Ecological Isolation in Birds

DAVID LACK'S ILLUSTRATED UPDATED EVOLUTIONARY STUDIES OF ECOLOGICAL ISOLATION BETWEEN SPECIES IN NATURE. 8 3/4 inches tall publisher's salmon cloth binding, gilt image of finch to cover, spine gilt, very good in very good dust jacket. DAVID LAMBERT LACK (1910 - 1973) was a British evolutionary biologist who made contributions to ornithology, ecology and ethology. His book on the finches of the Galapagos Islands was a landmark work. Lack's work in ornithology was almost entirely based on studies of the living bird. He was one of the pioneers of life-history studies in Britain, especially those based on quantitative approaches, when some traditional ornithologists of the time were focusing their studies on morphology and geographic distribution. Lack's major scientific research included work on population biology and density dependent regulation. Lack's most famous work is Darwin's Finches, a landmark study whose title linked Darwin's name with the Galapagos group of species and popularised the term Darwin's finches in 1947, though the term had been introduced by Percy Lowe in 1936. It is often forgotten that there are two versions of this work, and they differ significantly in their conclusions. The first is a book-length monograph, written after his visit to the Galapagos, but not published until 1945. In it Lack interprets the differences in bill size as species recognition signals, that is, as isolating mechanisms. The second is the later book in which the differences in bill size are interpreted as adaptations to specific food niches, an interpretation that has since been abundantly confirmed. This change of mind, according to Lack's Preface, came about as a result of his reflections on his own data whilst he was doing war work. The effect of this change in interpretation is to put the emphasis for speciation onto natural selection for appropriate food handling instead of seeing it primarily as a by-product of an isolating mechanism. In this way his work contributed to the modern evolutionary synthesis, in which natural selection came to be seen as the prime mover in evolution, and not random or mutational events. Lack's work laid the foundations for the much more extensive work of Peter Grant and his colleagues. Also, Lack's work feeds into studies of island biogeography which continue the same range of issues presented by the Galapagos fauna on a more varied canvas. According to Ernst Mayr, The person who more than anyone else deserves credit for reviving an interest in the ecological significance of species was David Lack. It is now quite clear that the process of speciation is not completed by the acquisition of isolating mechanisms but requires also the acquisition of adaptations that permit co-existence with potential competitors.

Product Info

Publisher: Blackwell Scientific Publications

Year: 1971

Type: Used

Binding: Softcover

First Edition

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