High altitude mountain regions, where the climate is cool and dry rather than hot and humid, occur throughout the tropics of Central and South America, Africa, and Malaysia. As a consequence of these conditions, the animals and plants of this unique life zone more closely resemble their counterparts thousands of miles to the north or south than comparable species in the lowland jungles only a few thousand metres below. These ecological islands pose interesting questions of physiological adaptation, biogeography, and evolutionary relationship that have only recently gained a significant place in tropical ecology.The editors of this book have brought together leading researchers in a wide-ranging monograph on the climate and origin, ecology, and evolution of the animals and plants of this ecological zone, drawing on specific well-studied examples.