Evolution, Morphology and Exobiology

I am wondering if "survival of the fittest" is actually what determines selection. I have read that it is survival of the fittest to reproduce or selection of the most successful at reproducing.

This is something I have been thinking of for a while and I wonder if there is a simple way to measure the efficiency of bipedal and quadrupedal gait (of animals) in order to compare the relative efficiency of both. Anatomically, I assume it is from the power applied to a moving object or from absolute contraction of muscle to a known standard force. Biochemically, I was thinking on the lines of measuring intramuscular ATP following heavy, standard exercise. However, I am struggling to find material, references, etc... on this topic. Are there any clues out there?

Is it advantageous to "know" "you" want to survive? Did self awareness evolve from selective pressure in social groups? Was it an opporunistic adaption available because of flexable functions synergistic with brain expansion for creative ability to make tools? To what extent do other species exhibit self awareness, is it correlated with tool use? Does ironically our theory of mind bias us from pursing an objective answer?

Which is the most acute of the five senses ?

Hello everyone, i am just a science lover and photographer. A couple month ago i doscover something and i share this with my friend and i make a youtube video about it. My friends though that is makesense and they like this idea and i curious that what will you think about it. Its about why honey combs are hexogonal. I compare honey combs and other natural hexagone shapes like turtle shells and some flovers. And if an hexagone can occurs naturally then it should be a need firstly. And i found that its connected to a geometrical rule of there is only 6 circle arround a circle if all that 7 circle are same size. And if it is, then all round material face to swelling…

On the shore they found bones and teeth of an ancient animal the length of a fragment of a tooth of 7,5cm of the edge of tooth at the circumferenceof wavy has 7 waves.The tooth may have preserved the dentin.There is also a tibia, vertebrae the size from tip to tip 26cm. What is this animal? Maybe it 's the bones and teeth of varios animals,they were in one place.

Basically the solutrean hypothesis states europeans made it to the americas first. Evidence comes from archaeological finds on the east coast that date older than ones on the west coast. If "beringians" came to the americas first woudlnt we expect to find older artifacts on the west coast instead of the east coast? http://archaeology.about.com/od/cterms/g/cactushill.htm http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/new-evidence-suggests-stone-age-hunters-from-europe-discovered-america-7447152.html

My guess is that if all prokaryotes were suddenly removed, then eukaryotes would soon become extinct. But remove all eukaryotes, and some prokaryotes would survive. Any thoughts?

Hi i am doing an assignment on the evolution of the Emperor Penguin. I am struggling to find its earliest ancestor I have so far got to 'Waimanu' but i have been asked to look even further back. Can anyone help with this or know of any useful resources??

I'd like to share my new website with you all: url deleted by moderator It uses interactive maps to chart the story of hominid evolution and migration over the course of 7 million years. You can click on different dates to see the maps change over time and you can click on the archaeological finds on the maps to see pictures and link to more information. Please give me any feedback with regards to any errors, site design, functionality, and content. Thanks.

Is there any advantage of having large ears ? Is there any priority in the way the brain processes sensory inputs eg. visual over auditory ? Please advise.

Can anyone shed some light on the evolution of the replication mechanics for the lagging strand in DNA replication? It seems to me that that was a huge molecular evolution hurdle to overcome for DNA to have replaced RNA as the main genetic storage template. Any thoughts, theories, or links would be appreciated.

Let’s suppose that you create an idea in your mind about an entity that you plan on making, for example a clay sculpture of a dog. Since we are material entities, composed of atoms and molecules we can say that this newly created idea in your mind is a newly created arrangement of atoms(neurons in your brain) - AA_1. After that, you draw out the sculpture you plan on making in order to get an idea of where everything goes and how the shapes will meet up. You draw a highly detailed sketch to get accurate representation of your previously created idea. Since drawing is created using graphite pencil, our newly created drawing is newly created arrangement of carbon ato…

We designed a complex ecosystem simulation platform that we use to investigate many difficult theoretical ecology problems. In our recent PLOS ONE publication, we show that the notion of species is universal and automatically emerged from systems as long as they are complex enough to allow natural selection to occur. The species we observed emerging in our artificial world have the same properties as the ones observed in nature. We show that natural selection alone, with no need for spatial separation or sexual selection mechanisms, is enough for speciation events to occur. This is the first time that such result has been obtain without any bias from an external exper…

I'd rather this thread not drift into things like creation versus evolution or wave particle duality etc. I would like to see if I can post a non controversial thread on this forum! Maybe global warming next thread. Sight historically gives a selective advantage.It depends on transparency of the media of the eye for light to reach the retina.The cornea, aqueous, vitreous gel are very transparent and get this in different ways. The cornea is made up of water and an extracellular matrix of materials that one might think should be opaque.They are organized in such a way that transparency and refraction occur. The cornea does most of the eye's refraction.it i…

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?…

i am a student of pharmacy. i want to know how can i start a career in exobiology.

How does air gets in the hollow of bird bones ? Is it somehow renewed or stale ?

Two scientists have recently developed a new model to explain how could early replicating molecules could have worked. I cannot explain it because I found it rather crazy, complex, and highly unlikely to represent a real scenario. However, it was published in a respectable journal and for anyone interested it can be found here: http://phys.org/news/2015-07-life-emergence-self-replication-early-earth.html If life seems to be a sum of chemical reactions, and everytime a system of chemical reactions becomes repeatable, this helps it to sustain itself in the long term. Gradual complexity could be built and sustained in this way. Organic molecules can be created and …

How does macroevolution happen slowly, if the "stems" of those mutations are useless? Does it actually happen faster than I've thought, like in a couple grandchildren later. That would make more sense to me for now. Is it so? Elaboration: How can macroevolution happen slowly, if for example, only 0,2% of a wing has to evolve first? That would be useless, so why does the mutation last until it becomes an enough of a wing to actually make any difference? Or have I just misunderstood how "divides on the species level" happen, and it never does actually happen like that?

Before I look into embryology further. I was wondering why are some organs are singular; the heart, liver, pancreas, gall bladder, appendix and maybe the cecum, bladder and stomach, (although part of the bilatterally symetric gut, are not symmetrical themselves). Do they form on the axis of symmetry and migrate to their positions? Most seem to be quite symmentrical if you rotate them so they line up with the axis. All of these seem to be related to the uptake, transport and regulation of nutrients and so are linked to the gut. The kidneys and lungs stand out as odd here in relation. What is the explanation for these apparent anomalies?

How are some Animals Transparent???... How get the Light through ist tissues???... What are the physical characteristics of this tissues???... The Transparent Lences of our Eyes have inside the cells no nucleus...

I know that crocodilians have been here since the time of the dinosaurs. I also know that crocodiles came first during the Cretaceous. But alligators have been here for a good 37 million years. Did alligators come from crocodiles when the crocs swam into freshwater areas? I think it was like this: It started off with crocs in saltwater. The crocs swam into less salty areas. In Indonesia they evolved into freshwater crocodiles and stayed that way. In the USA though it was different. Some crocs at the tip of Florida lead to the modern american crocodile. Some though evolved into freshwater crocodiles. But it didn't stay that way. With the abundance of large prey the ones …

What are the differences of Microevolution and Macroevolution???... First Example: Tiger = 38 Chromosomes Lion = 38 Chromosomes In the Zoo they make fertil offspring of Hybrids of Tiger+Lion and of Lion+Tiger Second Example: Horse = 64 Chromosomes Donkey = 62 Chromosomes They make Mule Hybrids = 63 Chromosomes that are NOT fertil In the First example Macroevolution seems to be Microevolution in large time... In the Second example the Macroevolution seems to be one chromosom Number change...

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this question. I was thinking about the development of the human mind which led me to wonder how the human brain has evolved to facilitate this. If the mind arises from the function of the brain, I wondered when the human brain developed to the point where it was capable of thinking like a modern human. I googled the question and after reading several articles, was left not much the wiser. I found little to describe how the internal structures of the brain might have changed in that time. As far as I could tell we know the size, shape and general surface arrangement of the brain from fossil evidence. But the main…