Evolution, Morphology and Exobiology

For a long time I was convinced that microevolution (e.g. the evolution of different breeds of dogs, the Galapagos finches an so on…) over millions of years would lead to Macroevolution (appearance of new species). However, I now question this. Microevolution is the selection of particular alleles under the pressure of natural selection. Macroevolution is completley different. It is by the appearance of new genes, new characteristics and is therefore driven solely by mutations ( Allready known and accepted by the scientific community). My reasoning is quiet simple, no matter how much you shuffle the existing genes around; they will still be compatible with each other. Th…

Did humans evolve from mammals? or reptiles? or any other animal? Is every animal related?

http://gigascience.com/ancient_reptile_had_two_heads.htm I thought it was rather interesting.

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

Is the reason that humans are so much weaker than chimpanzees due, in part, to our enhanced precision of movement? Are our muscles specialized not for strength, but to work in tandem with our highly complex brains to execute precision movements? I've just read that no chimpanzee has ever been trained to thread a needle. Is this simply a deficiency of the chimp brain, or do its muscles also prevent it from executing such precise movements?

Now that human intelligence has evolved to what it is now, will the evolution process for us slow? Think about it. Instead of survival of the fittest we are able to keep people alive that would otherwise die out in nature, and these people are able to reproduce. So while evolution won't stop it seems like it would slow down. So if this is the case, would it be possible for a "super-species" to evolve? It would take so long that some natural event would certainly come around and make that species extinct long before it could evolve to such an extent.

My father, like myself is a Deer hunter. He once speculated, that if one were to leave a boom box in the middle of the woods deer would not be afraid of it, and might actualy be curious about it and approach it. For the same reason that deer will avoid a hunter like the plauge, but will walk out in front of a car nearly without heasitation. He suggested that hey have instincts to avoid hunters, and things that hide while trying to be silent, but something that makes no secret about its presence is obviously no threat to them. So does anyone else have any thoughts. How would Deer react to a Boom Box in the forest?

Hey everyone! We are studying neurons and the CNS in biology right now, a very fascinating subject for me. I understand that certain pathways in the brain gain their information from receptor cells and the like but I came across something I don't understand. I understand the concept of receptor cell process initiation I don't however understand how a thought process can be initiated without such an event. Say for example when you instruct a movement in your hand, there are no receptors that can fire for this because there is no external stimulus so my question too you is: how does this occur? Thanks for the help!

I have a thought. Over the past several thousand years, homo sapiens have remained genetically indifferent from their ancestors. With a few variations that determine sex and the other various genetic traits that individualize everyone. My thought is that the reason we have remained stagnant in our genetic development is that we are tolerant of our mate's behavioral disorders and most people only have 1 mate for their entire lives. As seen in various primates, 1 male mates with several females, and most groups have new females joining and leaving. This causes the males genes to be spread to more children and the genes of the different females contribute to more mutations t…

Here's an article that I found very interesting: http://http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2161&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 In it, prof. Carol Cleland discusses the possibilty of a "Shadow Biosphere" on Earth, alternative lifeforms that coexist with life-as-we-know-it. She also discusses the arguments that scientists use to show that such an alternative biosphere is not possible. I find her train of thought very appealing. I would very much like to know what your opinions are on the subject. Do you think she has a point, or do you have arguments to say otherwise? Airmid.

Hi all I was wondering whether anyone knows of any research about the effects of non-alpha males/females observing alphas? For example, do observers tend to model themselves on alphas? If so, does this have known or hypothesised evolutionary value? And if so, does anyone know about any chemical mechanisms that might be involved? (Cortisol, adrenalin?) Thanks and regards Max

With genetic engineering becoming more and more complex at an increasing rate every couple of months, one can make a safe assumption on were we'll be in a year or even 2 regarding genetic alterations on ourself and domesticated animals. But let's jump a little bit farther forward than a year or 2. Lets talk about a decade from now, in the year 2016. Since this is a debate forum, it would be interesting to see different views on the near future.

Wow....we just got this hw question about the evolution of the flamingo and i can honestly say i have no idea of how it occurs...If we were able to explain using Larmarkism then it would be quite easy but i have to explain it through Dwarnism and mutations. I understand the function of its billed beak and why it contorts it neck to inverse its bill in order to filter food. But how did it evole to this oddity? I assume that it started initially as like a stork or heron with a large beak, but it had to undergo some type of isolation, which caused it to evolve or mutate...does anyone of any suggestions?

I was wondering what some notable books on Evolution are, I already have quite a few, but since the bookstores around here are very conservative, there arent very many on the subject. I would like to know some good ones that I can order online maybe. Preferably something about cellular evolution. But Ill accept any suggestions. Since the holiday season is right around the corner, I would like to know what to look for. Secondly, if anyone knows any good authors but can't pick a book by that author, ill appreciate any names. Thanks.

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

Does anyone have any ideas on why we have a nasal septum and what purpose it might have served in the Evolutionary process?

Can someone explain NS (in detail) to me? From what I read it seems to be missing a specific explaination...that being design. Is there a simulation that can explain how NS changes an organism over-time in relationship to enviroment/etc. To me as it stands, I gather that it "choses" a design (kinda) rather then naturally evolving, and that's frustrating.

This is a long post & offered for discussion & debate . I agree with the author Jerry Coyne -- an excellent review---- & have read Coulters book -- Coultergeist A review by Jerry Coyne H. L. Mencken once responded to a question asked by many of his readers: "If you find so much that is unworthy of reverence in the United States, then why do you live here?" His answer was, "Why do men go to zoos?" Sadly, Mencken is not here to ogle the newest creature in the American Zoo: the Bleached Flamingo, otherwise known as Ann Coulter. This beast draws crowds by its frequent, raucous calls, eerily resembling a human voice, and its unearthly appearanc…

I've heard people say this before. Modern systematics would make it seem so, as the Kingdom is not monophyletic and green algae would be better off grouped with plants than protists in any case. The botanists probably claim them anyway. So should people stop using it, and should it no longer be taught in classes or textbooks?

just a thought. when we talk about evolution we are saying that different forms evolved ( usually from one to another which is better adapted) by accumilating mutations because of various environmental stressors etc . now my question is if that is the case then why do we still see single celled life. why do we see apes, they should all have adapted to the environment and tried to change into humans right ?

http://media.skoopy.com/vids/vid_01151.wmv This is probably very old but it was the first time i have seen it. I almost died laughing

Faced with parasitic flies that are attracted to the calls, silent variants of black field crickets in Hawaii have been reported to have emerged and become quite successful. This has apparently occurred over about 5 years, pretty quick to me, but then I'm not a cricket. The problem for the stealth crickets is that now the female crickets can't hear them. So the stealth crickets huddle about the remaining chirpy crickets and steal their mates. Cricket ingenuity seems to know no bounds. I think it will be interesting to see how the proportion of chirpy and stealth cricket in the population changes over time. http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/921…

Geneticists are becoming so proficient that they can not only show evolution in action – they can show it in reverse. The experimental success could suggest a new approach for gene therapy, the researchers say, though any applications are a long way off. Many of the genes in humans and animals are descendants of ancient genes that have duplicated, mutated and changed their function. Petr Tvrdik and Mario Capecchi, at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, US, have now managed to demonstrate this by recreating an ancient gene from two of its modern descendants. Half a billion years ago, our ancestor’s genome quadrupled. With four copies of each gene suddenly com…

I recently had a thought, it is very difficult to study life on other planets because we haven't found any yet. All we have is conjecture about extreamophiles and the possibilty of similar life forms existing on planets with similar conditions. I wonder, how difficult would it be to create a large enclosed structure that would simulate the chemical composition, atmosphereic pressure, temepeature, and light levels of different planets in our solar system and just drop different exreamophile bacteria that have favorable traits into the enclosure and monitor their survival and/or death. We could observe the different qualities or lack there of that cause them to either l…

Hi, I'm not sure if I posted this in the right place, so sorry if I'm completely wrong. I had Biology today and the term potential difference cropped up when we were talking about resting potential and I was thinking "What on earth...":eek: . Isn't p.d a fancy word for voltage which is the drivinhg force of electrons round a circuit? What has it got to do with polarised membranes?