Describes the biology and natural history of snakes, which include almost 3,000 living species. Includes the latest research on taxonomic changes, habitat, conservation status, unusual behavior, and venomous snakebite as a tropical disease.

A delightful and quirky compendium of the animal kingdom's more unfortunate truths, with over 150 hand-drawn illustrations."

Scientifically informed and funny, a firsthand account of Australia's wonderfully unique mammals--and how our perceptions impact their future.

The first single-authored volume to synthesize studies of ancient lakes, Our Ancient Lakes provides an overview of the lakes and their distinctive geological origins; accounts of the evolutionary processes that have generated the incredible diversity found in the lakes and produced some of the fastest speciation rates known for vertebrates; the surprisingly important role of interspecies mating in the most rapid diversifications; the uniquely complete records of the creatures that inhabited the lakes, which are being extracted from deep lake sediments; the prospects for the lakes as we tumble into the Anthropocene; and much more.

Llamas beyond the Andes tells the five-hundred-year history of animals removed from their native habitats and transported overseas. Initially Europeans prized camelids for the bezoar stones found in their guts: boluses of ingested matter that were thought to have curative powers. Then the animals themselves were shipped abroad as exotica. As Europeans and US Americans came to recognize the economic value of camelids, new questions emerged.

Nearly all emperor penguin colonies are extremely remote; of the sixty-six known, fewer than thirty have been visited by humans, and even fewer have been the subject of successful research programs. One of the largest known emperor penguin colonies is found on a narrow band of sea ice attached to the Antarctic continent. In Journeys with Emperors, Gerald L. Kooyman and Jim Mastro take us to this far-flung colony in the Ross Sea, showing us how scientists gained access to it, and what they learned while living among the penguins as they raised their chicks.

This Very Short Introduction provides a clear definition of invasive species, and considers the myriad ways they are moved around the globe. Julie L. Lockwood and Dustin J. Welbourne discuss the ecological, social, and economic impacts they often impose; policy and management approaches to combating their ill-effects; and how invasive species fit within the broader context of environmental change.

Flies of the Nearctic Region aims to provide a concise and complete treatment of the systematics of the diptera of the Nearctic region, i.e. Canada, Alaska and the contiguous United States (including all Florida and the Florida keys and Bermuda). The boundary separating the Nearctic from Neotropical Regions in Mexico is drawn close to the coast (in northern Mexico) by the boundary between desert or mesquite grassland (considered nearctic) and tropical (thorn or deciduous) forest, and in the interior by the boundary between pine-oak forest (nearctic) and tropical (evergreen or deciduous) forest or scrub at lower elevation. All land East and South of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is considered to belong to the Neotropical Region in the context of this series.

If forests are the lungs of the planet, then animals migrating across oceans, streams, and mountains--eating, pooping, and dying along the way--are its heart and arteries, pumping nitrogen and phosphorus from deep-sea gorges up to mountain peaks, from the Arctic to the Caribbean. Without this conveyor belt of crucial, life-sustaining nutrients, the world would look very different.

Despite being one of the smallest insect orders, dragonflies offer a number of advantages for both laboratory and field studies. In fact,they have been crucial to the advancement of our understanding of insect ecology and evolution. This book provides a critical summary of the major advances in these fields.