Alternative Life-History Styles of Animals

Prologue.- 1. The Tao of life: from the dynamic unity of polar opposites to self-organization.- I. Theories, mechanisms and examples.- 2. Developmental biology and alternative life styles.- 3. On divergent and progressive evolution.- 4. Direct and indirect development in fishes - examples of alternative life-history styles.- 5. Alternative life-history styles in anuran amphibians: evolutionary and ecological implications.- 6. Alternative life-history styles in reptiles.- 7. Environmentally guided phenotype plasticity in mammals and some of its consequences to theoretical and applied biology.- 8. Sex change as an alternative life-history style.- 9. Environmental restraints and life strategies: a habitat templet matrix.- 10. Alternative life-history styles of small mammals.- II. Theories contested or tested.- 11. Ontogeny and evolution: saltatory or otherwise?.- 12. Alternative sexual tactics in male bladder grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Pneumoridae).- 13. Alternative life-history styles of mutillid wasps (Insecta, Hymenoptera).- 14. Alternative life-history styles in Simuliidae (Insecta, Diptera).- 15. The evolution of alternative life styles in Coleoptera.- 16. Alternative life-history styles in salmonine fishes with emphasis on arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus.- 17. Metamorphosis in the frog Arthroleptella lightfooti (Anura, Ranidae) with emphasis on neuro-endocrine mechanisms.- 18. Allometry and the breeding biology of some plovers.- 19. Alternative life-history styles of South African birds.- 20. Life-history styles of southern African Mastomys natalensis, Otomys irroratus and Rhabdomys pumilio (Mammalia, Rodentia).- 21. The megaherbivore syndrome: alternative life style or different time frame?.- 22. The constraint of maternal nutrition on the trajectory of fetal growth in humans.- III. Are new paradigms emerging?.- 23. The epigenetic mechanisms of bifurcation and alternative life-history styles.- 24. The ecological significance of alternative life-history styles.- Transcript of discussions.- What is the difference between neo-Darwinism and epigenetics?.- The Okavango debate on bifurcation.- List of contributors.- Scientific and subject index.