Freaks of Nature

And what they tell us about evolution and development

Mark S. Blumberg (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

352 Seiten

2010
Oxford University Press (Verlag)
978-0-19-921306-1 (ISBN)

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From two-legged goats and double-headed snakes, to 'Cyclops' infants with a single eye in the middle of their forehead, Mark S. Blumberg looks at 'freak' bodily anomalies in both humans and other animals to reveal how such deformities provide valuable windows on the intimate connections between genetics, evolution, development, and the environment.

Two-legged goats, conjoined twins, 'Cyclops' infants with a single eye in the middle of their forehead, double-headed snakes, and Laloo, a man with a partially formed twin attached to his chest... In Freaks of Nature, Mark S. Blumberg turns a scientist's eye on these unusual examples of humans and other animals, showing how a subject once relegated to the sideshow can help explain some of the deepest complexities of biology.

These examples of extreme bodily anomalies are in fact the natural products of development, and it is through such developmental mechanisms that evolution works. And Blumberg shows how 'freak' deformities can provide valuable windows on the intimate connections between genetics, development, the environment, and evolution. In taking seriously a subject that has often been shunned as discomfiting and embarrassing, Freaks of Nature takes the perspective of evolutionary developmental
biology to shed new light on how individuals—and entire species—develop, survive, and evolve.

Mark Blumberg is Professor of Psychology and Starch Faculty Fellow at the University of Iowa. He has written on a wide variety of topics in the fields of biology, psychology, and development, including articles on sleep, animal behavior, animal mind, and communication. His previous books include Basic Instinct: The Genesis of Behavior (2005) and Body Heat: Temperature and Life on Earth, (2003). He is currently Editor-in-Chief of the APA journal Behavioral Neuroscience and President of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology.

Introduction ; 1. A Parliament Of Monsters ; 2. Arresting Features ; 3. Do The Locomotion ; 4. Life And Limb ; 5. Anything Goes ; Epilogue: Monstrous Behavior

Erscheint lt. Verlag	11.2.2010
Zusatzinfo	33 black and white illustrations and photographs
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Maße	129 x 195 mm
Gewicht	258 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik
	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Evolution
	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Genetik / Molekularbiologie
Schlagworte	Evolution • Missbildungen
ISBN-10	0-19-921306-2 / 0199213062
ISBN-13	978-0-19-921306-1 / 9780199213061
Zustand	Neuware