Source: seedmagazine.com
It appears the classic model of Darwinian sexual selection if way off. Homoesexual behaviour has been identified in up to 450 different animal species yet biologists still consider it outside the norm of "normal" behaviour.
"Evo Devo". You might have come across this phrase in various articles and comments concerning evolution, but what does it mean? The term is short for evolutionary developmental biology and it is radically changing our views on almost every facet of evolution.
Source: Seed Magazine
Joan Roughgarden thinks Charles Darwin made a terrible mistake. Not about natural selection—she's no bible-toting creationist—but about his other great theory of evolution: sexual selection.
Source: eurekalert.org
More than 50 million years ago the ancestors of whales and dolphins were four-footed land animals, not unlike large dogs. They became the sleek swimmers we recognize today during the next 15 million years, losing their hind limbs in a dramatic example of evolutionary change.
Source: news.com.com
"Associate professor Yousif Shamoo and two students recently conducted experiments on a microbe, G. stearothermophilus, to see how it adapted to different environmental circumstances.
Source: eurekalert.org
Rice University biologists, using an ingenious experiment that forced bacteria to compete in a head-to-head contest for evolutionary dominance, today offer the first glimpse of how individual genetic-level adaptations play out as Darwinian natural selection in large populations.
Source: nwo.nl
Female fish prefer brightly coloured males because they are easier to see and are in better shape concludes Dutch researcher Martine Maan following her study of fish speciation in the East African Lakes.
Source: online.wsj.com
From the article -- "The theory of sexual selection -- that females choose males with the best genes, causing those genes to become more prevalent in succeeding generations -- is invoked to explain why peacocks have rococo tails and bucks have huge antlers.
Source: eurekalert.org
A new study of side-blotched lizards in California has revealed the genetic underpinnings of altruistic behavior in this common lizard species, providing new insights into the long-standing puzzle of how cooperation and altruism can evolve.
Source: eurekalert.org
For the first time, ecologists have been able to show that molecular variation in one gene may affect the growth of a population in its natural habitat.
Source: eurekalert.org
Chris Toomajian, postdoctoral researcher in molecular and computational biology in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, led a group that sought to replace the standard neutral model, a common but unrealistic test for natural selection, with a statistical method based on
The Holy Scripture asserts that "God created man in His image and likeness" (Gen 1:26-27). This, for the Church, has always been a central statement, because it qualifies in its essence the exclusive dignity that God attributes to man, unique among all creatures.
Source: seedmagazine.com
A biologist explains the evolutionary advantage of sex, and why we're not all asexual clones.
Natural Selection. It is a term that is thrown around a lot these days both here on newsvine and in the world at large.
In his Darwin's Black Box, Michael J. Behe heavily criticizes (op. cit, Chapter no. 11, section "The Rule", pages 238-243) "methodological naturalism", which he sees epitomized by Richard Dickerson's Rule No. 1
Source: loom.corante.com
Carl Zimmer writes a fascinating little blurb about retroviruses fused into our DNA and how we can use them to trace genetic lineages.
Source: seedmagazine.com
A new study out of Yale explains what exactly separates man from the apes. 'There's a paradox,'said Kevin White, a geneticist at Yale.
Source: nytimes.com
For the 50% that don't beleive the bible created us .....
Source: nytimes.com
Providing the strongest evidence yet that humans are still evolving, researchers have detected some 700 regions of the human genome where genes appear to have been reshaped by natural selection, a principal force of evolution, within the last 5,000 to 15,000 years.
The Free Press (a Division of Simon & Shuster, Inc.) first published Darwin's Black Box in 1996. Now, in March 2006, they have issued a “10th anniversary” new edition. Like a very good quality wine, the book of Professor Michael J.
Source: seedmagazine.com
Darwin gets a boost by a new study citing evidence for the environmental basis of natural selection. Amidst the hubbub of pundits and policy-makers bickering over evolution, intelligent design and creationism, a group of researchers working at Vanderbilt University have published
Source: members.aol.com
Model of an Internal Evolutionary Mechanism (based on an extension to homeostasis) linking Adaptive Mutations to the Baldwin Effect:
Source: groups.yahoo.com
'Evolution - Where Darwin meets Lamarck?' places an emphasis on concepts and discoveries consistent with the possible existence of testable internal evolutionary mechanisms and alternative (non-creationist) explanations for 'problem areas' of conventional evolutionary theory.
At first, I found all this talk about intelligent design in the public science classroom infuriating. While I still find it infuriating, I have come to the realization that the debate may actually be a victory for science, after all.
Source: news.bbc.co.uk
A woman's body may actively kill off weaker male foetuses during times of stress, research suggests.