Description
This textbook is the most concise and readable invertebrates book in terms of detail and pedagogy (other texts do not offer boxed readings, a second color, end of chapter questions, or pronunciation guides). All phyla of invertebrates are covered (comprehensive) with an emphasis on unifying characteristics of each group.
Features
This edition contains some impressive new changes. For example, the author now discuss the increasingly likely possibility that insects have evolved directly from crustacean ancestors, and that acoel and nemertodermatid flatworms may belong in a separate phylum, the Acoelomorpha, one that may have little relationship with other flatworms.
Material in Chapter 2 has been reorganized to better emphasize the protostome-deuterostome distinction. The section on Inferring Evolutionary Relationships also incorporates more of the modern molecular approaches.
References listed in the Topics for Further Discussion and Investigation have been updated throughout the book. New topics have been added to several chapters and the Taxonomic Detail sections in many chapters required updates as well.
Like previous editions, this edition is designed as a nonintimidating, readable introduction to the biology of invertebrates, emphasizing those characteristics that set each phyla apart from all others.
Table of Contents 1 Introduction and Environmental Considerations 2 Invertebrate Classification and Relationships 3 The Protists 4 The Poriferans and Placozoans 5 Introduction to the Hydrostatic Skeleton 6 The Cnidarians 7 The Ctenophores 8 The Platyhelminthes 9 The Mesozoand: Possible Flatworm Relatives 10 The Gnathifera: Rotifers, Acanthocephalans, and Two Smaller Groups 11 The Nemertines 12 The Molluscs 13 The Annelids 14 The Arthropods 15 Two Phyla of Likely Arthropod Relatives: Tardigrades and Onychophorans 16 The Nematodes 17 Four Phyla of Likely Nematode Relatives: Nematomorpha, Priapulida, Kinorhyncha, and Loricifera 18 Three Phyla of Uncertain Affiliation: Gastrotricha, Chaetognatha, and Cyliophora 19 The Lophophorates (Phoronids, Brachiopods, Bryozoans) and Entoprocts 20 The Echinoderms 21 The Hemichordates 22 The Xenoturbellids: Deuterostomes at Last' 23 The Nonvertebrate Chordates 24 Invertebrate Reproduction and Development--An Overview