Crossbills and Conifers

One Million Years of Adaptation and Coevolution

Craig Benkman

Crossbills are an ideal group of species to investigate some of the foremost topics in evolutionary ecology.
The clear link between bill and cone structure makes obvious the reciprocal adaptations between crossbills and conifers, including especially the coevolutionary arms race driving the evolution of the newly discovered Cassia Crossbill.
This accessible and handsomely illustrated book will appeal to a wide audience.

Subject: ornithology-birds-birdwatching ecology zoology

Tags:

birds
Coming Soon
conservation
ecology
evolution
ornithology

Description

Crossbills and Conifers explores an intimate natural historical connection, revealing why crossbills have become an exemplar of diversification and coevolution. Craig Benkman takes readers on his 40-year journey of research and discovery, exploring a series of unique and interrelated findings about the behavior, ecology, evolution and conservation of a remarkable group of birds.

Key to revealing these insights is the ease with which one can measure how variation in bill structure, and conifer cone structure and phenology, influence the efficiency at which crossbills extract seeds from cones. Consumer-resource interactions are fundamental to much of ecology, but such relationships are rarely so readily quantified, not least with the coevolutionary arms race driving the evolution of the newly discovered Cassia Crossbill.

This accessible and handsomely illustrated book will appeal to a wide audience. Students of ornithology and evolutionary biology will gain a greater understanding of the value of natural history and especially the utility of knowing when who eats whom and why. Bird enthusiasts and naturalists will learn much about the world of crossbills, the causes of their diversity which has challenged and inspired many ornithologists, and the threats that these birds face.

DOI: 10.53061/VSDN6841

Reviews

A wonderful study and brilliant illustration of how the natural world can be illuminated by evolutionary thinking combined with detailed field observations and ingenious experiments. Darwin would have loved this book.
—Nick Davies, University of Cambridge
In this beautifully written narrative, Craig Benkman takes us on a journey across his decades-long field studies of crossbills and conifers. These studies are among the most fascinating and insightful ever undertaken on how animals and plants form relationships that may not only persist but also diversify over millenia and continents. This is also a very personal book, showing how science advances through a combination of individual dedication and fruitful collaborations with others. It is a sheer joy to read.
—John N Thompson, University of California, Santa Cruz
In this beautifully illustrated and informative book Craig Benkman delves into the life of the remarkable crossbills. This is a book that will captivate curious naturalists and students of ecology and behavior alike. They will see crossbills in a different light and be stimulated to ask penetrating questions of other related species.
—B. Rosemary Grant, Princeton University

About the Author

Craig Benkman is an evolutionary ecologist and ornithologist, and an Emeritus Professor and Robert B. Berry Distinguished Chair in Ecology at the University of Wyoming. Before moving to Wyoming in 2004, Craig was on the faculty in the Department of Biology at New Mexico State University. He received a B.A. from UC Berkeley, a M.S. from Northern Arizona University, a Ph.D. from State University of New York at Albany, and conducted postdoctoral research at Princeton University and the University of British Columbia. He is a Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science and received the E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award from the American Society of Naturalists and the William Brewster Memorial Award from the American Ornithological Society.