Evolutionary Perspectives on Pregnancy
John Avise
Abstract
Covering both the internal and external incubation of offspring, this book provides a survey of the natural history, ecology, genetics and evolution of pregnancy-like phenomena. It covers a wide variety of pregnancies in a wide range of creatures: from mammals and other live-bearing organisms to viviparous reptiles, male-pregnant fishes, larval-brooding worms, crabs, sea cucumbers, and corals. It highlights the multifaceted ways in which the world's various species display pregnancy and other forms of parental devotion. It describes how an adult female (or male) can incubate its offspring in a ... More
Covering both the internal and external incubation of offspring, this book provides a survey of the natural history, ecology, genetics and evolution of pregnancy-like phenomena. It covers a wide variety of pregnancies in a wide range of creatures: from mammals and other live-bearing organisms to viviparous reptiles, male-pregnant fishes, larval-brooding worms, crabs, sea cucumbers, and corals. It highlights the multifaceted ways in which the world's various species display pregnancy and other forms of parental devotion. It describes how an adult female (or male) can incubate its offspring in a womb, stomach, mouth, vocal sac, gill chamber, epithelial pouch, backpack, leg pocket, or nest. By studying these diverse examples of pregnancy from a comparative vantage point, the book clearly shows the ecological and evolutionary-genetic outcomes of different reproductive models. It discusses each mode of pregnancy and the decipherable genetic signatures each has left on the reproductive structures, physiologies, and innate sexual behaviors of extant species. By considering the many biological aspects of gestation from different evolutionary angles, the book offers new insights into the significance of “heavy” parental investment in progeny.
Keywords:
mode of pregnancy,
mammals,
viviparous reptiles,
male-pregnant fishes,
larval-brooding worms,
womb,
reproductive structures,
ecological outcomes,
evolutionary-genetic outcomes
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780231160605 |
| Published to Columbia Scholarship Online: November 2015 |
DOI:10.7312/columbia/9780231160605.001.0001 |
