Key Experiments in Practical Developmental Biology Author(s): Michael B. Worrell Source: Journal of Mammalogy, 88(1):262-262. 2007. Published By: American Society of Mammalogists DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1644/06-MAMM-R-277.1 URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1644/06-MAMM-R-277.1
BioOne (www.bioone.org) is a nonprofit, online aggregation of core research in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. BioOne provides a sustainable online platform for over 170 journals and books published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses. Your use of this PDF, the BioOne Web site, and all posted and associated content indicates your acceptance of BioOne’s Terms of Use, available at www.bioone.org/page/terms_of_use. Usage of BioOne content is strictly limited to personal, educational, and non-commercial use. Commercial inquiries or rights and permissions requests should be directed to the individual publisher as copyright holder.
BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research.
BOOK REVIEWS hunt pronghorn including how they used pronghorn behavior and ecology to hunt the species more effectively. Early hunters modified hunting tactics when the horse was reintroduced by 1780 and with the wide use of repeating rifles around 1850. Because pronghorn was a food source for Native Americans, it was hunted extensively by settling Europeans to remove resources from Native Americans in an attempt to subordinate native communities. Instead, hunted pronghorn became an important food item for congregating European troops. This attempt at subjugation of Native Americans preceded the Battle of the Little Bighorn (Lakota idiom for ‘‘pronghorn’’—Hill 1979). This battle is largely regarded as a turning point in the clash between invading Europeans and Native Americans. With European settlement of the West, and expansion using the locomotive, another era of pronghorn hunting began. Widespread exploitation of wildlife was not restricted to American bison (Bison bison); pronghorn were hunted almost to extinction after the crash of bison populations. Exploitation of pronghorn occurred despite the fact that the species does not assemble as bison but forms loose bands. George Grinnell and Theodore Roosevelt, appalled at the ‘‘black cloud of extermination,’’ created the Boone and Crockett Club in 1887, a significant 1st step toward the conservation of pronghorn and other large mammals of the North American plains (McCabe et al. 2004:133). In many ways, Prairie Ghost is a significant case study of how human societies can influence the distribution and density of wild animal populations. We should take this to heart. Because this book is an interesting read, and because the insights gained will promote increasingly effective management of wildlife populations into the 21st century, I recommend this book to casual readers as well as professional biologists and wildlife managers.—DOLLY C. CRAWFORD, Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA; e-mail:
[email protected].
Journal of Mammalogy, 88(1):261, 2007
McCabe, R. E., B. W. O’Gara, and H. M. Reeves. 2004. PRAIRIE GHOST: PRONGHORN AND HUMAN INTERACTION IN EARLY AMERICA. University Press of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 175 pp. ISBN 0-87081-758-2, price (hardbound), $29.95. Many, if not all, populations of wild animals have been influenced by humans, and ignoring this variable in studies of wild populations is hazardous to design and implementation of effective management policies. I found Prairie Ghost: Pronghorn and Human Interaction in Early America to be a refreshing analysis of the interactions between humans and pronghorns (Antilocapra americana), and a well-written companion volume to Pronghorn Ecology and Management (O’Gara and Yoakum 2004). Prairie Ghost includes approximately 150 black and white photographs and illustrations in the 175-page book. In addition, the center of the book holds an astonishing 16 pages of color lithographs depicting pronghorn in its natural habitat by renowned wildlife artists such as Albert Bierstadt. In a sense, the book demonstrates a duality that all good books possess— illustrations and short narratives—to make an interesting quick read, while also providing in-depth analyses beyond simple summaries of anthropological, paleontological, and ecological dimensions of pronghorn–human interaction. This quality makes the book suitable for all audiences, including academics, wildlife managers, sportspeople, and other wildlife aficionados. Prairie Ghost is divided into 2 primary sections: Prehistory and History. In a brief 31 pages, the Prehistory section presents information on the Pleistocene biogeography of pronghorn, including Tetrameryx, a largely unknown antilocaprid extant at that time. The subsequent passages outline information on human immigration across the Bering land bridge, and the effect that immigration likely had on populations of A. americana. Information regarding the role of humans in the Pleistocene extinctions is also provided, and the authors present arguments for both the ‘‘overkill’’ (Martin 1967) and ‘‘climate driven’’ (Weaver 1991) causes. The History section comprises approximately 100 pages, and describes interactions between pronghorn and humans, beginning with the Spanish in the 1500s and ending with the genesis of pronghorn conservation at the end of the 19th century. Fallacies about the history of pronghorn that were laid to rest include noting that the 1st written observation was by conquistador Hernan Cortes in 1519 and not in 1535, and that the 1st critical species account was by Francisco Hernandez in 1651, and not by Lewis and Clark in 1805. The authors then provide rich detail on methods used by Native Americans to
LITERATURE CITED HILL, R. B. 1979. Hanta yo. Doubleday and Co., Inc., Garden City, New York. MARTIN, P. S. 1967. Prehistoric overkill. Pp. 75–120 in Pleistocene extinctions: the search for cause (P. S. Martin and H. E. Wright, eds.). Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut. MCCABE, R. E., B. W. O’GARA, AND H. M. REEVES. 2004. Prairie ghost: pronghorn and human interaction in early America. University Press of Colorado, Boulder. O’GARA, B. W., AND J. D. YOAKUM. 2004. Pronghorn ecology and management. University Press of Colorado, Boulder. WEAVER, D. 1991. Prehistoric Missouri: crossroads of America’s ancient cultures. Missouri Resources Review 8:16–19.
Ó 2007 American Society of Mammalogists www.mammalogy.org 261
262
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY
Vol. 88, No. 1
mortality. Not surprisingly, only 2 experiments deal specifically with mammals (Mus). Ten experiments use Drosophila. The range of organisms included is impressive. In addition to those above, organisms used are Axolotl (1), Dictyostelium (1), sea urchin (1), Platyhelminthes (1), Caenorhabditis elegans (1), zebrafish (1), Xenopus (2), and the plant Arabidopsis thaliana (1). The step-by-step, laboratory notebook format is extremely useful when included in the chapter. Again, although each chapter or experiment is presented in a similar format, they are not uniform. Further, in many chapters, supplemental and usually more advanced experiments (Alternative Exercises) are included in the chapter. These additional challenges are included for more advanced (read graduate-level) participation. Although costs are not presented in all exercises, several make note of cost-prohibitive steps and equipment. References to resources and vendors are generously included in the chapters and in the appendices of the text. This is a wondrous text and reference manual. The experiments and references to the great breakthroughs in developmental biology make this book a valuable addition to a laboratory. For those already equipped for the more sophisticated experiments this text provides an excellent step-by-step guide. For those laboratories capable of less grandiose procedures this text provides references and perhaps a goal for the future.—MICHAEL B. WORRELL, Biology Department, Hanover College, Hanover, IN 47243, USA; e-mail: worrell@ hanover.edu.
Journal of Mammalogy, 88(1):261–262, 2007
Mari-Beffa, M., and J. Knight. 2005. KEY EXPERIMENTS IN PRACTICAL DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY. Cambridge University Press, New York, 382 pp. ISBN 0-521-83315-9, price (hardbound), $110. The text professes to be ‘‘. . . twenty-seven easy-to-follow laboratory exercises . . . described by leaders in the field . . . .’’ Featured authors are widely published and recognizable to individuals working in developmental biology. Some of the laboratory exercises are easy to follow, yet many are advanced for the typical college or small university. The text is organized into 12 sections, most with multiple examples of key experiments. The selection of sections and exercises follows current literature in the field of developmental biology. Sections include Graftings, Specific Chemical Reagents, Bead Implantation, Nucleic Acid Injections, Genetic Analysis, Clonal Analysis, In Situ Hybridization, Transgenic Organisms, Vertebrate Cloning, Cell Culture, Evo-Devo Studies, and Computational Modeling. There are opportunities to see how the field has developed and expanded from its early roots. References to pioneers in the field support the earlier exercises and more modern references are used as needed to give the investigator both background and current technical reference. Each exercise is presented in a similar, although not identical, format. Generally, the chapters are laid out as follows: Objective, Degree of Difficulty, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Experiments, Expected Results and Discussion, Time Required for the Experiments, Potential Sources of Failure, Teaching Concepts, and Alternative Exercises. References also are included in each chapter. In most chapters an appendix, or appendices, is included for specialized procedures. The author(s) of each exercise give some indication of the overall complexity or difficulty for their exercise. Most exercises are in part or in whole moderate to difficult in complexity. Line drawings are well utilized in the experiments. A few color plates are featured to reinforce key events in selected experiments. Unfortunately, some later chapters refer to earlier chapters incorrectly, or the earlier chapters lack the material later authors believed would be included. One limitation of many of the exercises is the cost or availability of laboratory hardware. Although a few exercises require only a dissecting microscope, organisms, microdissection tools, patience, and practice, most exercises require specialized laboratory facilities and molecular biology techniques. The text includes a range of exercises on vertebrates, invertebrates, and plants. The 27 experiments range from 2 experiments with hydra and 3 experiments with chicken eggs to highly complex computer modeling. As the title states, these are key experiments, not necessarily easy experiments. Each experiment, except the computer modeling, which is really a presentation of a technique more than an experiment, requires the use of an organism in some form and will have some
Journal of Mammalogy, 88(1):262–263, 2007
Kry^stufek, B., and V. Voharlı´k. 2005. MAMMALS OF TURKEY CYPRUS. Rodentia I: Sciuridae, Dipodidae, Gliridae, Arvicolinae. Zgodovinsko drusˇtvo za juzno Primorsko, Koper, Slovenia, 292 pp. ISBN 961-6033-60-3, price (paper), approx. $30. Available from University of Primorska, Science and Research Centre Koper, Garibaldijeva 1, 6000 Koper, Slovenia; e-mail:
[email protected]. AND
This book is the 2nd volume in a series on the mammals of Turkey and Cyprus. The book covers, as the title implies, species within 4 rodent families. Although this piece is complete and stands on its own, I cannot avoid writing a few words on the 1st volume of the series, Mammals of Turkey and Cyprus: Introduction, Checklist, Insectivora (Kry^stufek and Voharlı´k 2001). The 1st volume is a ‘‘must have’’ piece in the series, because it covers not only the former order Insectivora, but it also contains an overview on geography and climate of various regions of Turkey and Cyprus. Additionally, with a checklist of mammals in Turkey and Cyprus, the book sets the foundation for all subsequent volumes. More than 200 pages of Mammals of Turkey and Cyprus. Rodentia I is filled with detailed descriptions of 31 species. Species descriptions are preceded by a short introduction that describes how information in species accounts is organized. 262
February 2007
BOOK REVIEW
There is also a Materials and Methods section that describes how information and data were compiled with a list of sources used in the book. The bulk of the book contains reviews on 31 individual species. This part of the text is organized at multiple levels into different subtitles. First, the authors briefly review relevant information at the higher taxonomic levels covering suborder, family, and subfamily classifications. Then, each genus is introduced by another short description. After the short reviews at the higher taxonomic levels come the more-detailed species accounts. Information on each species is organized into 7 major topics, which are optionally further subdivided into sections when data are available. The major topics are species name with a list of synonyms, history of significant taxonomic revisions, descriptions (external, cranial, and dental morphology; chromosomes; and molecular data), variations (including description of subspecies), distribution (present and historical), habitat preference (general description, altitude, population densities, and associated species), and biology (activity, nesting, reproduction, food, and predation). For each species there are 3 or more figures. Each species description includes a lineart drawing of the skull (dorsal, ventral, and lateral view plus the mandible), a drawing of the upper and lower molars, and a distribution map. The maps show the distribution of museum specimens as points and, in addition, the hypothetical distributions are represented as shaded areas. Additional drawings of the baculum, glans penis, distribution patterns of tooth alveoli, patterns of hair, and pads on palms are included when they are helpful in species identification. Occasional black and white photographs help the reader visualize the typical habitat of the species. The artistic appearance of the book is enhanced by the inclusion of pencil drawings for selected species. In several cases, however, the species description goes well beyond the typical format. The authors use graphs based on
263
their own work or from previously published papers to highlight scientific issues associated with the species. I found these bits of information especially constructive because they provide new research ideas to fellow mammalogists. The book presents and summarizes information in a unique manner. Although there is a significant, but not complete, overlap between European and Turkish mammals, the authors avoid the mistake of just repeating information that can be found elsewhere. Instead, the authors focus on information from Turkey and Cyprus and some of the surrounding areas. As a result, this book provides an extra source of references that might be left out from online literature databases. At the end of the book there is a list of references, 16 color plates with photographs of museum specimens of the 31 species, an appendix, and an index. The appendix is actually a list of errata from the previous volume. It was encouraging to see to what great lengths the authors went to compile data for the series. The value of this book far exceeds its price. This book is not a simple field guide; it is too big and heavy to carry around in a backpack. Rather, it is a reference work covering all the relevant information on the topic. Hopefully, the next volumes covering additional mammalian orders and families will soon follow in print to complete the series.—GA´BOR R. RA´CZ, Museum of Southwestern Biology, Biology Department, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA; e-mail:
[email protected].
LITERATURE CITED KRYSˇTUFEK,
B., AND V. VOHARLI´K. 2001. Mammals of Turkey and Cyprus: introduction, checklist, Insectivora. Zgodovinsko drusˇtvo za juzno Primorsko, Koper, Slovenia.
263
