Many animals — from locusts to fish — live in groups and swarm, but scientists aren’t sure why or how this behavior evolved. Now a multidisciplinary team of Michigan State University scientists has used a model system to show for the first time that predator confusion can make prey evolve swarming behavior.
Tag Evolution
Science Daily – May 24, 2013 — A new study by archaeologists at the University of York challenges evolutionary theories behind the development of our earliest ancestors from tree dwelling quadrupeds to upright bipeds capable of walking and scrambling.
The researchers say our upright gait may have its origins in the rugged landscape of East and South Africa which was shaped during the Pliocene epoch by volcanoes and shifting tectonic plates.
Science Daily: May 15, 2013 — Two fossil discoveries from the East African Rift reveal new information about the evolution of primates, according to a study published online in Nature this week led by Ohio University scientists.
The team’s findings document the oldest fossils of two major groups of primates: the group that today includes apes and humans (hominoids), and the group that includes Old World monkeys such as baboons and macaques (cercopithecoids).
Some interesting fossil news from Science Daily:
May 14, 2013 — An international team of scientists have revealed a new species of ichthyosaur (a dolphin-like marine reptile from the age of dinosaurs) from Iraq, which revolutionises our understanding of the evolution and extinction of these ancient marine reptiles.
The great thing about fossil discoveries is that they fit, and are often predicted. Case in point here. However, as with this find, many questions are raised. Silly people go, “Aha! A question! My, this can only be answered by positing ‘God’!”
Of course, clever people leave it to science. Which is good at coming up trumps and answering stuff…
So, complexity is supposedly a tough one for ‘evolutionists’. Well, it’s not really, if you have ever read around the subject. Incremental steps, such as is evidence with the eye in all its various complexities throughout the natural world, seem to do the trick.
A few days ago, Cdesign proponentsist JoeG challenged me to a $10,000 bet over which one of us understands the concept of nested hierarchies better. I accepted his challenge and won and he decided to chicken out and lie about the bet.
There has been a mammoth conversation going on over on another post, Creationist stakes $10,000 on contest between Bible and evolution. Regular IDist commenter, JoeG, a major proponent of pseudoscientific unguided evolution. That means to say he broadly agrees to evolution, but claims there is no evidence it is unguided and plenty of evidence it is guided. Apart from the fact that he neglects to ever provide any of this evidence whilst at the same time demanding that we provide positive evidence that evolution is unguided.
I was recently sent a link to Thomas L. McDonald’s piece “The Origin of Man, Original Sin, and Why It’s…
Biased political statements in Accelerated Christian Education schools’ curriculum may be incompatible with new standardsAn Ace English test question. The ‘correct’ answer is b.
The Accelerated Christian Education (Ace) group of fundamentalist schools has gone largely unnoticed by academic researchers and the mainstream media. Recent changes to legislation could mean the education they provide does not meet new standards.
I wonder what our very own Andy Schueler thinks of this, as an molecular evolutionary biologist! The Guardian reports:
Creator of Literal Genesis Trial believes people who argue in favor of evolution are at a scientific disadvantage
Recent measurements of the rate at which children show DNA changes not seen in their parents — the “mutation rate” — have challenged views about major dates in human evolution.
This is a fascinating article. It amazes me that parents can torture their children with AIG inspired textbooks. This is an albeit small step in the right direction:
No need to write a commentary about this. Just read it. Shit me.
In evolutionary biology, there is a deeply rooted supposition that you can’t go home again: Once an organism has evolved specialized traits, it can’t return to the lifestyle of its ancestors.There’s even a name for this pervasive idea. Dollo’s law states that evolution is unidirectional and irreversible. But this “law” is not universally accepted and is the topic of heated debate among biologists.
A scanning electron microscope image of an American house dust mite. (Credit: G. Bauchan and R. Ochoa)
Now a research team led by
As ever, divesting the news from Science Daily for your perusal: Feb. 19, 2013 — Understanding how and why diversification occurs…
Oh shit. UPDATE: On February 19, HB1674 passed through the Oklahoma Common Education committee on a 9-8 vote. In biology class, public…
As if any was needed.
Science Daily – Feb. 14, 2013 — A genome-wide analysis searching for evidence of long-lived balancing selection — where the evolutionary process acts not to select the single best adaptation but to maintain genetic variation in a population — has uncovered at least six regions of the genome where humans and chimpanzees share the same combination of genetic variants.
Here is a concise synopsis from Smilodon’s Retreat, here at SIN. I am fascinated with endogenous retroviruses (ERVs). It seems that they are simply not adequately explained on a creationism thesis. This usually entails trying to debunk them since they have no other answer!
Mwah! In light of Darwin Day… I love this one: