10.05.11
Accident of evolution in a giraffe
Demonstrating an accident of evolution in a giraffe
By RICHARD DAWKINS – PHARYNGULA
http://richarddawkins.net/videos/643369-demonstrating-an-accident-of-evolution-in-a-giraffe
10.04.11
Zimmer: Can Answers to Evolution Be Found in Slime?
09.27.11
The Enigma of Life’s Stupendous Prodigality
Inconsistent Nature: The Enigma of Life’s Stupendous Prodigality
James Le Fanu
September 27, 2011 6:00 AM
By the latest reckoning we share this planet with more than 8 million species of fish, birds, mammals, insects, fungi, plants etc., etc. — with 6,500 new species being described every year. The more notable of recent discoveries include the Eternal Light Mushroom (mycena luxeterna) from Brazil, which emits a bright yellowish light, and the impressive 6-foot-long Golden Spotted Monitor Lizard that had eluded detection in the dense forests of the Philippines.
The prodigality of these forms of life is, of course, stupendous — where, as broadcaster David Attenborough points out, those spending just a single day in the tropical rain forest may encounter hundreds of different species “moths, caterpillars, spiders, long-nosed bugs, luminous beetles, harmless butterflies masquerading as wasps, wasps shaped like ants, sticks that walk, leaves that open their wings and fly…”
Naturalists have identified 81 different species of frog in a single square mile of the forest in Ecuador and 27 species of woodpecker in Borneo. When beetle expert Terry Erwin spread plastic sheeting on the ground in the Panamanian jungle and sprayed the nearby trees with pesticide, he recovered the bodies of more than eleven hundred novel species.
But that prodigality is also — as the late Robert Wesson of Harvard University points out — deeply puzzling, for every seemingly plausible law of biology that might account for it proves, almost whimsically, to be contradicted by numerous countervailing examples. There is no more self-evident imperative than that living things should be fruitful and multiply so as to generate those random genetic mutations that the evolutionary process reputedly requires. And indeed most do on a fantastical scale: the oyster spews out millions of eggs, trees shed countless seeds, and rabbits breed like rabbits.
Yet many species seem reluctant to procreate. Pandas are notoriously uninterested in the joys of sex so their human keepers seeking to breed them in captivity must resort to giving them Viagra or artificial insemination.
Our primate cousins, the chimpanzees, would be much more numerous than they are were it not, as Jane Goodall describes, that they give birth on average just three times during their 21-year lifespan.
Several types of bird (the albatross and golden eagle) and mammals (the rhinoceros and grizzly bear) have far fewer offspring than they might, while, remarkably, the lizard-like reptile Tuatara indigenous to New Zealand has survived for two hundred million years to become a “living fossil” — despite taking two decades to get round to reproducing and then laying just a single egg every other year.
Or again, the considerable energy and complexities involved in becoming sexually mature should be a prelude to protracted fecundity, but famously many species expire after just a single shot at procreation. It seems distinctly odd that butterflies should undergo the miracle of metamorphosis from one form of life to another (with all that entails) to produce just a single batch of eggs. And, on a much grander scale, the same applies to the salmon and eel whose migration across thousands of miles proves so exhausting that they die after relieving themselves of their sperm and eggs.
Then, while for the most part the cardinal rule of adaptation holds where all living things are beautifully adapted to their way of life (birds and insects for flying, fish for swimming), it seems merely perverse that the fairy wasp and water spider should have opted instead to spend their lives under water or that birds such as the ostrich and emu should have lost the power of flight.
Many species that might seem exceptionally well adapted for “the survival of the fittest” are surprisingly uncommon. The scarce African hunting dog has the highest kill rate of any predator on the savannah, while cheetahs may have no difficulty in feeding themselves thanks to their astonishing speediness — but are a hundred times less common than lions.
Contrariwise many creatures do much less than they might to defend themselves. “The Tarantula lives by seizing and feeding on insects,” writes Robert Wesson. “But when a spider-killing wasp appears it makes no effort to discourage its nemesis from injecting its paralyzing sting.”
Perplexing too are those inconsistencies of nature where the powerful instinctive drives for food, shelter and sex become perverted for futile ends — as with the species of beetle, described by naturalist E.L. Grant Watson, that is powerfully attracted by the sweet scent of nectar but quite unable to satisfy its desire to taste it.
This small creature laboriously climbs the flower stem before positioning itself on a petal facing towards the honey cups at its base. But its mouthparts are not designed to reach the nectar so instead it bites through the petal with its mandibles. “The petal falls off, with the beetle, to the ground. Undeterred by this failure it proceeds to creep up the flower stem once again only for the whole process to repeat itself. It never learns by experience or gets to taste that sweet smelling nectar.”
The purpose of such inconsistencies, if there is one, must be to remind us that Nature is too profound to be readily accessible to the finite human mind. And while many aspects of the diverse being and ways of life are more or less well described, hardly anything is really understood.
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2011/09/inconsistent_nature051281.html
ID is not science…
Intelligent Design Creationism is not Science By JAMES WILLIAMS – JAMESDWILLIAMS.WORDPRESS.COM
Added: Monday, 26 September 2011 at 12:32 PM
I’m just back from the BBC studio in Brighton having done 9 regional interviews/debates on the issue of teaching intelligent design creationism as science in schools.
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/643253-intelligent-design-creationism-is-not-science
Youngest Nodosaur Ever Discovered
Fossil of an Armored Dinosaur Hatchling: Youngest Nodosaur Ever Discovered
ScienceDaily (Sep. 14, 2011) — Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with help from an amateur fossil hunter in College Park, Md., have described the fossil of an armored dinosaur hatchling. It is the youngest nodosaur ever discovered, and a founder of a new genus and species that lived approximately 110 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous Era. Nodosaurs have been found in diverse locations worldwide, but they’ve rarely been found in the United States. The findings are published in the September 9 issue of the Journal of Paleontology.
09.23.11
Tree of Life for Mammals
Evolutionary Tree of Life for Mammals Greatly ImprovedScienceDaily (Sep. 23, 2011) — An international research team led by biologists at the University of California, Riverside and Texas A&M University has released for the first time a large and robust DNA matrix that has representation for all mammalian families. The matrix — the culmination of about five years of painstaking research — has representatives for 99 percent of mammalian families, and covers not only the earliest history of mammalian diversification but also all the deepest divergences among living mammals.
09.21.11
Primitive Birds Shared Dinosaurs’ Fate
Primitive Birds Shared Dinosaurs’ FateScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2011) — A new study puts an end to the longstanding debate about how archaic birds went extinct, suggesting they were virtually wiped out by the same meteorite impact that put an end to dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
09.20.11
Not Just Skin Deep
Not Just Skin Deep: CT Study of Early Humans Reveals Evolutionary Relationships
ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2011) — CT scans of fossil skull fragments may help researchers settle a long-standing debate about the evolution of Africa’s Australopithecus, a key ancestor of modern humans that died out some 1.4 million years ago. The study, to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, explains how CT scans shed new light on a classic evolutionary puzzle by providing crucial information about the internal anatomy of the face.
New Technique Fills Gaps
New Technique Fills Gaps in Fossil RecordScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2011) — University of Pennsylvania evolutionary biologists have resolved a long-standing paleontological problem by reconciling the fossil record of species diversity with modern DNA samples.
09.18.11
Repost on epigenetics
We linked to this yesterday, but it deserves another relink: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110916152401.htmScientists Discover ‘Hidden’ Code in DNA Evolves More Rapidly Than Genetic Code
ScienceDaily (Sep. 16, 2011) — A “hidden” code linked to the DNA of plants allows them to develop and pass down new biological traits far more rapidly than previously thought, according to the findings of a groundbreaking study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
09.17.11
Australopithecus sediba: The Hype-Cycle Starts Again
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2011/09/australopithecus_sediba_the_hy050831.html
09.15.11
Design arguments vs Darwin critiques
One of the strange things about the ID group is the way they think they represent design arguments. If anything, the ancient design argument, visible in Socrates, has been spoiled by these people. I am baffled that a group would try to enforce an orthodoxy of rightwing politics among Darwin critics. Laughable. But that is what they have wrought, and the result is strangely an ace in the hole for the Darwin paradigm. All they have to do is to point to the rightwing kooks who propose design arguments. I know from experience here that as a result even mentioning the design argument can provoke insane wrath from mainstream Darwinists..
Since I don’t really believe in the ‘design’ argument, there isn’t a problem therefore. But the fact is that ‘design’ arguments won’t go away, however much the Bible Belt might discredit them. More on that later, but I think that the turning point came with Philip Johnson, and then Behe. Michael Denton in his book on Darwinism never allowed the design argument to enter the critique. His later book on ‘fine-tuning’ was reasonable enough, and a disciplined version of that argument. A far cry from the garbled design mania that came into existence after Philip Johnson (who also disciplined his first book to not peddle design).
I think that a new and different type of design argument can be explored, but that is no longer an option given the chaos created by the Discovery gang, and the Bible Belt.
Let me say it clearly: the Old Testament is NOT evidence of theistic design in history. Until that is clear, the real design argument will be constantly muddled by Christians and Jews.
09.13.11
Is “missing link” a useful concept?
‘Lucy’ discoverer
‘Lucy’ discoverer: Why I study human evolution
By DONALD C. JOHANSON – CNN
Added: Monday, 12 September 2011 at 10:25 PM
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/643070-lucy-discoverer-why-i-study-human-evolution
Article also has a video interview with Richard Leakey and Donald Johanson
My deep commitment to understand the origins of humankind was ignited when I read Thomas Henry Huxley’s 1863 book “Man’s Place in Nature.” The core idea that gripped my teenage mind was the suggestion that humans and African apes shared a common ancestor that roamed Africa millions of years ago.
I was riveted by the 1959 discovery of a 1.8 million-year-old skull at Olduvai Gorge and I knew that I wanted to travel to Africa and join the search for our ancestors. The allure of conducting fieldwork in remote unexplored regions of Africa dominated my thoughts throughout my undergraduate and graduate studies.
In 1970, Professor F. Clark Howell at the University of Chicago invited me to join his expedition to the remote Omo region of southern Ethiopia. From the moment I set foot on African soil I knew my life would be filled with adventure and hopefully discovery. The thrill of field research surpassed my dreams. Every day I collected fossil remains of pigs, elephants, hippos, monkeys, gazelles, and other creatures. These discoveries were revealing the past world in which we evolved.
After three summers of not finding a scrap of human bone, my resolve was beginning to wane. But in 1973 I signed on as co-director of an expedition to the remote and poorly explored Afar region of Ethiopia. Here vast fossil fields offered unparalleled opportunity and I was convinced that this is where I would find hominid fossils. On that very first expedition to a place locally known as Hadar I found a 3.4 Million Years Ago fossil hominid knee joint. Extensive study of the bones revealed that in virtually every detail the knee was identical to ours. This creature had walked upright and therefore deserved a place on the human family tree.
On my eager return to Hadar in the fall of 1974 the major goal was to find fossils complete enough to identify the species that had walked with that knee. Almost immediately we found teeth and jaws of roughly the same antiquity as the knee. The anatomy of these specimens was more ape-like than any that had been previously found in Africa. Darwin and Huxley would have been elated had they been alive to see the finds.
On November 24, 1974, a hot Sunday morning I was completing a routine mapping exercise and I spotted a three-inch long bone fragment that would change my life. As I kneeled down to more closely inspect the anatomy of the fragment I knew instantly it was part of a hominid elbow.
Looking around to see if more of this individual was there I saw a chunk of lower jaw, a shard of skull, a fragment of a vertebra and ribs. Each specimen was unquestionably hominid and I knew it was a partial skeleton of a human ancestor that had lain in suspended animation for 3.2 million years and had been exposed by rain erosion.
This was childhood dream come true and I knew my life would dramatically change. The bones were diminutive, probably a female and sometime during the evening celebration the skeleton was christened Lucy (after Beatles’ song, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”).
Przewalski’s horse
Endangered Horse Has Ancient Origins and High Genetic Diversity, New Study Finds
ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2011) — An endangered species of horse — known as Przewalski’s horse — is much more distantly related to the domestic horse than researchers had previously hypothesized, reports a team of investigators led by Kateryna Makova, a Penn State University associate professor of biology.
09.12.11
Ancient Predatory Fish Discovered
New Species of Ancient Predatory Fish DiscoveredScienceDaily (Sep. 12, 2011) — The Academy of Natural Sciences has announced the discovery of a new species of large predatory fish that prowled ancient North American waterways during the Devonian Period, before backboned animals existed on land.
09.11.11
Ancient sharks
Tiny Teeth Indicate Ancient Shark NurseriesScienceDaily (Sep. 11, 2011) — Fueled by Hollywood and its vision of Jaws, sharks conjure images of fearsome predators patrolling our seas in search of their next unfortunate victim. It is therefore hard to imagine sharks as relatively small, harmless fishes living in lakes and rivers, as many species were more than 200 million years ago. Some scientists have suggested that these ancient sharks bred in the shallows of freshwater lakes, forming nurseries for their hatchlings
09.10.11
Descent of man: incoherence and constant paradigm changes
Comment of Aus. Sediba: I don’t pay too much attention to this claims. The basic perspective seems to change every few years leaving the whole question in a state of incoherence.
Enezio E. de Almeida Filho
201.78.49.174 Submitted on 2011/09/10 at 5:23 am
I am not impressed with these studies published in Science. Sounds like Ardipithecus Ramidus to me! And Science published the Ardi story, too!!!I am not impressed with these studies published in Science. Sounds like Ardipithecus Ramidus to me! And Science published the Ardi story, too!!!
Enezio E. de Almeida Filhohttp://pos-darwinista.blogspot.com
1
Hummingbirds All A-Flutter During Courtship
Hummingbirds All A-Flutter During Courtship: How Fluttering Feathers Can Generate Courtship Sounds
ScienceDaily (Sep. 10, 2011) — Though famous for their mid-air hovering during hunting, tiny hummingbirds have another trait that is literally telltale: males of some hummingbird species generate loud sounds with their tail feathers while courting females. Now, for the first time, the cause of these sounds has been identified: a paper published in the Sept. 9, 2011 issue of Science by Christopher Clark of Yale University reveals that air flowing past the tail feathers of a male hummingbird makes his tail feathers flutter and thereby generate fluttering sounds.
09.09.11
Fixed body plans
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2011/09/post_30050611.html
Biochemist Michael Denton (Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, Nature’s Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe) was in our offices this week and he casually posed a question that I, for one, had never considered. Hundreds of millions of years ago, all these animal body plans became fixed. They stayed as they were and still are so today.
Before that — I’m putting this my way, so if I get anything wrong blame me — of course they had been, under Darwinian assumptions, morphing step-by-step, with painful gradualness. Then they just stopped and froze in their tracks.
Australopithecus Sediba
Australopithecus Sediba Paved the Way for Homo Species, New Studies Suggest
ScienceDaily (Sep. 8, 2011) — Researchers have revealed new details about the brain, pelvis, hands and feet of Australopithecus sediba, a primitive hominin that existed around the same time early Homo species first began to appear on Earth. The new Au. sediba findings make it clear that this ancient relative displayed both primitive characteristics as well as more modern, human-like traits. And due to this “mosaic” nature of the hominin’s features, researchers are now suggesting that Au. sediba is the best candidate for an ancestor to the Homo genus.
09.08.11
African fossils
African fossils put new spin on human origins story
By JONATHAN AMOS – BBC NEWS -SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
Added: Thursday, 08 September 2011 at 1:23 PM
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/642995-african-fossils-put-new-spin-on-human-origins-story
Berlinski, 2/5
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 06, 2011
Science & Religion with David Berlinski: Chapter 2 of 5
David Berlinski discusses why he thinks Darwin’s theory is flawed.
PERMALINK
http://tv.nationalreview.com/uncommonknowledge/post/?q=MTc4ZDM0Zjc5YWU4NzhjODA1NzA0ZmRjODhiNjBmOGU=
David Berlinski
09.07.11
It Wasn’t Just Neanderthals
09.06.11
Ancient Humans Were Mixing It Up
Ancient Humans Were Mixing It Up: Anatomically Modern Humans Interbred With More Archaic Hominin Forms While in Africa
ScienceDaily (Sep. 5, 2011) — It is now widely accepted that the species Homo sapiens originated in Africa and eventually spread throughout the world. But did those early humans interbreed with more ancestral forms of the genus Homo, for example Homo erectus, the “upright walking man,” Homo habilis, — the “tool-using man” or Homo neanderthalensis, the first artists of cave-painting fame?
Read the rest of this entry »
09.05.11
Mutation and land-based plants
http://trinitybook.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/genetic-mutation-led-to-the-first-land-based-plants/
09.02.11
Woolly Rhino Fossil Discovery
Woolly Rhino Fossil Discovery in Tibet Provides Important Clues to Evolution of Ice Age Giants
ScienceDaily (Sep. 1, 2011) — A new paper published in the journal Science reveals the discovery of a primitive woolly rhino fossil in the Himalayas, which suggests some giant mammals first evolved in present-day Tibet before the beginning of the Ice Age. The extinction of Ice Age giants such as woolly mammoths and rhinos, giant sloths, and saber-tooth cats has been widely studied, but much less is known about where these giants came from, and how they acquired their adaptations for living in a cold environment.
09.01.11
Dawkins advocates his own denounced ‘child abuse’
Dawkins et al. blame religionists of child abuse, and now this:
Teach five-year-olds Darwin’s theory of evolution, says Professor Richard Dawkins
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2032485/Teach-year-olds-Darwins-theory-evolution-says-Professor-Richard-Dawkins.html#ixzz1Win2Tmpq
Part of the problem now is the way that everyone is indoctrinated in natural selection in the name of evolution. Doing this to five year olds!
NOT!
Liberals’ View of Darwin
Coulter Op-ed: Liberals’ View of Darwin Unable to Evolve
Read more: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=45893#ixzz1WihMKXyp