Vertebrate Endocrinology represents more than just a treatment of the endocrine system-it integrates hormones with other chemical bioregulatory agents not classically included with the endocrine system. It provides a complete overview of the endocrine system of vertebrates by first emphasizing the mammalian system as the basis of most terminology and understanding of endocrine mechanisms and then applies that to non-mammals. The serious reader will gain both an understanding of the intricate relationships among all of the body systems and their regulation by hormones and other bioregulators, but also a sense of their development through evolutionary time as well as the roles of hormones at different stages of an animal's life cycle.

David O. Norris is Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado. He obtained his BS from the Baldwin-Wallace University and his PhD from the University of Washington. His broad research areas include environmental endocrinology and forensic botany. In the area of environmental endocrinology, his studies have focused on the neuroendocrine control of thyroid, adrenal, and reproductive functions with special interest in the role of environmental factors that alter the activities of these neuroendocrine systems. In the area of forensic botany, he specializes in the identification of food plants in the stomachs of modern humans with respect to determining time of death.Dr. James Carr is Professor at Texas Tech University. He obtained his BSc at Rutgers University and his PhD at the University of Colorado. He studies neuroendocrinology and the environmental endocrinology of amphibians and fishes, and he has taught courses in physiology, endocrinology, histology, and neurobiology. His endocrine research focuses on the neuroendocrinology of stress, the role of visual system neuropeptides in behavioral tradeoffs, and lab and field studies into the role of EDCs that adversely influence thyroid and reproductive physiology.