Muscles of Vertebrates

<p>The Vertebrata is one of the most speciose groups of animals comprising more than 58000 living species. This book provides a detailed account on the comparative anatomy development homologies and evolution of the head neck pectoral and forelimb muscles of vertebrates. It includes hundreds of illustrations as well as numerous tables showing the homologies between the muscles of all the major extant vertebrate taxa including lampreys elasmobranchs hagfish coelacanths dipnoans actinistians teleosts halecomorphs ginglymodians chondrosteans caecilians anurans urodeles turtles lepidosaurs crocodylians birds and mammals such as monotremes rodents tree-shrews flying lemurs and primates including modern humans. It also provides a list of more than a thousand synonyms that have been used by other authors to designate these muscles in the literature. Importantly it also reviews data obtained in the fields of evolutionary developmental biology molecular biology and embryology and explains how this data helps to understand the evolution and homologies of vertebrate muscles.</p><p>The book will useful to students teachers and researchers working in fields such as functional morphology ecomorphology evolutionary developmental biology zoology molecular biology evolution and phylogeny. As the book includes crucial information about the anatomy development homologies evolution and muscular abnormalities of our own species Homo sapiens it will also be helpful to physicians and medical students.</p>