Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Gut form and function: variations and terminology / D.J. Chivers, P. Langer -- Food and digestion of Cenozoic mammals in Europe / P. Langer -- Modeling gut function: an introduction / C. Martinez del Rio, S.J. Cork, W.H. Karasov -- Optimum gut structure for specified diets / R. McNeill Alexander -- Food -- Foods and the digestive system / C.M. Hladik, D.J. Chivers -- Classification of foods for comparative analysis of the gastro-intestinal tract / P. Langer, D.J. Chivers -- Carnivorous herbivores / R.J. Moir.

Nutritional ecology of fruit-eating and flower-visiting birds and bats / C. Martinez del Rio -- Herbivory and niche partitioning / M.R. Perrin -- Taste discrimination and diet differentiation among New World primates / B. Simmen -- Potential hominid plant foods from woody species in semi-arid versus sub-humid sub-tropical Africa / C.R. Peters, E.M. O'Brien -- Form -- Form of selected regions of the gastro-intestinal tract / G. Bjornhag, P. Langer -- Categorisation of food items relevant to oral processing / P.W. Lucus.

Direct method for measurement of gross surface area of mammalian gastro-intestinal tracts / M. Young Owl -- Morphometric methods for determining surface enlargement at the microscopic level in the large intestine and their application / R.L. Snipes -- Weaning time and bypass structures in the forestomachs of Marsupialia and Eutheria / P. Langer -- Adaptations in the large intestine allowing small animals to eat fibrous foods / G. Bjornhag -- Function -- Foraging and digestion in herbivores / G.O. Batzli, I.D. Hume.

Gut morphology, body size and digestive performance in rodents / I.D. Hume -- Integrated processing response in herbivorous small mammals / G.O. Batzli, A.D. Broussard, R.J. Oliver -- Digestive constraints on dietary scope in small and moderately-small mammals: how much do we really understand / S.J. Cork -- Effects and costs of allelochemicals for mammalian herbivores: an ecological perspective / W.J. Foley, C. McArthur -- Short-chain fatty acids as a physiological signal from gut microbes / T. Sakata.

Synthesis and perspectives -- Food, form and function: interrelationships and future needs.

However well the anatomy of the gastro-intestinal tracts of a wide range of mammals is described and quantified, there can be no real explanation of observed patterns without consideration of the mechanical and chemical properties of the food consumed, and of the digestive stages involved in its processing. This book aims to integrate findings from the many different types of investigations of mammalian digestive systems into a coherent whole. Using the themes of food, form and function, researchers discuss models of digestive processes, linking this with evolutionary aspects of food utilisation. Macroscopic and ultrastructural studies of the gastro-intestinal tract are also presented, as are physiological, ecological and biochemical aspects of the digestion of different food types. The book ends with an integrative chapter, bringing together the themes running through the earlier sections.