The Digestive System in Mammals: Food Form and Function

by D. J. Chivers, P. Langer

Overview

However well the anatomy of the gastrointestinal tracts of a wide range of mammals are described and quantified, there can be no real explanation of observed patterns without consideration of the mechanical and chemical properties of the food consumed, and digestive stages involved in its processing. This book aims to integrate findings from the many different types of investigations of mammalian digestive systems into a coherent whole. Using the themes of food, form and function, researchers discuss models of digestive processes, linking this with evolutionary aspects of food utilization. Macroscopic and ultrastructural studies of the gastrointestinal tract are also presented, as are physiological, ecological and biochemical aspects of the digestion of different food types. The book ends with an integrative chapter, bringing together the themes running through the earlier sections.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521020855
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/06/2005
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

Part I. Introduction: 1. Gut form and function D. J. Chivers and P. Langer; 2. Food and digestion of Caenozoic mammals in Europe P. Langer; 3. Modelling gut function C. Martínez del Rio, S. J. Cork and W. H. Karasov; 4. Optimum gut structure for specified diets R. McNeill Alexander; Part II. Food: 5. Foods and the digestive system C. M. Hladik and D. J. Chivers; 6. Classification of foods for comparative analysis of gastro-intestinal tracts P. Langer and D. J. Chivers; 7. The carnivorous herbivores R. J. Moir; 8. Nutritional ecology of fruit-eating and flower-visiting birds and bats C. Martínez del Rio; 9. Herbivory and niche partitioning M. R. Perrin; 10. Taste discrimination and diet differentiation among New World primates B. Simmen; 11. Potential hominid plant foods from woody species in semi-arid vs. sub-humid subtropical Africa C. R. Peters and E. M. O'Brien; Part III. Form: 12. The form of selected regions of the gastro-intestinal tract G. Björnhag and P. Langer; 13. Categorisation of food items relevant to oral processing P. W. Lucas; 14. A direct method for measurement of gross surface area of mammalian gastro-intestinal tracts M. Young Owl; 15. Morphometric methods for determining surface enlargement at the microscopic level in the large intestine and their application R. L. Snipes; 16. Weaning time and bypass structures in fore-stomachs of Marsupalia and Eutheria P. Langer; 17. Adaptations in the large intestine allowing small animals to eat fibrous foods G. Björnhag; Part IV. Function: 18. Foraging and digestion in herbivores G. O. Batzli and I. D. Hume; 19. Gut morphology, body size and digestive performance in rodents I. D. Hume; 20. The integrated processing response in herbivorous small mammals G. O. Batzli, A. D. Broussard and R. J. Oliver; 21. Digestive constraints on dietary scope in small and moderately-small mammals S. J. Cork; 22. Effects and costs of allelochemicals for mammalian herbivores W. J. Foley and C. McArthur; 23. Short-chain fatty acids as a physiological signal from gut microbes T. Sakata; Part V. Synthesis and Perspectives: 24. Food, form and function D. J. Chivers, P. Langer, C. Martínez del Rio, S. J. Cork, W. H. Karasov, R. McNeill Alexander, C. M. Hladik, R. J. Moir, M. R. Perrin, B. Simmen, C. R. Peters, E. M. O'Brien, G. Björnhag, P. W. Lucas, M. Young Owl, R. L. Snipes, G. O. Batzli, I. D. Hume, A. D. Broussard, R. J. Oliver, W. J. Foley, C. McArthur and T. Sakata.

Editorial Reviews

"Overall this is an impressive volume. Its contributions are, more often than not, authoritative reviews of past, present and future research goals in some lively area of ecological morphology and physiological ecology." John G. Fleagle, Quarterly Review of Biology

From the Publisher