At any given moment, babies represent the majority of animal life on Earth. Danna Staaf invites readers into the sibling (and, sometimes, clashing) fields of ecology and developmental biology. The tiny, hidden lives that these scientists study in the lab and in the wild reveal some of nature's strangest workings: a salamander embryo breathes with the help of algae inside its cells. The young grub of a Goliath beetle dwarfs its parents. The spotted beak of a parasitic baby bird tricks adults of other species into feeding it. Mouse embryos can absorb cancerous cell grafts - and develop into healthy adults. Our bias toward adult animals (not least because babies can be hard to find) means these wonders have long gone under-researched. But for all kinds of animals, if we overlook their babies, we miss out on the most fascinating - and consequential - time in the lives of their species.
| ISBN: | 9781891011719 |
| Publication date: | 17th June 2024 |
| Author: | Danna Staaf |
| Publisher: | The Experiment LLC an imprint of The Experiment |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 280 pages |
| Genres: |
Applied ecology Wildlife: general interest |