Brains Through Time Audiobook By Georg F. Striedter, R. Glenn Northcutt cover art

Brains Through Time

A Natural History of Vertebrates

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Brains Through Time

By: Georg F. Striedter, R. Glenn Northcutt
Narrated by: Tom Perkins
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When did the first vertebrates emerge, and how did they differ from their invertebrate ancestors? When did vertebrates evolve jaws, paired fins, pattern vision, or a neocortex? How have evolutionary innovations such as these impacted vertebrate behavior and success? Georg Striedter and R. Glenn Northcutt answer these fundamental questions about all major vertebrate lineages. Highlighting the key innovations of each major taxonomic group, they review how evolutionary changes in vertebrate genetics, anatomy, and physiology are reflected in the nervous system.

Brains Through Time examines how vertebrate nervous systems evolved in conjunction with other organ systems and the planet's ecology. Surveying an enormous range of information on genes and proteins, sensory and motor systems, central neural circuits, physiology, and animal behavior, the authors reconstruct the major changes that occurred as vertebrates emerged and then diversified. In the process, listeners are transported back in time to key stages of vertebrate evolution, notably the origin of vertebrates, the evolution of paired fins and jaws, the transition to life on land, and the origins of warm-blooded mammals and birds.

©2020 Oxford University Press (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Biological Sciences Evolution Evolution & Genetics Physiology Science
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This audiobook was incredibly helpful background for writing my PhD dissertation (in evolutionary neuroscience). If you're not pretty good at neuroanatomy and evolutionary biology, I think this book would be an extreme challenge. I also couldn't find the PDF of figures which made it more challenging.

PhD level content

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I did this for background and learned a bit but the book is as engaging as a library paste tasting.

Not worth the time unless you access the figures and have a degree in anatomy.

A very bad idea as an Audible, except possibly as a sleep aid.

OK as a review for a Board Exam

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I was really excited for this title as I'm keenly interested in the subject. I thought it would be great to listen to. But this book is written at a level that is far too complicated for audio. It employs a lot of complex terminology and is written in a highly technical form. This isn't bad if you're looking for a science text book, where you can take your time going through the sentences. But an audiobook carries you along at its own pace and if you don't have Ph.D. in biology, this pace is probably too fast. This is not a knock on the content of the book which is fine but I would strongly recommend buying the print version instead of the audible one.

Writing is too complex for an audio book.

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