Bøker av Danna Staaf

Entire ecosystems rest on the shoulders (or tentacles, or jointed exoskeletons) of animal babies; it's time we paid them more attention. In Nursery Earth, researcher Danna Staaf invites readers to explore these tiny, secret lives, revealing some of nature's strangest and most ingenious workings. A salamander embryo breathes with the help of algae inside its cells. The young grub of a Goliath beetle dwarfs its parents. Fluffy flamingo chicks delay turning pink for years to let adults know they're not mating rivals and to encourage friendly behavior.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 their lives. Nursery Earth makes the case that these young creatures are not just beings in progress but beings in their own right. Our planet needs them all: the maggots as much as the kittens!

An engaging and beautifully illustrated introduction to some of the world's most interesting and charismatic marine creatures Dive deep into the fascinating world of cephalopods--octopuses, squid, cuttlefish, and the mysterious nautilus--to discover the astonishing diversity of this unique group of intelligent invertebrates and their many roles in the marine ecosystem. Organized by marine habitat, this book features an extraordinary range of these clever and colorful creatures from around the world and explores their life cycles, behavior, adaptations, ecology, links to humans, and much more. With stunning photographs and illustrations as well as profiles of selected species, The Lives of Octopuses and Their Relatives is a comprehensive, authoritative, and inviting introduction to the natural history of these charismatic creatures.

It's time to pay attention to baby animals. From egg to tadpole, chick to fledgling, they offer scientists a window into questions of immense importance: How do genes influence health? Which environmental factors support-or obstruct-life? Entire ecosystems rest on the shoulders (or tentacles, or jointed exoskeletons) of animal babies. At any given moment, babies represent the majority of animal life on Earth.In Nursery Earth, researcher 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. Nursery Earth makes the case that these young creatures are not just beings in progress but beings in their own right. And our planet needs them all: the maggots as much as the kittens!