Integrative Animal Biology

A squid with an eye the size of a basketball, a mammal that has venomous spurs; these are the bizarre and unexpected features of the animal world that have us glued to animal TV shows and movies and lining up to visit zoos each year. These are the types of awe-inspiring examples in Integrative Animal Biology that will bring students into a world of wonder. Taking an integrated, systems-based approach to animal biology (invertebrate/vertebrate) this book contains the unusual and surprising examples of biological structures and processes within an evolutionary context that is designed to capture student attention. Embark on an unparalleled adventure and exploration into the animal world with Integrative Animal Biology.

M.B. (Brock) Fenton received his Ph.D. in 1969 for work in the ecology and behaviour of bats. Since then he has held academic positions at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada 1969 to 1986), York University (Toronto, Canada 1986 to 2003) and the University of Western Ontario (2003 to present). He has published over 200 papers in refereed journals (most of them about bats), as well as numerous nontechnical contributions. He has written three books about bats intended for a general audience (Just bats 1983, University of Toronto Press; Bats 1992 - revised edition 2001 Facts On File Inc; and The bat: wings in the night sky 1998, Key Porter Press). He has supervised the work of 46 M.Sc. Students and 22 Ph.D. students who have completed their degrees. He currently supervises 5 M.Sc. students and 2 Ph.D. students. He continues his research on the ecology and behaviour of bats, with special emphasis on echolocation. He currently is an Emeritus Professor of Biology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.

Dr. Karen A. Campbell received her Ph.D. in Physiology and Zoology in 1989 from Indiana University. She has spent the last two decades teaching at Albright College, a small liberal arts college in Reading, PA. She has taught over 15 different courses, ranging from the introductory course for Biology majors, to advanced Vertebrate Physiology and Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, to seminars in Neuroethology, and numerous courses for non-science majors, including field-based experiences in Pennsylvania and Australia. She was awarded the Lindback Foundation Award for distinguished teaching in 1997. She is a member of the Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) Faculty for the 21st Century, an informal national alliance taking a lead in the effort to transform undergraduate science teaching. While her primary research interests explore aspects of the behavioral physiology and ecology of bats, many of her undergraduate research students over the past years have been introduced to independent research in very different areas, ranging from the feeding ecology of owls, to the detection of polarized light by painted turtles, to the development of a marker library for genome mapping in bats, to the application of biochemical techniques in studying enzyme activity in bacteria, to the behavioral physiology of Japanese Beetles. She is currently the P. Kenneth Nase Chair of Biology at Albright College.

Michael Owen Started life in England and did an undergraduate degree in Zoology (specializing in invertebrate marine biology) in Swansea and a Diploma from Imperial College (London) in Applied Entomology. Appointed as a Senior Teaching Fellow at Monash University (Melbourne) was and worked on the stings of some Australian wasps in his PhD work. Moved to the USA and a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard for work on the chemistry of wasp and bee stings. Came to Canada in 1970 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Zoology at University of Western Ontario and taught invertebrate biology and marine biology (including field courses) throughout a long career. A research program on bee venom chemistry evolved to work on insect neurochemistry looking at neurotransmitters. Sabbatical projects included work at African bee venom in Kenya, pharmacological techniques in Cambridge, amine brain rhythms in Australian bush flies in Canberra and neurotransmitter measurements in live brains at the University of Colorado. In semiretirement has worked with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on Bay of Fundy meiofaunal invertebrates and taken (and analyzed) video transects of benthic fauna in the Bay. He developed and taught a course at the Centre for Enhanced Teaching and Learning at the University of New Brunswick, a distance taught invertebrate course at UWO, and teaches invertebrate biology at Nipissing University.

Elizabeth (Betsy) R. Dumont received a PhD in Anthropology in 1993 from SUNY at Stony Brook. Since that time she has held faculty positions in Anatomy (Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine) and Biology (University of Massachusetts, Amherst). With a strong background in vertebrate morphology, her research is centered on the ecology, evolution and biomechanics of feeding in mammals. Her work combines empirical and model-based approaches to understanding the links among feeding behaviour, feeding performance and morphological diversity. She has mentored many undergraduate and graduate research projects and has developed and taught courses in Human Gross Anatomy, Mammalogy, Tropical Field Biology, and the Biology of Social Issues. She is currently Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst).