Perspectives in Vertebrate Science - Böcker

The need to gather available data on the Eurasien huchen - an important salmonid species - has been forced by a plain and, unfortunately, common fact of our times: the numbers and distribution of this biggest of salmonids have begun to decline and its range has begun to shrink. A seminar on the huchen - the European form of the species Hucha hucha - held in Zilina in February 1973 as a result of a suggestion of the Section for the Conservation of Fauna of the Slovak Zoological Society, indicated very clearly the sad situation. Data on the biology of the huchen are regrettably scarce despite several recent papers (Ivaska 1951, Svetina 1962, Prawochenski and Kolder 1968) with the aim of filling this gap. Supposing that without a thorough knowledge it is practically impossible to conserve any plant or animal species, the participants of the seminar concluded that the existing knowledge on the huchen should be compiled in an exhaustive monograph. The first such outline originated in 1977 under the authorship of J. Holcik, K. Hensel and L. Skacel, and was submitted as a research report to some of the central authorities. Even during the compilation of the report it became evident, however, that there is no difference between the huchen and its relative, the taimen. Consequently, we immediately began revising our first report, which took over three years.

These proceedings had their origin in a conference entitled 'Alternative Life History Styles of Fishes and Other Organisms' which was held in Grahamstown, South Africa, in June 1987. The idea for the conference arose out of the fascination of an African ichthyologist/ecologist (MNB) for the conceptual models of fish life-history styles which were being developed by an ichthyologist/epigeneticist based in Canada but with field experience in Europe, Asia and Africa (EKB). I had never been fully convinced that the adaptationist arguments of the neo-Darwinians ex- plained all ontogenetic and evolutionary phenomena, and found that the novel approach to organism development and evolution which had been adopted by Balon, as well as by others such as L0vtrup, was refreshing and enlightening. Their perspectives, combined with the new ideas on self-organisation and the link between nonequilibrium thermodynamics and biology by Prigogine, Jantsch, Laszlo, Wicken, Weber and others, seemed to suggest that new ways of interpreting old findings were now becoming available.On delving into the literature I found that a variety of zoologists were working in the field of alternative life-history styles and autopoiesis, yet they seemed to be unaware of one another's work. We decided that it was time for a meeting of minds. The aim of the conference was to examine the way in which epigenesis (i. e.

The papers in this volume were presented at an international symposium, held in South Australia on September 8-10, 1983. The purpose of the meeting was to present the comparative physiology of gas exchange, water balance and energet­ ics of developing vertebrate embryos. contributions were invited from leading research workers in an attempt to represent the forefront of investigation of all vertebrate classes and to promote a broadly comparative approach to the study of embryonic physiology. These proceedings therefore reflect the current level of research activity focus­ ing on each group of vertebrates. While considerable expansion and specializa­ tion has occurred in the area of avian embryos over the last decade, work on reptilian embryos is less developed and that on fish and amphibians is still in its infancy. Although a great deal is known about respiration and metabolism in embryos of placental mammals, the physiology associated with the curious mode of development of monotreme and marsupial embryos has not been examined until recently. In this symposium. the well-studied vertebrate classes are repre­ sented primarily by specific research papers that document original work. These are balanced by more extensive reviews of the lesser known classes.

These proceedings had their origin in a conference entitled 'Alternative Life History Styles of Fishes and Other Organisms' which was held in Grahamstown, South Africa, in June 1987. The idea for the conference arose out of the fascination of an African ichthyologist/ecologist (MNB) for the conceptual models of fish life-history styles which were being developed by an ichthyologist/epigeneticist based in Canada but with field experience in Europe, Asia and Africa (EKB). I had never been fully convinced that the adaptationist arguments of the neo-Darwinians ex- plained all ontogenetic and evolutionary phenomena, and found that the novel approach to organism development and evolution which had been adopted by Balon, as well as by others such as L0vtrup, was refreshing and enlightening. Their perspectives, combined with the new ideas on self-organisation and the link between nonequilibrium thermodynamics and biology by Prigogine, Jantsch, Laszlo, Wicken, Weber and others, seemed to suggest that new ways of interpreting old findings were now becoming available.On delving into the literature I found that a variety of zoologists were working in the field of alternative life-history styles and autopoiesis, yet they seemed to be unaware of one another's work. We decided that it was time for a meeting of minds. The aim of the conference was to examine the way in which epigenesis (i. e.