The Evolutionary Interaction of Animals and Plants (Philosophical Transactions) - Tapa dura

Reseña del editor

How far have the whole complex series of interactions between plants and animals influenced the evolutionary progression of each group? The topics dealt with here range from the fossil evidence for the earliest assault of the arthropods on the first land plants, to biochemical warfare between plant and herbivore, as each group has been driven to respond to the innovations of the other. Vertebrates and insects have, in their different ways, undergone major modifications of their structure, and particularly their mouthparts and gut, to cope with a vegetarian diet. But equally, the impact of browsing and gazing has forced higher plants to modify their programme of growth to cope with losing parts of the whole. This may have been one of the main forces favouring a flexible modular growth programme, rather than a determinate one. This collection of papers, together with the discussion that they provoked, is taken from a Royal Society Discussion Meeting held in February 1991. It records the state of development of one of the fast-growing areas of biology and brings together such diverse fields as biochemistry, palaeontology, cell biology, mammal and insect behavioural studies, plant development and pollination biology.