Evolution, Morphology and Exobiology

hey guys, i am new to this forum, i basicly joined up , beause i had some questions that kept bugging me for awhile, wondering if anyone can help me understand. i was looking at the tree of evolution from where humans evolved, and the furthest anchestor the trees usually provided was of Ardipithecus ramidus who is beleived to be around 4.5-5 millions years old. My question is what did animals did we evolve from, and their appearance , if we look even further back. like 10, 20 , 50 millions years back? or is this not understood properly still? i am assuming we shrink in size if we keep looking even further back , and resemble maybe some type of racoon lol. or …

I would like show some examples of how consciousness can exceed one's genetic potential. The implication is that the brain and consciousness, at some level, helps lead genetic evolution. Here is an experiment to prove this premise. If we start with a person who is genetically predisposed to to be thin, i.e., 98 lb weakling, that person can decide to begin training with weights using a high protein, high calorie training diet, and turn themselves into a much larger more muscular person, i.e., muscle head. If they stopped the training, their body would gradually return back to their genetic propensity. If they keep up the training for decades, the body will become more …

I understand that life is believed to come from the ocean--land life is supposed to have come from a species of fish-like animals that crawled up on land one day probably to escape predators. I have ideas for why certain parts of land creatures would have evolved--for example, arms and legs would have been very useful for maneuvering through plants in the water, useful for hiding from predators--but other parts I don't understand how they could have been useful in the water--for example, the first land creatures obviously were able to breath on land, but what use would that have had in the Carboniferous seas?

when the cells divide by binary fission they expand , but why does this take place ? is there a chemical mechanism behind this.

...is February 12th. What are you doing to celebrate? I'm attending a lecture series at my university. Should be some good speakers there.

hello has anyone seen any studies done on weather condiction during the rise of early feathered dinosaurs. wondering if early developement of feathers began as more of a form of insulation than for flight. ice age, volcanic darken of the sky, etc, lowering temperature; leading to developement of feathering such as the down of young birds, which could be a vestage stage of early feather developement. strange thoughts mr d

Okay... I'm VERY new to this, and to forums in general. I'm actually more or less computer illiterate, and partially REGULAR illiterate. Before I dig my own grave farther, I'll pitch the question: I've been studying pterosaurs recently, and only after much searching have I found a fairly complete reference with ANY real mention of pterasaur brains. Though I'm not done with the pterasaur skull chapter, what I have read so far indicates that braincasts of at least PTERADACTYLOID pterosaurs were similar to birds in that the cerebral hemisphere was fairly large. Are there any experts or newbies like me who can put their two cents in on their opinion on pterosaur brainpower? I…

This looks like the ideal forum to request comments/criticism on a neural function/evolution hypothesis I have been developing. I have pieced together data observations etc and conducted a few experiments over the last 11 years, my conclusions are a little unexpected. To make the pieces fit I needed a non mendelian inheritance mechanism (a minor headache!) what I came up with based on some of the unusual aspects of human physiology was a variation on the accepted inheritance model that ran along side it. It might shed some light on nakedness and other traits particularly neotony and the rapid expansion and stall of our brain etc Below is an excerpt from recent c…

When scared or excited the Fainting Goats suffers from a temporary muscle contraction and literally freezes. I was wondering if anyone knew how this trait could have evolved and survived to pass it self down the generation? To me it seems like an obvious disadvantage and any goat that possesed the mutation would have been wiped out by the predators. Only thing I can think of is that it was selectivly bread by humans.

is evolution 'happening' anymore? with the ability of humans to correct disadvantageouse alleles and generally lower the death rate to a level whereby most people, barring random events, get a chance to pass on their genes, is the human race evolving?

I believe that over time all the bad drivers will slowly disappear. We have a selection process (Car accidents) and anyone who is better at driving has less of a chance in being killed in car accident. Over time we should expect to see less and less bad drivers. Any thoughts?

We'll probably never know, but it certainly seems like the most likely possibility! (Also, excuse the abiogenesis thread in the evolution forum, but uhh, where else is this supposed to go?) I really hadn't heard much regarding the issue of abiogenesis beyond the Miller/Urey experiment. Then in The Ancestor's Tale (do you get the idea that I loved this book yet?) about experiments performed by Julius Rebek and his colleagues at the Scripps Institute in California. In it they combined amino adenosine and pentafluorophenyl ester with the autocatalyst amino adenosine triacid ester (AATE, which, being an autocatalyst, catalyzes the combination of the afforemention…

The new concepts on the origination of the first simple microscopic single celled organisms on earth (The spark of life). In summary the first single celled organisms may have been formed from a series of extremely complex reactions or combination processes, involving different substances. Most of the combination processes or the combining of the substances can only take place in the presence of large amounts of energy and at extremely high pressures and along with high pressure comes high temperature. How life was first formed on earth: The best environments needed for the creation of life. These environments would have to provide the right ingredients, combi…

Wow, we still have a lot to explore if we just found 27 new species in such a small period of time. SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - Twenty-seven previously unknown species of spiders, centipedes, scorpion-like creatures and other animals have been discovered in the dark, damp caves beneath two national parks in the Sierra Nevada, biologists say. "Not only are these animals new to science, but they're adapted to very specific environments — some of them, to a single room in one cave," said Joel Despain, a cave specialist who helped explore 30 of the 238 known caves in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The discoveries included a relative of the pil…

I hope this is the right forum for this. Either way, I still have a question. Does anyone know for sure, that the horse is a vital link in the food chain? In other words; is there something that primarily lives off a horse? Really what I'm wondering is, is if the horse was non-existent, how would it seriously effect nature in general? Other than we as humans would have nothing to ride (in history that is) to get to the other animals in the world to hunt and capture them.

When was the last major ice age? I read that ice ages come in cycles and we're due for another one in about another couple thousand years. If these cycles take around 20,000 years to complete, that would make the last one about 18,000 years ago. Is this accurate?

I am reading this book in my spare time. My oh my is it amazing. From the first paragraph I've been hooked. What's your opinion on it?

Hey all, Has anyone got pictures of animals that were born with a mutation? I think that mutations are strong evidence for evolution and I am trying to collect as many pictures as I can. Eventually I plan to make a website to display them all. I have already got four ; a double headed snake, a trout with 2 mouths ,bull with five legs and a cat with one eye. All of these mutations would prove to be a disadvantage should they have happened in the wild. It would be an extra bonus if someone could provide a picture of a mutation that could be beneficial to the animal in question. I realize that the chances of this are small, but it is worth a shot. Cheers, …

I've come across some interesting stuff about Neoteny, and would like to know more. Neoteny is more or less a process by which evolution is able to start over with a species, prolonging/expanding on infantile qualities. Among other things, this includes plasticity of the mind, and neoteny may be closely related to intelligence. Humans are generally considered neotenous apes, and many other animals, including dogs, show signs of neoteny. And, um, does anyone know how to pronounce it? Here's an interesting article on the subject: http://www.davidbrin.com/neotenyarticle1.html Baldur

If one looks at our own white bloods cells, these are sophisticated single cellular lifeforms that contains our entire DNA. In that sense, they represent little single cell versions of us or our Mini Me's. Here is an interesting thought that is the fodder for sci-fi. Picture a planet that has evolved single cellular life to the point where they have the sophistication of our white blood cells. Since their DNA, like the DNA in our white blood cells, contains everything needed for an entire multicellular lifeform, these single cells begin to evolve and change into multicellular trial balloons, from which simple multicellular animals begin to appear from the slime.

The evolution train’s a-comin’ by Carl Wieland The atmosphere in the crowded lecture theatre foyer was alive with curious anticipation. It was the late 1970s, the heady early days of the creation movement in South Australia. The creation/evolution debate I was about to take part in, before some 40 science teachers and involving a prominent academic evolutionist, was a first for the region. As the words of an animated conversation drifted across to me, I realized that my opponent-to-be was only a few metres to my left. A senior lecturer (associate professor in US terms) in population biology, he was holding forth to a small group of supporters, clearly unaware…

An American microbiologist, Sol Spiegelman, created the smallest possible replicating organism. He did this by taking a small virus, Qb, and giving it replicase so it could replicate. Then he added nucleotides and let it start to slowly mutate. Eventually it went from its original size, 4,500 base pairs, to 220. This little "monster" could replicate extremely fast due to its size and was the smallest organism while it was "alive." I, personally, doubt the validity of the story. 220 base pairs? That would only be enough for replicase. What about RNA polymerase or other vital proteins? In any case I think it's an interesting idea. But this all raises the question of wha…

Something that's been bugging me... Once an animal is intelligent to be selective about its mate, major changes will happen over fewer generations. ...true or false? Also, why do some animals find things attractive that don't appear to have any real benifit? Like those birds with massive red air sacks under thier beaks wich are more of a liability than anything else, can't remember what they're called.

This is a bit random but its been bothering me for a while... How do aquatic mammals (e.g. dolphins) who do not have gills, sleep if they have to constantly resurface for air?

From http://www.ballet.co.uk/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=printer_format&forum=happening&om=5262&omm=16 Can someone explain Winston's reasoning? How would the desire for raising one's own biological children increase evolutionary fitness?