Overview

This monumental, ground-breaking work is the fruit of a lifetime of observation, research and meditation on humans and our closest animal relatives: mammals. The two volumes set out to answer questions such as: -- Are mammals solely the result of random mutation and natural selection essentially external factors or do the internal dynamics of the organism itself play a role in determining their astonishing diversity? -- Why do cattle have horns and deer have antlers? -- Why do small chipmunks have dorsal stripes that run parallel to their spine, and tigers have stripes on their flanks that run parallel to their ribs? Wolfgang Schad demonstrates how such fascinating phenomena can be traced to which organ systems -- nerve-sense, centred in the head; metabolic-limb, centred in the digestive organs and limbs; and circulatory-respiratory, centred in the chest -- are emphasised in a particular species. In this way he establishes the basis for a systematic understanding of mammalian morphology. Schad shows how the different emphases come to expression through a mammal's size, morphology, dentition and coloration, and also in its preferred habit and embryonic development. In almost five decades since its first edition, Wolfgang Schad has continued to add to what has become his life's major work. This expanded edition includes many new insights and additional chapters on antelopes, marsupials, bats, xenarthrans (armadillos, anteaters, and sloths), and pangolins, as well as on milk and mammalian embryology, mammalian embryology and much more. Over 1500 photographs and drawings as well as numerous diagrams illustrate the dynamic relationships between the various families, genera and species. This expanded and updated third edition is presented in a sturdy, handsome slip case. We're delighted that this important work is once again available to readers.

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9780932776648

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Reviews

'This is an exciting time in biology and we are fortunate to have this new expanded edition of Wolfgang Schad's life's work. There is enough between the covers of these two volumes to stimulate thought, research, and application by another generation or two.' -- Dr Mark Riegner, Prescott College '[This book] is a profoundly important work which has the potential to steer biology and evolution theory in a more rational and positive direction.' -- New View

Wolfgang Schad's genius demonstrates a compelling way to understand mammal biology, recognizing each well-known group as a larger 'relational organism' within its family, class, and biosphere environment. Brimming with warmth and wisdom born of a lifetime of all-embracing study and affection for the familiar class to which we humans belong, Schad's insights are revolutionary and paradigm-changing. He sees what detached analysis so often misses, because it is right before our eyes: namely that each species' morphology, physiology, behavior, even color and reproduction, is an organically understandable expression of its organized constitution, no less integrated within Class or superorganism Mammalia than our organs are within our body, or mammals within the biosphere. --Dr. Martin Lockley, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Colorado Denver Wolfgang Schad's book Man and Mammals was a revelation when I first read it some years ago. Since then it has continued to inspire my work in palaeobiology and evolutionary science. This updated edition, with a new title and two very fine chapters on mammalian embryology, is very welcome. Anyone who seriously follows Schad's arguments will understand that this book is by no means a completed project. It is a foundation for further research into the animal kingdom using the methodology of Goethean science, which Schad describes in an early chapter. The book is very detailed, but written such that the information is accessible to general readers as well as the open-minded specialist. I highly recommend this insightful approach to zoological research. --Dr. Judyth Sassoon, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol In this monumental work, Wolfgang Schad applies Goethe's dynamic way of seeing and thinking, further elaborated by Rudolf Steiner's threefold principle, to the morphology, physiology, embryology, diversity, and ecology of mammals. In recent years, in partial response to the explosive development of molecular biology, there has been a call to return to studying organisms as they present themselves to our direct experience. This is a well-considered invitation to look more comprehensively at the living organism from multiple perspectives in an effort to answer questions left in the dark by gene-centered research programs. For example, we still cannot satisfactorily explain what constitutes the coherence of an organism, what guides developmental processes, how the genotype is translated into the phenotype or how anatomical structures and organs typically grow where they're supposed to grow, in the right dimensions, and in the right configurations. Clearly, this is an exciting time in biology, and there are numerous theoretical and experimental developments, which include the findings of heterochrony, epigenetics, evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo), gene networks, and developmental trade-offs/compensations. Each of these calls for a new synthesis that integrates comparative morphology, physiology, and the complex findings of analytical anatomy and molecular biology. Schad's work is a compelling answer to this call. We are so fortunate, and I am personally deeply grateful, that Wolfgang Schad has made the effort to share the fruits of his life's work in a new, expanded, updated, and accessible format. There is enough between the covers of these two volumes to stimulate thought, research, and application by another generation or two. --Dr. Mark Riegner, Environmental Studies, Prescott College, Prescott, Arizona

Author Information

Professor Dr Wolfgang Schad (1935-2022) studied biology, chemistry, physics and education. He worked for many years as a Waldorf school teacher and as a lecturer at the Waldorf Teacher's College in Stuttgart. He was an Emeritus Professor at Institute for Evolutionary Biology at the University of Witten-Herdecke, Germany, a position he held until his retirement in 2005.

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