Are Equids Evolutionary Dead Ends?

Prins, Herbert H. T.; Gordon, Iain J.

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-27144-1_1

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…The central tenet is that many features of an organism are not necessarily adaptive but may arise as a by-product of evolution, whatever their subsequent exaptive utility (Gould 1979;Gould and Lewontin, 1979). For example, it is assumed too easily that ungulates have coevolved with their food, yet the average duration of existence of a large mammalian chronospecies is about 1.5 million years (Prins and Gordon, 2023) while that of plant chronospecies is about 10 times longer (cf. Stanley, 1978).…”

Section: Unknown Knowns -Evidence-based Scientific Knowledge On Buffa...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On purpose, we have not formulated 'hypotheses' in this chapter for several reasons. We believe that what we need most is 'descriptive ecology' and 'natural history' (see Prins and Gordon, 2014;Gordon and Prins, 2019), while the use of storylines (linked to the assessment of their plausibility) probably offers better heuristic tools to approach best understanding (see De Jong and Prins, 2023;Prins and Gordon, 2023). The following knowledge deficits were identified in a process of questioning the collective of authors who contributed to this book.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Knowns and Unknowns in African Buffalo Ecology and Management

Prins,

Cornelis,

Caron

et al. 2023

Ecology and Management of the African Buffalo

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The definition of 'knowledge' is 'a justified true belief'. Philosophers of science took a few centuries to arrive at this definition. The reasoning on which it is based is that knowledge is a 'belief' because a belief is defined as 'conviction of the truth of some statement' and is related to the verb 'to believe', which means 'to hold something as true' or 'to give credence that something is true'. Because science does not deal with revelations or their interpretation, the justification of holding a particular belief can only be found in evidence, which thus makes it a 'true belief'. Finally, as many things are seen by people and taken as evidence (even if not true -think of Cold Fusion), the belief and the evidence for it must be 'justified'. Justification is found in an entire corpus of other, related, evidence.Ecologists have been studying the African buffalo in the wild for about 70 years. Before that time, most knowledge came from hunters, and with hindsight it is reasonable to assume that the information so gathered was often more closely related to storytelling than to what we consider science. Prins and Sinclair (2013) and Cornélis et al. (2014) provide good recent summaries of what we think we know about the African buffalo. New knowledge added since the publication of these works is reported in the different chapters of the present book. We dare to assert that with this book and all of the publications referred to in it, the African buffalo is now the best-known animal of all Bovidae, so even better known than the American bison (Bison bison), the European wisent (B. bonasus) or any antelope, wild sheep, or goat. Are there other terrestrial wild mammals that are better known than the African

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Section: Unknown Knowns -Evidence-based Scientific Knowledge On Buffa...mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowns and Unknowns in African Buffalo Ecology and Management

Prins,

Cornelis,

Caron

et al. 2023

Ecology and Management of the African Buffalo

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show abstract

“…On purpose, we have not formulated 'hypotheses' in this chapter for several reasons. We believe that what we need most is 'descriptive ecology' and 'natural history' (see Gordon and Prins, 2019), while the use of storylines (linked to the assessment of their plausibility) probably offers better heuristic tools to approach best understanding (see De Jong and Prins, 2023;Prins and Gordon, 2023). The following knowledge deficits were identified in a process of questioning the collective of authors who contributed to this book.…”

Section: On Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The central tenet is that many features of an organism are not necessarily adaptive but may arise as a by-product of evolution, whatever their subsequent exaptive utility . For example, it is assumed too easily that ungulates have coevolved with their food, yet the average duration of existence of a large mammalian chronospecies is about 1.5 million years (Prins and Gordon, 2023) while that of plant chronospecies is about 10 times longer (cf. Stanley, 1978).…”

Section: Unknown Knowns -Evidence-based Scientific Knowledge On Buffa...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecology and Management of the African Buffalo

2023

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One of iconic Africa's Big Five, the African buffalo is the largest African bovine or antelope that occurs throughout most of sub-Sahara and in a wide range of ecosystems from savanna to rainforest. The African buffalo is also one of the most successful large African mammals in terms of abundance and biomass. This species thus represents a powerful model to enhance our understanding of African biogeography and wildlife conservation, ecology and management. Edited by four researchers experienced in different aspects of the African buffalo's biology, this volume provides an exhaustive compilation of knowledge on an emblematic species that stands out as an important component of African natural and human ecosystems. It delivers a global view of the African buffalo and all known aspects of its ecology and management. This book will appeal to students, scholars, scientists and wildlife managers as well as those enthusiastic about the charismatic species. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

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Are Equids Evolutionary Dead Ends?

Cited by 2 publications

References 65 publications

Knowns and Unknowns in African Buffalo Ecology and Management

Knowns and Unknowns in African Buffalo Ecology and Management

Ecology and Management of the African Buffalo

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