The Digestive System in Mammals: Food, Form and Function

Abstract

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. Martinez 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. Martinez 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. Bjornhag 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. Bjornhag 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. Martinez 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. Bjornhag, 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.