Evolution, Morphology and Exobiology

now, many people are researching molecular biology, developmental biology, etc. trying to find the law of evolution at the level of genes. what is the role of palaeontology in this field? and what about system theory?

Is Evolution is universal? Since evolution occured on earth it doesn't mean that on a different alien planet evolution should occur. There can be different designs to create life from not life.

Silkworm is a chem major at a college in Kansas (not sure about details) where the student Creationists have an organization CORR that sponsors debate, or maybe something besides debate that passes for debate. I read about this at his blog, which he just moved to a new location and is getting settled in. http://silkworm.wordpress.com/ As I understand it, he is going up against a Dr. William Lucas in a closed circuit TV debate. Do you have any RESOURCES, LINKS, advice on points to make, or whatever kind of support to offer? Here is some dope on Lucas http://silkworm.wordpress.com/2006/04/05/3/ click on the CORR publicity poster which has a snapshot of Lucas …

I'm certain you've all heard about the soft tissue of a Tyrannosaurus which was discovered a while back. So now my question is, now that we know soft tissues can be preserved, what efforts are being done to find more (if any at all)? You'd think we could learn a great deal from any other discoveries, so what's the justification for not looking?

The URL that pointed to snake sensitivity to earthquake precursors came across on a "forum" that examines precursor phenomena. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6215991.stm One of the phenomena that is being produced by earthquake precursors are in-ground electrical currents, they being produced at or near an epi-center and radiating outward therefrom. My questions is, "have snakes been measured for sensitivity to electric potentials"? These ground huggers are in intimate contact with the earth's surface. Keep in mind that a small current across a high resistance produces a substantial electric potential. They know cows are sensitive to in-ground c…

What is the state of theory regarding the steps leading to the creation of the first single-celled organisms? What I have come up with on my own are the development of organic compounds into pseudo-organisms that can't necessarily be classified as living beings, until cold fusion takes place or lightning strikes and the Frankenstein effect takes place or something like that. I hate to sound like a preacher, but I think there comes a point where you have to accept that there must be a grand design driving it all in order for it to take place, whether it is directly willed or simply an involuntary process in the growth timeline of a planet with the characteristics of ours…

This is a concept I've been having a bit of a hard time with, as it seems there are several examples of traits that should have been selected against a long time ago. There are an abundance of traits that seem to be selectively maladaptive, yet have maintained an existence in species-populations (i.e. microcephaly, achondroplasia, hemophilia, color-blindness would have been devasting in the environment of evolutionary adaptiveness in humans, etc.). I suppose you could argue that many of these traits are neutral, or the onsent of nearly all genetic disorders could occur past the point of conception, meaning the carrier could reproduce before the gene is expressed in t…

This forum seems to be atrophying somewhat, so let's talk about primate origins! Does anyone have any personal favorite models? I like Rasmussen's idea. He sees the urprimates as mounting to the trees in order to exploit the new resource of fruits on terminal branches, but then evolving other adaptations (such as stereoscopic vision) for exploiting the insect resources that would be disturbed in the course of fruit foraging. It's a sort of synthesis of Cartmill's Visual Predation Hypothesis and Sussman's Angiosperm Hypothesis.

I know there have been plant fossils found there, but have there been any animal fossils? If so, what kind of animals? I thought that since it is far away from everything, it must have been that way for a while(continents don't drift incredibly quickly) which means that when it was in a warmer spot, it definitely, could have still been so isolated making it such that the animals could not interbreed with others. This presents the possibility of quite unique life(somewhat like the case of Australia).

hello all, I was just wondering if anyone could give me some advice. I am doing a photsynthesis experiment using pond weed and varying light. What range of light in watts do you think is appropriate? I am doing this experiment at home and haven't got a device to change the light so will have to rely on different light bulbs with different watts. thanks

I fear that i may need educating on the feasibility of the existence of celestial keen i.e inhabitants other than ourselves accupying the cosmos's resources. Do not get me wrong, I have an associates in mathematics, philosophy and xenosociobiology....therefore, I have acquired insight into the anatomy or morphology of the conception, but I lack outstanding-revolutionary evidence of there existence. And if man opposes, to what right dose he have to make overt assertions on covert i.e unexplored cosmic areas?

hello to all there lovely biologists i dont have much knowledge about our ancestors neither i ever studied much about it but a bit interested in recently i studied an opposition to the Darwin's theory that our ancestors are supposed to be the mammals living in the water the reason behind this argument is that iif it were apes or monkeys then how could they breed the generation of same kind throughout the world as they could not travel all around in that era instead water organism could travel easily from continent to continent and they only have to change the fins into hands a little more genetic change i m confused i neither satisfied with Darwin nor i pursue …

The Dinosaurs were the dominant species on the planet for over 160 million years, and were wiped out about 65 million years ago. The one thing I was wondering was how they were able to evolve into such an enormous size in the first place. Another thing I want to know is if they influenced the evolution of other species, such as mammals. Did they also have any significant impact on the environment of the Earth too (much like the microbes did way back when)? One more thing I was wondering was why dinosaurs, or dinosaur-like creatures, did not evolve again?

Thanks to the contact from two SFN members...the first asked me more details...yes they are a plague in that there exists too many of them and are remarkable in their rapid populating as something like 20-30 the square meter...they over-ride habitat to other creatures that have been observed to live there and the urchins are making barrens of the sea bed by predation on the prominent algae. There have been scientific studies and certainly I have acquired much information though little response from the sites and Univs where from the studies were made. The known predators of the Diadema antillarium or long spine black sea urchin are themselves in rare comodity...ve…

That was the most intelligent-sounding name I could think of for something that's likely a fairly stupid question. Is skin color selected for all at once all over the body, or is each melanocyte individually subject to selection? I'm essentially just asking how the genes that determine mammalian skin color work. Feel free to patronize.

Suppose you have a pea plant with purple flowers, and you are asked what is its genotype. You do not know what its parents looked like and cannot find this information anywhere. You have no other plants to mate it with. How can you find out what its genotype is? explain fully.

Does anyone have any particular thoughts on its possible importance or frequency in evolution? I just finished Ontogeny and Phylogeny (old but amazing), and its provoked something of a facsination with the subject. I must say I'm a bit skeptical of his neotenic explanation for human evolution, though.

There is a new book on evolution theory: The Evolution of Aging (2nd ed), ISBN 0978870905, by Theodore Goldsmith that discusses digital information aspects of inheritance and their implications for evolution theory. Darwin tells us that selective breeding and the corresponding evolutionary mechanism of natural selection both depend on the natural variation of characteristics between different individuals. Variation creates differences for selection to select. According to the book, natural variation in more complex species is not actually "natural" in the sense of being a fundamental characteristic of all living things. Instead, because of the digital nature of …

i've only ever really studied evolution from a molecular pov before, and i just realised that theres something that i really dont savvy about the bigger picture of evolution. if we take one gene, and it mutates, and this mutation is a slight inprovement, then natural selection will propogate it throughought a population due to the increase in the fitness to survive/reproduce it confurs upon the organism. i get that it's a bit more complicated than that, but i get the principle; what i dont get is how loads of different genes can be subject to natural evolution at once. eg, imagine you have a whopping great big genome. the organism is going to have one fitness to …

I just read an article (Thanks bascule for posting the link: http://www.discover.com/issues/mar-06/cover/) that basically tells of the discovery of a new form of bacteria and describes our current understanding of the role bacteria play in the tree of life. The article even suggests that bacteria most likely played a key role in the creation of the eukaryotic cell, which all multicelular organisms are descendants of. I’m a computer programmer by day, and what I found really interesting is that computer viruses and biological seem to play a very similar roll in thier environments. They both need a host to survive, they replicate, they have a genetic/binary code, they adapt…

I've got a few moments at work lets see if any of you have some ideas. Strong cohesive groups are vital for human survival and the traits that has been a highly conserved. Some of the characteristics of this type of group are: shared beliefs/world view, emotional interaction, and a leadership/follower dynamic. This trait has allowed us to reach very high levels of technology extremely quickly. On the downside these tendencies have been a causal agent in many of the most destructive behaviors: War, gangs, immigration restrictions, racism, religious conflict, environmental destruction, etc. (pick a problem with humans and this usually plays a role). I am wond…

There are a lot of North American creationist "scientific" institutions that search for the proof of the existence of the judeo-christian god. I was wondering what type of "scientific" evidence might they be looking for? My second question is, if extra terrestrial life is found and we had 100% positive evidence for that, would that invalidate the major monothestic religons of our time? If so what do you think the repercussions will be on society??

We were discussing the relationship of creationism to science. And yes, I'm talking about science and I haven't posted any "creationist crap". Mokele, you should know that from my other posts. After all, we are discussing mechanisms of evolution in another thread -- specifically genetic drift. Nowhere in my posts do you see any rejection of evolution, do you? Also remember I'm making a much stronger statement than you about creationism. I'm saying creationism is a falsified theory. That is, it is WRONG. You are merely saying creationism is not science. That says nothing about its truth value. So, we are talking science and the philosophy of science. Using ad…

Please have a look at the BBC article below... If there is / or even isn’t a genetic link between Neanderthal man and us, the results if successful will definitely be a step forward in piecing together our ancestry. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6146908.stm

A great debate with representatives from all the studies, the social sciences, biologists, physicists, etc... some of the speakers.. Joan Roughgarden, Richard Dawkins, Francisco Ayala, Carolyn Porco, Steven Weinberg, Lawrence Krauss, Sam Harris, Michael Shermer and more. It is long, but worth it if you watch it all. http://beyondbelief2006.org/Watch/ there is a nerocomputational professor, not sure of his name, but he is bald and has a long goatee, ul kno him when he appears, his lecture on conciousness is excellent, but might require a replay or two.