Evolutionary Biology
gregladen | December 3, 2007Well, not worth it to you, but possibly to the Gordian Worm growing out of your head!
gregladen | December 2, 2007Although secularists maintain that the cacti have evolved over the last two million years, there is very little biological or genetic research on cacti because such research, if published, would reveal the deep irreducible complexity displayed by these plants.
From Conservapedia.
gregladen | November 26, 2007I am very much looking forward to these papers:
In two papers set to be published next week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists report that the two largest groups of flowering plants are more closely related to each other than any of the other major lineages. These are the monocots, which include grasses and their relatives, and the eudicots, which include sunflowers and tomatoes.
Doug and Pam Soltis, a UF professor of botany and curator at UF's Florida Museum of Natural History, respectively, also showed that a stunning diversification of flowering…
gregladen | November 22, 2007Natural Selection is the key creative force in evolution. Natural selection, together with specific histories of populations (species) and adaptations, is responsible for the design of organisms. Most people have some idea of what Natural Selection is. However, it is easy to make conceptual errors when thinking about this important force of nature. One way to improve how we think about a concept like this is to carefully exam its formal definition.
In this post, we will do the following:
Discuss historical and contextual aspects of the term "Natural Selection" in order to make clear…
gregladen | November 19, 2007The question is basic: Is evolutionary change largely random or is it more often shaped by selective forces? The former is linked to what is called Neutral Theory, and it has a lot of support, to the extent that it most likely true. The latter is part of what is sometimes known as the Adaptationist Program, and it is certainly correct. New research on the Development of the Nematode Vulva is sure to cloud the issue even further...
First, a word on this confusing introduction. We know that when we observe life, we do not see a really wide range of degree of adaptation among closely…
gregladen | November 19, 2007Well, this is interesting:
Evolution is deterministic, not random, biologists conclude from multi-species study from PhysOrg.com
A multi-national team of biologists has concluded that developmental evolution is deterministic and orderly, rather than random, based on a study of different species of roundworms. The findings are reported in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology.
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I've got my mouse on the link to read the original paper, but CB is not delivering it. Something wrong with their server. But rest assured, I will get it, I will read it, I will blog it.
neurophilosophy | October 26, 2007
Some 365 million years ago, during the early Devonian period, the Sarcopterygian (or lobe-finned) fish emerged from the sea and gave rise to the first terrestrial tetrapods.
During the course of their evolution, the tetrapods became adapted to life on land. One big challenge faced by the earliest tetrapods was how to interpret the rich tapestry of visual information to which their aquatic ancestors were all but oblivious.
One would think that, having evolved from fish, the visual systems of the early tetrapods would have been poorly adapted to life on land. But new research, just…
neurophilosophy | October 6, 2007
Left lateral view of the whole horse skeleton, from the Handbook of Animal Anatomy for Artists (1898, 1911-25), by Wilhelm Ellenberger, Hermann Baum and Hermann Dittrich. From the Veterinary Anatomical Illustrations at the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections (via BibliOdyssey).
I've just submitted this fantastic post about the evolution of the horse, by Brian Switek, for inclusion in Open Lab 2007, the anthology of the best science blogging of the year that will be published in January.
neurophilosophy | September 26, 2007The New York Times has an article about how Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers and Eugenie Scott (director of the National Center for Science Education) were duped into appearing in Expelled, a film that puts forward the case for intelligent design and depicts science as something that limits freedom of thought.
PZ has written about the affair at length.
neurophilosophy | September 26, 2007Just posted on the Seed website is an article about the evolution of language by Juan Uriageraka, from the October issue of Seed Magazine. Most of the article concerns the role of the FoxP2 gene in the brains of songbirds. (I discussed this gene earlier in the week in my post about echolocation.)
Also on the Seed website are the winners of the second annual Seed Science Writing contest, in which the contestants were asked to write an essay about what it means to be scientifically literate in the 21st century. The winners are Scientific Literacy and the Habit of Disclosure, by Thomas M.…
neurophilosophy | September 18, 2007At some point in the distant past, there was a dramatic increase in brain size in our hominid ancestors. From approximately 2 million years ago, to the present day, brain volume in the hominid lineage has increased by a factor of 3.5: the brain of Homo erectus had a volume of about 400 milliliters, while that of modern humans is roughly 1,400 ml.
The size of the human brain cannot be accounted for merely by an increase in body size, because Homo erectus was similar in size to modern humans, so the driving for this increase in brain size (or "encephalization") is still a topic of debate among…