Evolution, Morphology and Exobiology

So this started as i was clipping my toenails, and i wondered what prehistoric man did about toenails, and decided he probably bit them (any other primitave tool use would probably cause injury). I do not bite my tonails (i used to when i was little) but i have bitten my fingernails all my life. Is this a behavior left over from evolution? In the case of people that don't bite their nails, are they more evolved? is the differerence enviromental or genetic? i'm guessing genetic, because to me its just natural, i start doing it without thinking. Both my parents are nail biters. If you think this is gross, i'll have you know that some very respectable people are nail biter…

Thought some of you might enjoy this article from the Telegraph newspaper. You have to register to read it, but the registration is free. Strange beasties of ancient Scotland (Filed: 30/06/2004) A village in Aberdeenshire is providing an exquisitely preserved slice of life in a tropical paradise lost, reports Roger Highfield Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, 410 million years ago: you are standing in a tropical paradise south of the equator that is crawling with strange life forms and drenched from time to time with boiling mineral water from hot springs. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Greetings, I know that I am new here and that this topic is probably going to be meet with the usual moans and groans that this topic generally receives. However, I am convinced by my eight years of study in biology and particularly evolution that evolution as a theory is fatally flawed and science needs to explore a new path. I know that science as a whole is almost unwilling to do this because of the creationist movement but, to continue pursuing a dead end does not help either. Before it is brought up by someone else, I am not a creationist myself. I don’t really know what I am, because many of the arguments for creationism are scientifically based but many …

through all of human history we havn't seemed to evolve. is that because we are a sentient species?

This forum is to discuss the existence and nature of life outside of Earth, including Mars, Europa, asteroids, and beyond; including statistical probability, methods of searching for life, and the potential impact on the scientific community of discovering new forms of life. Please refrain from conspiracy theories concerning UFOs, these will be moved to the pseudoscience forum.

Coupler Q's Are humans still evolving? at what rate? Are there any major recorded changes in human structure? Are Human minds evolving to fast for our bodys to respond, Due to technology advances? Cheers

Ok, this has been plaguing me for some time, and I wanted to get something started to prove evolutionism(?) is correct with facts. BTW, I am very familiar with the theory of evolution, and some biochemistry. So, just as a "pass time hobby", let's try to prove evolutionism correct!

Hi! I ran across your forums today trying to find someone who could help me. I'm debating with a guy on another site with forums who appearently has absolutely no idea what evolution is about and one of the things he said was "They can’t explain how that cell evolved into a mulit-celled organism or how that multi-celled organism grew a back bone slowly or how animals went from having 2 to 3 to 4 chamber in their heart….it’s sorta hard to have 2 and a half chambers in your heart, is it not? And supposedly evolution is extremely slow so you’d have one guy with 2 chambers, the next with 2.00001 chambers, the next with 2.00002 chambers….it doesn’t really work…you have 2 or yo…

Has anyone ever questioned why we have fingerprints, and their purpose for our species? Are they just a product of our genetic differences? Thanks for reading.

FYI : I am posting this also in another forum, that deals with biological evolution. The Stealthy Life Genesis ------------------------- Sometimes, when you seek the right answer, it helps to pose the right question. Consider the vastly versatile life on planet Earth. Many questions about its mechanisms and evolution have been asked and answered, many of the further questions that evolve continuously about it are tackled by scientists and will most probably be answered within few years, and still many further questions will be raised and answered... However, in order to come closer to answering The Question, The Origin-Nature-Direction o…

Evolution is, by definition, the heritable changes that have produced Earth’s diversity of organisms. However, evolution has other definitions depending on who is viewing it. Some believe evolution to be an object of heresy, defying everything that they hold dear to themselves. Others feel that evolution is a better means to explain diversity of organisms rather than creationistic views. Further still, some people view evolution as merely a concept that isn’t worth their time. While this last group has no relevance to evolution in general, the previous two do. In the case of the first group, evolution is so offensive to them because the theory of evolution presents …

Drake's Equation is used to show that chances are that intelligent life evolved in other parts of the universe. Then I consider the possibility of Superstring Theory: alternative universes/dimensions where we would be completely oblivious to any intelligent life there. And consider our limited intelligence: we may not have the cognitive abilities to see what is really out there, similar to how lower animals cannot know what humans know. Reputable news sources, such as the History Channel, document many UFOs which to date have not been identified. Stories about actual contact with ETs. Paranormality/UFO/ET sources: http://www.rense.com/ufo/ufo.htm htt…

It seems to me that when a virus or illness is eradicated from Earth, another much worse one follows. For example, measels, plague, polio, small pox; all these horrible diseases have been removed by large from human civilization, yet cancer, HIV, and others have followed. My question is; is it possible that nature and evolution has automatic population control? Meaning, AIDS has a purpose. It is meant to limit the over-population of the Earth. With the finding of a cure, what will nature retaliate with? This also extends to the possible origins of homosexuality. Is it possible that nature and evolution is forcing population control by changing our sexual tendenc…

How come plants haven't evolved into taking nitrogen from the air? They need the nitrogenous compounds to make chlorophyll in the chloroplasts. I know pea plants can do this, but how come not other plants? Air is a very good source of nitrgoen you know!

i know i'm opening a can of worms, but what the hell, this should be fun eh? what are your thoughts on this? especially considering some of the very accurate predictions and demonstrations as shown by it's creators (James Lovelock & Lynn Margulis) about our own planet, mars, and even the Daisyworld... {edit: this should be in Biology, but I fear this will angrify Sayonara )

To what extent are humans in a technological society exempt from natural selection????

This is truly amazing. For all those pessimistic people who thought that absolutely nothing ever existed on Mars and will never exist...they might just want to think again. Scientists from NASA have confirmed that Mars was once "soaking wet". There could have been life there who knows how many years ago. But this is truly big.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3707057.stm It'd be nice, but I find it hard to beleive there are any aliens within resonable travel distance of earth if we havn't picked up any sorta stray signals/broadcasts from them. Anyone got any ideas on how aliens would communicate in such a way that would be undetectable to us? I'm sure it's possible if you set out to do it, but why would aliens set out to hide there transimissions? When they first start making them, such as with our TV and radio, they wouldn't know there was anyone to hide it from. They'd just be looking for the best form of communications. Evan if they were telepatheic, to achieve mass communication …

(I decided to change the title of the series of posts because not all deal directly with evolutionary theory) However improbably we regard this event [the start of all life], or any of the steps which it involves, given enough time it will almost certainly happen at least once. And for life as we know it...once may be enough. Time is in fact the hero of the plot. The time with which we have to deal is of the order of two billion years. What we regard as impossible on the basis of human experience is meaningless here. Given so much time the "impossible" becomes possible, the possible probably, and the probably virtually certain. One has only to wait: time itself per…

Hi Me and my friends have been talking about the possiblity of intelligent life on a diffrent planet than earth. I'm just wondering where ppl stand on this topic. Thanks

Hi im new here and i just have a stupid question, whats the difference between evolution and mutation if they both have to do with the body changing someway? Im slow LOL so just walk me through it.

Well, we all know we took over the world. We created factories that throw loads of smoke and chemicals into the atmosphere, we use cars, we watch television, we speak on cellphones and we are generally surrounded by electromagnetic radiation that is usually not found in nature. Good or bad, one thing is certain: We are changing our own evolutionary process. Even the fact we go with shoes is changing us. When we click a computer and sit on a comfortable chair - it's all changing the "natural" way of the evolution. We might think thats awsome and great and natural - but we should also remember we don't yet know all about our OWN BODIES - to know what those cha…

I was watching the movie "Contact" the other day, and the main character spoke to the jury (whom was to choose who took the mission to another planet) of what she would say when she saw these newly discovered intelligent lifeforms. she said she would ask them how they managed to not destroy themselves for so long with such advanced technology. This made me wonder something: Why is it that people believe many other life forms that may have arisen could've destroy themselves once they came to a point of their technological advancements (i.e. using weapons of mass destruction)? We know nothing of any other life forms other than the ones on Earth. Why then should we make …

Since humans with monosomy 2 cannot survive, there must have been some point at which our ancestors could survive with this condition, otherwise how would we have got here? so do we know what it is about monosomy 2 that stops us from surviving it now?

@Mooeypoo Don't you think that eyes will look the same as ours? I know that we use light as a vision tool, but what else could we use that is as fast as light? How else can we read light? We use lenses to view light all of the time, could we use some other things as effectively as lenses. Do you think that an Alien race might use electic impulses for vision? Basically I am saying that I think that all evolution leads you to eyes mainly, other things are less useful. I think that some things just have to evolve the way that they did on earth. Bats use sonar vision, but it is not good for seeing the moon, and stars, if that is important. Maybe eyes, and a few other part…