Conceptual Breakthroughs in Ethology and Animal Behavior

Conceptual Breakthroughs in Ethology and Animal Behavior highlights, through concise summaries, the most important discoveries and scientific revolutions in animal behavior. These are assessed for their relative impact on the field and their significance to the forward motion of the science of animal behavior. Eighty short essays capture the moment when a new concept emerged or a publication signaled a paradigm shift. How the new understanding came about is explained, and any continuing controversy or scientific conversation on the issue is highlighted. Behavior is a rich and varied field, drawing on genetics, evolution, physiology, and ecology to inform its principles, and this book embraces the wealth of knowledge that comes from the unification of these fields around the study of animals in motion.

The chronological organization of the essays makes this an excellent overview of the history of animal behavior, ethology, and behavioral ecology.

The work includes such topics as Darwin's role in shaping the study of animal behavior, the logic of animal contests, cognition, empathy in animals, and animal personalities. Succinct accounts of new revelations about behavior through scientific investigation and scrutiny reveal the fascinating story of this field. Similar to Dr. John Avise's Contemporary Breakthroughs in Evolutionary Genetics, the work is structured into vignettes that describe the conceptual revolution and assess the impact of the conceptual change, with a score, which ranges from 1-10, providing an assessment of the impact of the new findings on contemporary science.

Auteur

After receiving his PhD from the University of Kansas in 1977, Dr. Breed began work as a faculty member at the University of Colorado, Boulder and taught as a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology until his retirement in 2019. He taught courses in general biology, animal behavior, insect biology, and tropical biology. His research program focused on the behavior and ecology of social insects, and he worked on ants, bees, and wasps. He studied many aspects of social behavior, including nestmate recognition, division of labor, the genetics of colony defense, the behavior of defensive bees, and communication during colony defense. Dr. Breed was the Executive Editor of the scientific journals Animal Behaviour from 2006-2009 and Insectes Sociaux from 2014-2018.

Texte du rabat

Conceptual Breakthroughs in Ethology and Animal Behavior provides concise summaries of the most important conceptual breakthroughs in animal behavior. These breakthroughs are assessed for their relative impact on the field and their significance to the forward motion of the science of animal behavior. Approximately 80 individual entries, each 2-3 pages in length, consist of a title, a one-sentence summary statement, a numerical ranking of the impact of the discovery/principle on our understanding of behavior, an essay on the paradigm shift, how the new understanding came about, and any continuing controversy or scientific conversation on the issue. The work includes topics like Only birds and mammals sleep, Only humans have color vision, Animals don't self-medicate, Males don't care about parenting, and Animals can't count, providing a concise account of early concepts, myths, and dogmas in the field that have proven to be untrue through scientific investigation and scrutiny. . Similar to Dr. John Avise's book, Contemporary Breakthroughs in Evolutionary Genetics, the work is structured into vignettes that first present the old way of understanding a problem or issue, then describe the conceptual revolution, and finally assess the impact of the conceptual change, with a p-score, which ranges from 1-10, providing an assessment of the impact of the new findings on contemporary science.

Résumé

".animal behavior professionals will find this book a valid aid in understanding how their specialty relates to the history of behavior sciences. It is an easy and interesting read with many valuable inputs, thoughts, and ideas." --Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association

Contenu

1. 50,000 Years Before Present: The Dawn of Human Evolution2. 12,000 Years Before Present: Domestication3. 1623 Social Behavior4. 1700s Classifying Life5. 1729 Biological Clocks6. 1800s Birds in Their Natural Setting7. 1800s The Great Explorers8. 1859 Darwin and Behavior9. 1859 Darwin and Social Insects10. 1882 George Romanes and the Birth of Comparative Psychology11. 1894 Morgan's Canon12. 1914 Sensory Physiology and Behavior13. 1938 Skinner and Learning14. 1940 Orientation15. 1941 Bat Echolocation16. 1947 The Evolution of Clutch Size17. 1948 Cognitive Maps18. 1948 Hormones and Behavior19. 1948 Information Theory20. 1953 The Chasm Between Ethology and Comparative Psychology21. 1954 Life History Phenomena22. 1954 Zeitgebers (Time-Givers) for Biological Clocks23. 1956 The Coolidge Effect24. 1957 Psychophysical Laws25. 1960 Motivation and Drive26. 1963 The Four Questions27. 1964 Dopamine and Reward Reinforcement28. 1964 Inclusive Fitness and the Evolution of Altruism29. 1965 Harry Harlow and Social Isolation in Monkeys30. 1967 Island Biogeography31. 1968 Tool Use32. 1969 Territoriality and Habitat Choice33. 1970 Sperm Competition34. 1971 Behavioral Genetics35. 1971 Reciprocal Altruism36. 1971 Selfish Herds37. 1973 Episodic Memory38. 1973 Game Theory39. 1973 The Many Eyes Hypothesis40. 1973 The Red Queen41. 1973 Animal Conflict42. 1974 Caenorhabditis elegans Behavioral Genetics43. 1974 Standardizing Behavioral Observation Methods44. 1974 Parent-Offspring Conflict45. 1975 Group Selection46. 1975 Sociobiology47. 1975 The Handicap Principle48. 1976 Marginal Value Theorem49. 1977 Self-medication50. 1977 The Evolution of Mating Systems51. 1978 Animal Models for Depression52. 1978 Theory of Mind53. 1980 Dispersal54. 1980 Semantic Communication55. 1980 The Risk Paradigm56. 1981 Prisoner's Dilemma57. 1981 Producers and Scroungers58. 1982 The Hamilton-Zuk Hypothesis59. 1982 The Hippocampus and Navigation60. 1983 Reproductive Skew61. 1985 An Animal Model for Anxiety62. 1988 Brood Parasitism63. 1990 Fear64. 1990 The Challenge Hypothesis65. 1991 Pain in Animals66. 1991 Receiver Psychology67. 1992 Working Memory68. 1994 Ecosystem Engineers69. 1996 Conservation Behavior70. 1996 The Molecular Basis of Learning71. 1998 Self-Organization of Social Systems72. 1998 Gaze Following73. 1999 Multimodal Communication74. 2000 Emotion and the Brain75. 2000 Social Amoebas and Their Genomes76. 2002 Social Networks77. 2004 Behavioral Syndromes-Personality in Animals78. 2004 Maternal Epigenetics79. 2004 Public and Private Information80. 2014 Keystone Individuals