Animal Locomotion : Physical Principles and Adaptations

This book is an introduction to animal locomotion and its evolutionary background and context with focus on comparative biophysics, biomechanics and bioengineering of animals. Swimming, flying and terrestrial locomotion are reviewed within current frameworks of the scientific method and modern evolutionary biology. The intended primary audience is advanced-level students and researchers primarily interested in and trained in mathematics, physical sciences and engineering. Students of organismal biology, functional morphology, organ system and ecological physiology, physiological ecology, molecular biology, molecular genetics and systems biology should also find this book useful.

Animal Locomotion: Physical Principles and Adaptations is a professional-level, state of the art review and reference summarizing the current understanding of macroscopic metazoan animal movement. The comparative biophysics, biomechanics and bioengineering of swimming, flying and terrestrial locomotion are placed in contemporary frameworks of biodiversity, evolutionary process, and modern research methods, including mathematical analysis. The intended primary audience is advanced-level students and researchers primarily interested in and trained in mathematics, physical sciences and engineering. Although not encyclopedic in its coverage, anyone interested in organismal biology, functional morphology, organ systems and ecological physiology, physiological ecology, molecular biology, molecular genetics and systems biology should find this book useful.