Conceptual Breakthroughs in Ethology and Animal Behavior

Conceptual Breakthroughs in Ethology and Animal Behavior provides concise summaries of the most important conceptual breakthroughs in animal behavior. These breakthroughs are assessed for their relative impact on the field and their significance to the forward motion of the science of animal behavior. Approximately 80 individual entries, each 2-3 pages in length, consist of a title, a one-sentence summary statement, a numerical ranking of the impact of the discovery/principle on our understanding of behavior, an essay on the paradigm shift, how the new understanding came about, and any continuing controversy or scientific conversation on the issue. The work includes topics like Only birds and mammals sleep, Only humans have color vision, Animals don’t self-medicate, Males don’t care about parenting, and Animals can’t count, providing a concise account of early concepts, myths, and dogmas in the field that have proven to be untrue through scientific investigation and scrutiny. Similar to Dr. John Avise’s book, Contemporary Breakthroughs in Evolutionary Genetics, the work is structured into vignettes that first present the old way of understanding a problem or issue, then describe the conceptual revolution, and finally assess the impact of the conceptual change, with a p-score, which ranges from 1-10, providing an assessment of the impact of the new findings on contemporary science. Features a lively, brisk writing style and brief entries to enable easy and enjoyable access to this important informationIncludes topics that cover the range of behavioral biology, from mechanism to behavioral ecologyIdeal as supplemental material for an undergraduate animal behavior course or as the foundational textbook for an upper level or graduate discussion course in advanced animal behavior