The Ornaments of Life

Coevolution and Conservation in the Tropics

Theodore H. Fleming, W. John Kress

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English

Chicago University Press
03 October 2013

Mathematics & Sciences; Ecological science, the Biosphere; Evolution; Biodiversity; Conservation of wildlife & habitats

Series: Interspecific Interactions

The average kilometer of tropical rainforest is teeming with life; it contains thousands of species of plants and animals. As The Ornaments of Life reveals, many of the most colorful and eye-catching rainforest inhabitants—toucans, monkeys, leaf-nosed bats, and hummingbirds to name a few—are an important component of the infrastructure that supports life in the forest. These fruit-and-nectar eating birds and mammals pollinate the flowers and disperse the seeds of hundreds of tropical plants, and unlike temperate communities, much of this greenery relies exclusively on animals for reproduction. Synthesizing recent research by ecologists and evolutionary biologists, Theodore H. Fleming and W. John Kress demonstrate the tremendous functional and evolutionary importance of these tropical pollinators and frugivores. They shed light on how these mutually symbiotic relationships evolved and lay out the current conservation status of these essential species. In order to illustrate the striking beauty of these “ornaments” of the rainforest, the authors have included a series of breathtaking color plates and full-color graphs and diagrams.

By: Theodore H. Fleming, W. John Kress
Imprint: Chicago University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 23mm, Width: 17mm, Spine: 4mm
Weight: 1.304kg
ISBN: 9780226253411
ISBN 10: 0226253414
Series: Interspecific Interactions
Pages: 624
Publication Date: 03 October 2013
Audience: General/trade , Adult education , ELT Advanced , Tertiary & Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Theodore H. Fleming is professor emeritus of biology at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. W. John Kress is a curator and research botanist as well as director of the Consortium for Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet at the Smithsonian Institution.

Reviews for The Ornaments of Life: Coevolution and Conservation in the Tropics

Theodore H. Fleming and W. John Kress here bring together current knowledge of the ecology and evolution of vertebrate-plant mutualisms, from biogeography and energetics through species proliferation and conservation. They ve analyzed the reciprocal fine-tuning between bird-pollinated flowers and nectarivorous birds, or fruits and seed dispersers, on a worldwide scale and in the context of molecular-clock dated phylogenies, resulting in an unrivaled synthesis. --Susanne Renner Ludwig-Maximilans-Universitat