A01=Theodore H. Fleming
A01=W. John Kress
angiosperms
Author_Theodore H. Fleming
Author_W. John Kress
biodiversity
biology
Category=PSAF
Category=PSAJ
Category=RNCB
Category=RNKH
coevolution
conservation
darwin
ecology
ecosystem
environment
environmentalism
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
evolution
frugivores
habitat
hummingbirds
leaf-nosed bats
monkeys
mutualism
natural selection
nature
nonfiction
pollination
preservation
rainforest
reproduction
science
seed dispersal
species
symbiotic relationships
toucans
tropics
Product details
- ISBN 9780226253411
- Weight: 1304g
- Dimensions: 17 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 03 Oct 2013
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The average kilometer of tropical rainforest is teeming with life; it contains thousands of species of plants and animals. As The Ornaments of Life reveals, many of the most colorful and eye-catching rainforest inhabitants - toucans, monkeys, leaf-nosed bats, and hummingbirds, to name a few - are an important component of the infrastructure that supports life in the forest. These fruit-and-nectar eating birds and mammals pollinate the flowers and disperse the seeds of hundreds of tropical plants, and unlike temperate communities, much of this greenery relies exclusively on animals for reproduction. Synthesizing recent research by ecologists and evolutionary biologists, Theodore H. Fleming and W. John Kress demonstrate the tremendous functional and evolutionary importance of these tropical pollinators and frugivores. They shed light on how these mutually symbiotic relationships evolved and lay out the current conservation status of these essential species. In order to illustrate the striking beauty of these "ornaments" of the rainforest, the authors have included a series of breathtaking color plates and full-color graphs and diagrams.
Theodore H. Fleming is professor emeritus of biology at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. W. John Kress is a curator and research botanist as well as director of the Consortium for Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet at the Smithsonian Institution.
