Evolution of Herbivory in Terrestrial Vertebrates
Subtitle: Perspectives from the Fossil Record
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: August 28, 2000
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 266
ISBN-13: 9780521594493
Subjects: Evolution; Mammals; Palaeozoology; Science/Mathematics; Vertebrate Paleontology; Science; Life Sciences - Evolution; Life Sciences - Zoology - General; Paleontology; Herbivores, Fossil--Evolution; Science / Paleontology; Herbivores, Fossil; Vertebrates, Fossil
First sentence: Understanding the ecological attributes of extinct organisms has long been a major research topic in paleobiology, dating back to the pioneering work of the French paleontologist Georges Cuvier in the early nineteenth century.
Description: "Although herbivory probably first appeared over 300 million years ago, it only became established as a common feeding strategy during Late Permian times. Subsequently, herbivory evolved in numerous lineages of terrestrial vertebrates, and the acquisition of this mode of feeding was frequently associated with considerable evolutionary diversification in those lineages. This book represents the first comprehensive overview of the evolution of herbivory in land-dwelling amniote tetrapods in recent years. In The Evolution of Herbivory in Terrestrial Vertebrates leading experts review the structural adaptations for, and the evolutionary history of, feeding on plants in the major groups of land-dwelling vertebrates, especially dinosaurs and ungulate mammals.

As such it will be the definitive reference source on this topic for evolutionary biologists and vertebrate paleontologists."--Jacket.