Adaptation and Natural Selection in Caves: the Evolution of Gammarus Minus by Culver, David C. ; Kane, Thomas C. ; Fong, Daniel W - 1995

Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ Pr. New in New dust jacket. 1995. First Edition. Original Cloth. The harsh environment of caves - dark, damp, sparse of food - is home to a variety of 'bizarre' creatures. Biologists, for their part, often treate thee delicate, colorless organisms having no eyes, or at least greatly reduced eyes, as mere oddities with little to tell us about a topic as grand as evolution. Focusing on one cave-dwelling crustacean, Gammarus minus, this books shows that, to the contrary, cave life can provide a valuable empirical model for the study of evolution, particularly adaptation. A detailed evolutionary study of a single organism in a particular environment, this book advances Gammarus minus as a paradigm for cave colonization and adaptation, and as a general case study of the role of natural selection and adaptation in evolution. " 223 pages, indexed, with references and glossary. Binding is cloth. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. .