Evolution, Morphology and Exobiology

Maybe a mess is a bit strong, but undergoing change that makes some things a bit problematic? I can understand that applying strict cladistic principles is important in evolutionary study. And I think that many (evolutionary) biologists may only be interested in closeness of relationships and branch points and less interested in naming and grouping things. But I'm also wondering how important it is that new insights into relationships filter through to the lay person. Do people need to understand the slightly unscientific nature of groupings such as reptile, bird, mammal or dinosaur in their traditional meaning. Or can we go on using these names without a problem?…

Early in the human history, when the individual could hardly be rendered as human by modern standard, wars or conflicts between tribes were usual. The idea that a member should contribute the tribe but not the rivaling tribe was necessary for sustaining the glory of a tribe. This resulted in the basis for the religion that a member should have as little relationship with a member from other opposing tribes. Punishment was expected for those who betrayed this meme. Under such a condition, a member who remained ‘loyal’ to his tribe would be credited and the opposite would be disregarded, and this would easily favor the emergence of gene, if any, which distinguished between …

What is the major obstacle that prevents recombinant technology to be used in humans? Thanks

Simply My question is how instinct happens.. or what is the origin of instinct ??

The somatic mutation theory (SMT) is being called into question. After 60 years it has failed to elucidate the specific mutations allegedly required to induce tumour development and cancer progression and fails to explain the vast majority of hallmarks as defined by Hanahan and Weinberg in their 'next generation' update: '...despite 65 years of research on the mutation theory, there is still no proof for even one set of mutations that is able to convert a normal cell to a cancer cell.' https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6115917/ '‘...mutations are increasingly being questioned as the causal event in the origin of the vast majority of cancers …

I would like to ask a couple of questions regarding the vestigial strucure known as the Coccyx. Some people deny its vestigiality arguing that it serves as an anchor point of nine - 9 - muscles. My questions are: 1) How do these 9 muscles and their functions compare to the muscles attached on the tailbone of caudate animals? For example (please correct me if I'm wrong!): One of the 9 muscles attached on the human Coccyx is the Levator Ani muscle, which in caudate animals serves to the motion of the tail, whereas in humans it plays a role in defecation. It stroke me though noticing more than one of the cats that live in my garden moving their tail like the handle …

I am half way through this book (it's wonderful by the way), and am interested to find out if any of you have read it? There is substantive section covering evidence, and overlapping cultures of Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal, and of course plausible theories why Neanderthal died out. I highly recommend this book but would like to pick up a related discourse. Lena

i am working on a space simulator with various life forms do life forms like these seem plausible? gooncorp

Are mosasaurs more closely related to snakes or monitor lizards? Various morphological characteristics such as features in the skull point to at least in-between, or closer to snakes. Having seen a fossil of Tylosaurus myself, while it looked indoubtedly snakelike, I also recognized that it had common featues with modern monitors. Anyone is welcome to discuss their various homologies with snakes and monitors or where they fit in that particular family tree.

Ok, this just completely made my day: The Thagomizer You just can't beat a science that names portions of animal anatomy after Far Side cartoons.... Mokele

I came across something the other day that was curious to me. An angler was demonstrating to someone how a green laser pointer can spook off water birds that are causing a nuisance. He pointed it at a coot's head and sure enough it flew off. He then pointed it at a moorhen that was pretty close in the bushes and it carried on completely oblivious even though the light shone across an eye at times. Does this mean that moorhens are totally blind to green?

-women dont have to find a succesful, dominant male to support them or a family... they can provide for themsevles. -premarital pregnancy has less taboo than in prior generations. -contraceptives are more and more common. what will be the result of the progeny of the coming generations since there is less pressure of selective mating forces and sexual selection between men and women? Isn't it basically recessives mating with dominants at random, instead of dominants mating with dominants, and recessive with recessive? Is this in theory random mating gone mad?..depleting homogenous genes? Im at best a laymen when it comes to evolution, so please giv…

While I wouldn’t disagree that gender is (partly) a construct I don’t think that means it isn’t real. Language, money, ethics and art are all social constructs and are real (depends ng on the definition for f “real”).

most creatures use gestures and body launguge companied by chemical language ( Pheromones , Psychedlic Compounds ) and possible senses that we have yet to discover or understand. Vocal lanuage is common of most higher familys of animalea . And Plants and fungi can possibly communicate from plant to animal via psychedelic compounds , but is there any information on plant to plant synntax ? Fungi to plant ? fungi ti fungi?Are all chemicals a form of communication. such as a chemical setting off a certian receptor thus causing a recation. i beilve all is communication including the synapes between nerouns . im gonna keep researching and see what i can find.

The new concepts on the origination of the first simple microscopic single celled organisms on earth (The spark of life). In summary the first single celled organisms may have been formed from a series of extremely complex reactions or combination processes, involving different substances. Most of the combination processes or the combining of the substances can only take place in the presence of large amounts of energy and at extremely high pressures and along with high pressure comes high temperature. How life was first formed on earth: The best environments needed for the creation of life. These environments would have to provide the right ingredients, combi…

I was wondering when scientist figured out when oxygen took a place in evolution. When did they know that oxygen was a byproduct before it was essential for life. At what time did they figure out that oxygen came later?

Hi, I have a question about the evolution of sexual traits I want to understand. Specifically, the lion's mane, another animal that's a perfect example is the male peacock. The way I percieved what I've read about this morphed trait (mane of lion) is that a male has a mane because the females favored it the same goes for the beautiful feathers of a male peacock. So how does a trait such as a mane know the opposite sex favors it? For one thing didn't it have to be there first for the opposite sex to know if they liked it or not?

Hi, What evolutionary advantage do leaf margin morphologies (dentate, crenate, siliate etc. cf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaf) confer compared to a plain smooth edge ? My first idea would be that having more "edge" makes for swifter gas exchanges (a damp sheet of paper dries at the edges first). Thanks for your help, McCrunchy

For mutations to occur evolution they have to be in the germ line for natural selection to take this process from here. Please help me with the math: My understanding is there are 50 and 500 billion mutations in humans in every generation. At 1/10 of 1% rate there is 2 to 20 million mutations per year. Out of these numbers how many actually occur in the germ line? The average female produces 2 million eggs at birth but by the time she can reproduce she only has 200 and 300 viable eggs in her lifetime. On average women produce 2 children in their lifetime. I don't see how natural selection works in evolution regarding mutations. If anything it works…

I am not a professional in this field so please bear with my ignorance. I try to be science literate where ever I can. My question is: Do genetics broadly and haplogroups more specifically rule out humans descending from more than one gene pool of common ancestors? To put it another way: Could it be possible that there was more than one beginning of Homo Sapiens than a single population in Africa 200-300K years ago? Thanks.

I've known for a while that after humans, dolphins are considered the most intelligent race. Some even say that from a biological point of view, dolphins are capable of even more intelligence and "processing power" than man! But among the many things intelligence implies, the part I'm curious about for this discussion is language. From what I understood, dolphins communicate via sonar in a way similar to the morse code. I used to think that this is an ability only them and perhaps a few undiscovered races possess. But several days ago, I saw a documentary about prairie dogs and their communication system, which revealed something surprising: They store information in the …

Irreducible Complexity JAVA Applet(you will need a browser enabled Java VM) This applet runs a "genetic selection" simulation. Basically it "homogenizes" the population. You have to run it fast (>>>) for a minute or two, or ~100 to ~2000 generations. The end result is a geneticly evolved piece that does not "evolve" anymore (that is to say, in my understanding, the removal of half the population always removes everything other than what is "IC"). Irreducible Complexity Demystified:

i thought i'd go fishing for any ideas that people may have regarding the evolution of adaptive immunity. for those who don't know what adaptive immunity is, it is the part of the immune system that is involved with pathogen processing and specific recognition. within our lifetime, our immune systems undergo evolution, of course its capacity to do so does ultimately influence our final evolution. from a thread last week, i raised the point that the first appearance of molecules which are central to the adaptive immune response date back 400-450 million years ago/the Devonshire period in sharks/cartilaginous fish. in this same thread, another writer pointed out tha…

How are Sexual Selection and Animal Adaptations correlated? I'm guessing animals adapt in order to become more appealing to possible mates (sexual selection)??