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Brains Through Time

A Natural History of Vertebrates

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Brains Through Time

By: Georg F. Striedter, R. Glenn Northcutt
Narrated by: Tom Perkins
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About this listen

When did the first vertebrates emerge, and how did they differ from their invertebrate ancestors? When did vertebrates evolve jaws, paired fins, pattern vision, or a neocortex? How have evolutionary innovations such as these impacted vertebrate behavior and success? Georg Striedter and R. Glenn Northcutt answer these fundamental questions about all major vertebrate lineages. Highlighting the key innovations of each major taxonomic group, they review how evolutionary changes in vertebrate genetics, anatomy, and physiology are reflected in the nervous system.

Brains Through Time examines how vertebrate nervous systems evolved in conjunction with other organ systems and the planet's ecology. Surveying an enormous range of information on genes and proteins, sensory and motor systems, central neural circuits, physiology, and animal behavior, the authors reconstruct the major changes that occurred as vertebrates emerged and then diversified. In the process, listeners are transported back in time to key stages of vertebrate evolution, notably the origin of vertebrates, the evolution of paired fins and jaws, the transition to life on land, and the origins of warm-blooded mammals and birds.

©2020 Oxford University Press (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Biological Sciences Evolution Evolution & Genetics Physiology Science
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I bought this book with high hopes of diving into the fascinating world of vertebrate brain evolution. While it may serve as an invaluable resource for physiology students, as an interested layperson I found the text to be a rather dry recounting of facts. The book primarily presents an enumeration of evolutionary developments without weaving in a compelling narrative or much context related to behavioral implications, which might have made the subject matter more relatable and engaging.

An Interminable Cataloging of Vertebrate Brains

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