species without geographic variation) to the last (closely related, reproductively isolated species occurring sympatrically and segregating ecologically). The presentation emphasizes the wide diversity of speciation outcomes, steering a middle course between one-model-fits-all simplification and ungeneralizable species accounts. Questions illuminated include why some species are much more prone to speciate than others, why some water barriers are much more effective at promoting speciation than others, and whether hypothesized taxon cycles, faunal dominance, and legacies of Pleistocene land bridges are real. These years of study have resulted in a huge database, complete with distributions of all 195 species on 76 islands, together with their taxonomy, colonization routes, ecological attributes, abundance, and overwater dispersal. Color plates depict 88 species and allospecies, many of which have never been seen before. For students of speciation, Northern Melanesian birds now constitute a model system against which other biotas can be compared. For population biologists interested in other problems besides speciation, this rich database can now be mined for insights.
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Add this copy of The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology, to cart. $15.00, like new condition, Sold by Jeff Stark rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Barstow, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Oxford University Press.
Add this copy of The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology, to cart. $28.76, good condition, Sold by HPB-Red rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Oxford University Press.
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Add this copy of The Birds of Northern Melanesia Speciation, Ecology, to cart. $40.00, very good condition, Sold by Treehorn Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Rosa, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Oxford University Press.
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Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. 0195141709. This book is in excellent condition and very clean. There is no writing, no highlighting, and no marks.; Color Illustrations; 10.0 X 7.3 X 1.3 inches; 548 pages.
Add this copy of The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology, to cart. $48.00, very good condition, Sold by David Kaye Books & Memorabilia rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Woodland Hills, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Oxford Univ. Press.
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Near fine in near fine dust jacket; owner name on ffep, gentle bumping to bottom board corners else a tight square unmarked copy in unclipped dust jacket; first printing with complete number line.
Add this copy of The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology, to cart. $63.19, new condition, Sold by I Love Books Bookstore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Kingsport, TN, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Oxford University Press, USA.
Add this copy of The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology, to cart. $116.91, new condition, Sold by GridFreed rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from North Las Vegas, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Oxford University Press.
