Evolution, Morphology and Exobiology

I don't claim to know evolutionary theory in detail. Please tell me if there is a flaw in the following: The polio virus occupies a niche. If and when it is eradicated, another virus will evolve to fill the niche.

Birds are descended from dinosaurs, that much is pretty clear, even to a layman like me. I can hardly look at a pigeon walking around on a street without seeing the theropod resemblance. I'm completely willing to accept that at some point (late Triassic, Wikipedia tells me), the most early things we can think of as birds (perhaps archaeopteryx) branched off from other bird-like theropods. What confuses me is when a scientist claims that we should actually classify birds as modern dinosaurs, that is, their class would surely be reptilia rather than aves, and their order surely that of the dinosaurs (though there doesn't seem to be an agreed order). This system of classific…

The sunflower embodies one of nature's most beautiful symmetries. The pattern of seeds in the sunflower uses the golden ratio which is an irrational number. Does evolution as a species also include the plant kingdom? Will evolution continue and produce even more wonderful manifestations in the future? Does nature have a innate harmony that we are yet to discover? Please express your ideas. Thanks in advance.

It is questionable whether imagination was possessed by dinosaurs. However the most gifted humans are known to possess a vivid imagination. How can we explain this. Please express your ideas. Thanks in advance.

In one TV show I caught heard of the theory of an American scientist who has found in biological cells as inseparable parts of a motor and other elements that can not be explained by evolutionary development. Please help me find the name of this scientist.

are all human beings related biologically and genetically? Do all human beings come from the same ancestors? if so then are we all biological brothers and sisters of the same parents who were the ancestors of all human beings? so if i marry some girl does it mean that i am marrying one of my relatives?

Hi, I have to complie a list of examples in nature (non human) of the '7 deadly sins' to try to link with some human behaviour. For example Gluttony: The ornate horned frog. It will eat anything in their path. Even if it is larger/unmanagable. Envy: recent study into capuchin monkeys suggest they display envy when another monkey is seen to be fed 'better' food I have more but I was wondering if any others spring to mind? Thanks for your help! Simon

I find this whole concept fascinating, it got started as I have recently been playing the game Mass Effect, which involves many other alien species. It got me thinking that would other alien species look humanoid, or even be carbon based at all. As we humans are the result of thousands of years of evolution, maybe we have become a particularly effective end product. Would evolution effect aliens in the same way? Would evolution be very similar to species from other planets which have environments similar to that of our planet Earth? I have read a few interesting theories on what extraterrestrial life will look like, and to me due to the sheer vastness of the universe I be…

Recent professional studies (*) have shown that autism may be linked to a shortage of connections of the corpus callosum, as the communication bridge between L and R hemispere. This makes good sense if you know something about autism and the corpus callosum in the brain. (*) Autism and the corpus callosum : research / links : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21489396 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23054201 http://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/ne...ts-into-autism Remark : Building on that i had the following idea (an idea, imagining the future, not scientific proof of course) : Some time in the future, science and technology would be…

Just a quick link to a great series on the anatomy of nature's 'giants', Inside Nature's Giants, available on Channel 4 On Demand and via Youtube: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/inside-natures-giants/4od http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w0EgXPFj68 The team comprising: Mark Evans, an experienced vet and anatomy expert; anatomist Prof. Joy Reidenberg; Simon Watt, an evolutionary biologist; and, Darrell Evans, an expert in human anatomy, work together to dissect a variety of large animals. Episodes The Elephant The Whale The Crocodile The Giraffe The Great White Shark The Monster Python The Big Cats The Polar Bear The Sperm Whale The Camel Th…

If anyone is interested in the history of biology and contemporaries of Darwin, here's a documentary about Frank Buckland, the zoologist and natural historian:

I recently watched a documentary involving an interstellar mission to a fictional alien planet in which the majority of lifeforms on the planet perceived the world around them using a form of echolocation rather than eyes. Echolocation has always interested me, and one thing I notice whenever it is used in movies such as Pitch Black and TV is that from the point of view of the animals/aliens using it, it seems to produce an actual 'visible' image comparable to the way that we see using our eyes, albeit grainy and without colour. Is this biologically accurate or is it simply done for the viewers' benefit? Is it even possible for us to know?

I was recently playing star craft and it got me thinking would a life form like the Zerg be possible to replicate today or soon? For those that dont know the Zerg are able to mutate their bodies to what the need by will or by absorbing DNA from other creatures, they do this in the matter of minutes without the need for offspring. for example the may mutate their exoskeleton to be resistant to heat so they could life in volcanic environments or rapidly heal wounds on their body. I would say that from what I know that is seems plausible for such a creature to exist but perhaps not with abilities to the extent you see in the game. But for the creature being able to b…

Is Deinonychus officially a raptor? Is it technically one, or not at all? A lot of people have referred to them as raptors, but only because Deinonychus inspired the genetically engineered raptors of Jurassic Park.

Obviously there had to have been a point in which humans became behaviourally modern. So if later homo (from homo erectus) ad advanced stone tools, growing linguistic capabilties, more human-esque social behaviour, and even basic abstract thought/feeling as such spirituality, then it stands to reason this must have culminated in modern behaviour. The notion though that this was triggered by a mutation 50,000 years ago seems weird to me. isn't it just as possible that this emerged over many millennia, perhaps before our modern morphology fully emerged (say 100,000 years ago, as the Omo remains are essentially part modern, part archaic).

I myself believe that there is a chance of 2 or more completely distinctive organisms (although,live in different places),through the changes in genetics due to adaptation,can become a same specie and share many similarities. Different families that behave in a same way would eventually develop into a new one without merging or encountering another whatsoever (since their locations are different). For example, fish and cat are located differently ( since cats, in general, are incapable of swimming and fishes, on the other hand, cannot inhaling oxygen directly when out of water). However, through some changes in nature and ,of course, mutation, they undergo different …

I stumbled upon a phylogenetic tree where Archaea evolved from Bacteria after a number of different phyla of bacteria had branched off. Is this accepted because everything else that I have looked at has Archaea branching off earlier?

I recently watched a Horizon documentary about the possibility of life on exoplanets. It talked about the exoplanets discovered that have a sizable fraction of their mass made up of water such as Kepler 22b and seemed to come to the conclusion that all sorts of fish like creatures could live their. But on global ocean thousands of miles deep with no interrupting continents wouldn't all sediments and trace elements settle to the bottom leaving any alien algae starved of nutrients just leaving a global oceanic desert. I dont know how possible life at volcanic vents beneath thousands of miles of water pressure is, but the documentary did not go in that direction instead …

Evolution and natural selection does not explain the human brain, or does it and human history is very, very wrong. The problem with the human brain and human history is that the human brain exceeds our capacity to use it at the current time. This is not a problem with evolution, because evolution works with mutation, so the human brain could have grown to an enormous size through mutation. Even though our use of our mind has not kept pace with it size. The problem is with people who are gifted. I'm not talking about idiot savant's I'm talking about people who have amazing talents and still live perfectly normal lives. People with photographic memories, human calculator…

There has been improvements in simplicity, reliability, functionality, durability and efficiency in mechanics, hydraulics, architecture, engineering... from early designs from past years. What parts, joints, geometry, dimensions, efficiency, design in the human body would you like to see improved ?

As a new journal, Open Biology has got its first IF this year which is about 3.7. Does anyone have any suggestions about how high you think it can be? Thanks~

I'm reading an article titled Malthus and the Evolutionists: The Common Context of Biological and Social Theory in which the author talks about a supposed influence of William Paley's Natural Theology on the development of Darwin's theory. He mentions Paley's observations about adaptations in nature, but he neither gives examples of these nor evidence that this influenced Darwin. He does quote a passage in which Darwin says he read the book as a student and was delighted by it, but he doesn't give concrete evidence that Paley's observations were significant in the development of Darwin's theory. Does anyone know whether Paley was indeed influential for Darwin and wher…

With the re-release of Jurassic Park in 3D, I'm wondering what paleontologists think about the Jurassic Park movies? I know they're not 100% accurate but can they still enjoy the film despite its inaccuracies?

An interesting ongoing debat in the field of biological anthropology is the origin of modern Homo sapiens. "The Recent African Origin hypothesis states that humans evolved as a seperate species in in Africa, and then spread to replace more "archaic" populations of hominids." (Park, 315, Biological Anthropology) A different hypothesis is the Multiregional evolution hypothesis, which states "that humans are about 2 million years old and human traits evolved in geographically diverse locations and then spread through the species." (Park, 315) Both hypotheses are backed up with equally compelling evidence, and some of the general data can be used to suport either model. M…

Each year when salmon swim upstream to spawn, bears and other predators gather to eat them. Also during the annual wildebeest migration, crocodiles gather to feast on the wildebeest as they cross the Mara River in great numbers. There are other examples of where animals gather to hunt at a particular annual event. Is the information that wildebeest will be crossing the river at a particular time of the year learnt by young crocodiles from older ones, or is it a genetically programmed behavior whereby day length, temperature etc triggers the behavior of the crocodiles? It is easier to imagine that this behavior might be learned in bears, but not so easy to imagine…