This best-selling dictionary is the most comprehensive and up-to-date of its kind, containing over 5,250 entries on all aspects of zoology. Complemented with numerous illustrations, it includes terms from the areas of ecology, animal behaviour, evolution, earth history, zoogeography, genetics, and physiology and it provides full taxonomic coverage of arthropods, other invertebrates, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals. The third edition has been fully revised and updated and includes many new entries, for example, alarm pheromone, Fick's laws, manometer, and synanthrope. It also features new material on behavioural ecology and conservation biology, and expanded coverage of cytology and taxonomy. New to this edition are recommended web links for many entries, which are accessed and kept up to date via the Dictionary of Zoology companion website. Web links provide valuable extra information by directing you to useful online resources and the homepages of relevant organizations. Following the A-Z dictionary are detailed appendices of endangered animals, the universal genetic code, the geologic time scale, and SI units.Wide-ranging, authoritative, and with jargon-free definitions, this dictionary is an indispensable reference tool for students and teachers of zoology, biological sciences and biomedical sciences, and a valuable resource for naturalists and anyone with an interest in animals.

Table of Contents

DICTIONARY OF ZOOLOGY; Endangered animals; The universal genetic code; Geologic time-scale; SI units

Reviews

Allaby is the general editor of Oxford Dictionary of Natural History and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ecology, as well as a leading expert in environmental science. His last two editions of the Dictionary of Zoology have become best sellers, primarily because they are more contemporary than other comprehensive dictionaries in the field, including Anthony Leftwich's Dictionary of Zoology (1973). Using simple, easy-to-understand language in all of the 5250 entries, Allaby expands this edition with the vocabulary of cytology, behavioral ecology, and conservation biology. He has also scrutinized and revised the entries from the previous editions that describe animal behavior, cell structure, ecology, evolutionary concepts, genetics, physiology, taxonomic principles, and zoogeography as well as added biographical notes on some key individuals in the field and included many illustrations, See also references, and detailed appendixes. BOTTOM LINE An outstanding reference compendium and an excellent research tool for biology students, teachers, and naturalists. Of considerable value are the many quality web sites that expand the author's definitions, which are kept up-to-date in the companion web site (www.oup.com/uk/reference/resources/zoology). [Online: Oxford Reference Online.]-Hazel Cameron, Overlake Hosp. Medical Ctr., Bellevue, WA Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.