Evolution, Morphology and Exobiology

Is there any information/discussion, etc. out there on any aspect of turning carnivores into herbivores? Do plants exist in the environment of most carnivores that have the nutrients a carnivore needs and is it just a matter of a carnivore metabolizing them differently and gaining the instinct to eat veggies? Learning to climb trees and growing different teeth might be necessary depending on the animal and there may an appendix issue but I bet there's at least one species of carnivore that would need nothing but a change in instinct to become a successful vegetarian. Any ideas on what the best choice of species would be for such an experiment? Benefits might be an eas…

How does Polydactyl affects humans and animals?

I found an interesting video that reveals the “dark side” of human reproductive strategies. What is your opinion ?

Does anyone know if Pinnae Size has any effect on ear sensitivity and echolocation?

Let me start out by saying that I recognize these are rather controversial questions. By me asking these questions, please do not assume that I believe in/condone this sort of thinking. I am merely asking scientific questions. Taking Herbert Spencer's theory regarding survival of the fittest and Charles Darwin's theory on natural selection, we see how animals select ideal mates through which to propagate their offspring. It follows that animals that are not ideal have a greater difficulty finding a mate. It is similar as well to how stronger specimens will commonly dominate territory, food chain, mates, etc.... Humans behave differently though. Humans take car…

I have a Youtube account where I am discussing religion and science. I am currently working on a video project on dog evolution. I'd like to find out about their canine ancestors who lived millions of years ago. Does anyone know of any good resources? Thanks

The nature versus nurture argument about human behaviour has been going on for a long time. I have always thought that, as a general rule, purely as a mental tool, it is good to consider most human behaviours to be about 50:50 unless there is good data to show otherwise. This is not exact science, but the study of human behaviour is rarely exact science either. The 50:50 idea might be a useful mental tool though? I have also thought that a good way to distinguish between human behaviour that is learned and that which is encoded in our genetic material is to see if it is universal or not. This tells us, for example, that the thumbs up sign is not instinctive, sinc…

Many of the people contributing to this forum will be very familiar with the mirror test as a means of estimating animal intelligence. Any animal able to recognise that its reflection is, in fact, only its reflection, and make use of that reflection, is considered to be high on the intelligence scale. So far, the number is restricted to man, four apes, bottlenose dophins and elephants. Now we have the first bird. Magpies have passed this test. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14552?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=dn14552 Other birds have shown high intelligence before, with New Caledonian crows making tools, and African grey parrots learning to use speech …

What is the differentiation of microbial life from say primarily relying on say geologic activity rather then biological activity? Does this occur at some point in time possibly from selection pressures, and if this exists does it fall in the timeline in which maybe eukaryotes or multicellular life was possibly starting to come about? Can any major metabolic pathways show any proof?

Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this Call for Papers =================================================================== Journal of Biomedical Science and Engineering (JBiSE) CALL FOR PAPERS http://www.srpublishing.org/scirp/Journal/Home.aspx?JournalID=30 ISSN 1937-6871 (Print), 1937-688X (Online) =================================================================== JBISE is an international refereed journal dedicated to the latest advancement of biomedical sciences and engineering. The goal of this journal is to keep a record of the state-of-the-art research and promote the research work in these fast moving areas. …

Our species has done a lot in the relatively short time it’s spent here on earth. We’ve mastered fire, discovered cures for deadly diseases, put men on the moon, explored the depths of our planets oceans, and unleashed the energy of the atom. Throughout the process, however, we’ve pushed countless species into extinction, polluted the air and water, exhausted many of earth’s natural resources, and offset its climate. But, for a moment, let’s put the negative consequences felt by our environment due to the rise of man aside. After all, this essay isn’t about those consequences; it’s about the ones a little closer to home. We tend to think of the human a race as getting…

Hi, I was wondering if you guys (and gals) could give me some insight into the practical importance of evolutionary theory? I've often heard the theory of evolution referred to as "the foundation of modern biology", and I've seen it credited with biotechnological advances in medicine and agriculture. I've even seen the human genome project credited to evolutionary theory. However, I'm ignorant on just how these things directly owe their existence to the theory. The thing that sparked me to ask this question was this quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson: "...the emergent economies are going to be scientifically and technologically driven, with biotech front and cent…

The Modern Synthesis can be thought of as a pulling together of various strands of Biology (hence the 'synthesis' bit) around the Darwinian evolutionary concept of overpopulation --> selection of favourable characteristic--->reproduction (Natural Selection). Population genetics had confirmed that Mendelian genetics showing how genes combined to produce a phenotype was thoroughly consistent with Darwinian theories. Saltationism (from Latin saltus- to leap) which suggested quick drastic genetic changes from one generation to the next, leading to speication was rejected. Paleontology suggested that rate of change in the features or phenotype were not at a constant rat…

Has anyone read much on this model for the major transitions in evolution? Last year this peer reviewed paper was published, and in it Eugene Koonin attempts to answer why the fossil records seem to show that pivitol changes within RNA, proteins, animals, etc. "...seem to appeal rapidly and fully equipped with the signature features of the respective new level of biological organization." After reading the paper, I don't see any real difference between the BBB model and Gould's punctuated equilibrium. I also did not see any explanation for jumps in the records. Is the BBB Model taken seriously in biology? What consequences, if any, does this model have on classic …

Are bats considered as link between nocturnal animals and animals who can see proparly as humans in evolution ? As bats have eyes but can't see ,what is their place in evolution ? I am a high school student plesae clarify .

The localities for the earliest metazoans situated in the Arkhangelsk Region are unique in Russia and the finest in the world. These localities were only recently discovered, and are still poorly studied. However there is a danger that they could be destroyed by illegal collectors. http://vendian.net76.net This site is created for acquaintance of collectors and dealers with the problem of illegal excavations and trade of the Ediacaran fossils found in Russia.

Been a while since I posted anything on this forum, thought my recent publication 'Left in the Dark' might be of interest, it outlines a new theory in laypersons language that explains some of the unusual human traits that are not easily explained by classic adaptive selection. In addition I have proposed that the dominant left hemisphere in humans is simplistically a hormonally retarded version of the right. Despite the radical nature of these and other proposals it is already attracting academic interest. ‘This is a totally new way of looking at the evolution of the human brain. It is so totally fresh, unexpected and hitherto un-thought-of that it will prob…

How important would you think just brain activity for instance was for the evolution of mammals? In regards to life I think it would be staggering. If this behavior was being selected for down to a molecular/cellular level regularly which I think shows then how it played out in phenotypes is very interesting. Just how you as a human may think with a brain, what is the behavior like for say a population of rodents in a forest, if by chance thought is actually occurring in some form pertaining to the rats neurobiology down to a molecular/cellular level. Basically from a multicellular tone I think I could view say neurons in any particular species as a type of cell work…

Hi, this is my second thread on this site. There was a thought that just came across while I was reading about the evolution of human beings, could there be a link between genetic mutations and technological development of human beings? Such as, does the development of technologies cause humans to evolve in or adapt in environments, or even change the physiology of humans, in ways that would otherwise be impossible. I do know one instance of this, the Inuit tribes for example, in that they can survive in weather much colder than we can to the point where their bodies are even adapted to the climate (much shorter and wider than most of us). Also, I read that the la…

I wrote something on why we laugh together and why we spend so much time watching TV. My idea is that it stems from the brain's evolved mechanism to calibrate our social do's and don'ts to those of the group that we live in. http://adriaanb.blogspot.com/ Living in a group, our social emotions like pride and shame guide us to overcome the many prisoner's dilemmas that we encounter, they make us choose the neighbour friendly options in life. But because there are so many kinds and levels of social rules possible, we need to constantly stay in tune with the rules followed by our group. The brain's way to calibrate our sensitivities with those of our group is to m…

What prompted primitive man to become bipedal? I mean, what were the environmental pressures that made it necessary to stop swinging from trees and start walking upright? Note I'm not asking what advantage it gave us (freeing our hands to use tools), I'm asking what prompted it.

Just read this article at NewScientist.com: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14094-bacteria-make-major-evolutionary-shift-in-the-lab.html Aside from it being fascinating in its' own right, I thought it would be an interesting phenomenon for creationist to explain.

A puzzle I have been facing recently is to try to figure out how bacteria managed to capture nitrogen from the atmosphere to incorporate it as ammonia. I suppose I have always considered it similar to the method by which chloroplasts can incorporate atmospheric carbon dioxide into soluble carbohydrates. However, I don't know - it all looks so complicated. Any thoughts...

There is a large number of animals that sing: crickets, birds, whales. You might consider visual rhythms to be related as well (luminescence, dance, etc) to be related as well. I was wondering, which branches of the animal kingdom do this, especially those in our line? And how does it relate to our communication? We can communicate in song as well as in speech, and singing and speaking use different parts of the brain. Since most song is related to communication (or mating), I was wondering if song could have been what we built our language from.

How active is the spliceosome in generating phenotypes? I don’t know if the question pertains really to cellular differentiation to variance in protein expression, but more or less is the spliceosome has any direct impact on appearance of traits and or phenotypes. Simply put if it did could the spliceosome be used to study phylogeny in an ecological sense using epigenetics? Last question which I have to add in case someone knows it, does the spliceosome play any direct role when populations of locusts form?