Product Description

Animal Physiology presents all the branches of modern animal physiology with a strong emphasis on integration among physiological disciplines, ecology, and evolutionary biology. The book takes an entirely fresh approach to each topic. Its full-color illustrations include many novel, visually effective features to help students learn. Each of the 28 chapters starts with a brief animal example to engage student interest and demonstrate the value of the material that will be learned. The book includes five entire chapters that apply students' newfound physiological knowledge to curiosity-provoking and important topics, including diving by marine mammals, the mechanisms of navigation, and use/disuse effects in muscle. The book is committed to a comparative approach throughout. While mammalian physiology is consistently treated in depth, emphasis is also given to the other vertebrate groups, arthropods, molluscs, and-as appropriate-additional invertebrates. Concepts and integrative themes are emphasized while giving students the specifics they need. The whole animal is the principal focus of this book. The pages are filled with information on everything from knockout mice and enzyme chemistry to traditional organ physiology, phylogenetic analysis, and applications to human affairs. Always, the central organizing principle for the array of topics presented is to understand whole animals in the environments where they live. Concepts from chemistry, physics, and mathematics are explained so the book will be accessible to science students at the sophomore or higher level. Neurophysiological and other complex principles are developed clearly and carefully, to help students understand important concepts in sufficient depth without being overwhelmed. Pedagogical aids include embedded summaries throughout chapters, study questions, partially annotated reference lists, an extensive glossary, and appendices. For all three authors, teaching physiology to undergraduate students has been a lifelong priority. The opening three chapters provide background material on physiological basics, cell-molecular concepts, transport of solutes and water, ecology, and evolutionary biology. The remaining chapters are organized into five sections:

Food, Energy, and Temperature
Integrating Systems
Muscle and Movement
Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, and Internal Transport
* Water, Salts, and Excretion

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #380444 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 770 pages

About the Author
RICHARD W. HILL is Professor in the Department of Zoology at Michigan State University, USA and a frequent Guest Investigator at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. His research interests include: temperature regulation and energetics in birds and mammals, especially neonates; and marine sulphur physiology, especially in the contexts of biogeochemistry and animal--algal symbioses. GORDON A. WYSE is Professor of Biology and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA. His research uses caterpillars and Limulus as model organisms to explore the neural circuits and neurotransmitters underlying feeding behaviour and other behaviour patterns. MARGARET ANDERSON is Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the Programme in Neuroscience at Smith College, USA. Her research interests include the functional properties of excitable cells.

Customer Reviews

Animal Physiology
From explaining how a mammal can stay underwater for lengthy periods, to how a camel can survive without water for days, this is a fascinating description of all types of animals and their unique ways of living. I never knew quite how fish breathe, nor how birds survive freezing temperatures. This is one book I can pick up, open to any page, and find the contents more intriguing than any mystery. It explains in depth the most recent current knowledge with examples of studies when researchers are still unclear about the answers. I am a nurse, not a physiologist, and find it easily comprehensible.

A good buy for any biologist/zoologist
Dr. Hill is as wonderfully knowledgable and intelligent in his writing as he is in his teaching. Fortunate enough to have him as a professor and, incidentally, use his book (co-written with Wyse) as a resource, I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in animal physiology or to any biologist/zoologist.

Excellent!
This is an excellent text book. I was privlaged enough to have Dr. Hill as a professor, and this book truely does justice to his wealth of knowledge. It is easily comprehended by physiologists as well as any other students in general. It goes in depth into a wide variety of questions, provinding many enlightening examples and illustrations. Really a great book for all students.