Call number:
AWI Bio-92-0445
Description / Table of Contents:
Kin recognition - detected by an animal's differential treatment of kin and non-kin - has captured the interest of numerous researchers and is currently one of the most rapidly developing topics in modern biology. The ability to recognize kin, as well as to recognize individuals, may not seem so surprising for vertebrates, but even invertebrates, such as insects and crustaceans, are able to recognize their relatives, mates, or other associates, and in some cases they even distinguish siblings from half-siblings from cousins, etc. These forms of social behaviour appear to enhance an animal's ability to favour its close relatives and thus to promote the survival and multiplication of genes like its own. Moreover, such behaviour may enable an animal to select unrelated individuals or individuals of optimal relationships as mates. Thus kin recognition is of both evolutionary and sociological interest. Research on this subject is necessarily widely spread across many taxa and many disciplines. This edited collection of papers from leading academics gives an overview of the whole field, presenting (in some cases, original) research on all the major animal groups which have been studied. It pays particular attention to general methodology and to the specific methods employed in experimental work, but its main strength concerns its treatment of concepts. These are clearly presented and are evaluated from the different points of view of various contributors. Some concepts, especially that of nepotism (the favouring of kin), emerge with greatly enhanced significance.
Type of Medium:
Monograph available for loan
Pages:
X, 465 S. : Ill., graph. Darst.
ISBN:
0471911992
Series Statement:
A Wiley-Interscience Publication
Branch Library:
AWI Library
Permalink