Evolution Research - General Evolution News

From The New York Times: In an unusual foray into electoral politics, 75 science professors at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland have signed a letter endorsing a candidate for the Ohio Board of Education.

The professors' favored candidate is Tom Sawyer, a former congressman and one-time mayor of Akron. They hope Mr. Sawyer, a Democrat, will oust Deborah Owens Fink, a leading advocate of curriculum standards that encourage students to challenge the theory of evolution.

Elsewhere in Ohio, scientists have also been campaigning for candidates who support the teaching of evolution and have recruited at least one biologist from out of state to help.

Lawrence M. Krauss, a physicist at Case Western Reserve who organized the circulation of the letter, said almost 90 percent of the science faculty on campus this semester had signed it. The signers are anthropologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, physicists and psychologists.

Continued at "US: Scientists Endorse Candidate Over Teaching of Evolution" [Creationism]
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Featured book: "Intelligent Thought: Science Versus the Intelligent Design Movement" by John Brockman (Amazon UK | US)

Books on Creationism from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

Books on Intelligent Design from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

Books on 'Science and Religion' from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 10:11 PM 0 comments

"Honeybees have fascinating social structure and advanced societies despite having brains that are five orders of magnitude smaller than humans. An international consortium here reports the genome sequence of the honeybee. Initial analysis of gene content and evolution yields insight into how they accomplish such complex organisation and behaviours such as the famous 'waggle dance' (see 'waggle dance' video below). This special Nature web focus celebrates the publication of the honeybee genome with video interviews and news analysis of the primary research papers, and a comprehensive archive of all matters Apis mellifera."

Contents:

* Honeybee Genome Video (also see 'waggle dance' video below)
* Current Research
* Podcast
* Links
* Archive

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UPDATE March 4 2007: Many of the listed papers are no longer open access. Here's one exception:

Insights into social insects from the genome of the honeybee Apis mellifera

and The Honeybee Genome Sequencing Consortium

Nature 443, 931-949 (26 October 2006) | doi:10.1038/nature05260; Received 13 July 2006; Accepted 19 September 2006

Here we report the genome sequence of the honeybee Apis mellifera, a key model for social behaviour and essential to global ecology through pollination. Compared with other sequenced insect genomes, the A. mellifera genome has high A+T and CpG contents, lacks major transposon families, evolves more slowly, and is more similar to vertebrates for circadian rhythm, RNA interference and DNA methylation genes, among others. Furthermore, A. mellifera has fewer genes for innate immunity, detoxification enzymes, cuticle-forming proteins and gustatory receptors, more genes for odorant receptors, and novel genes for nectar and pollen utilization, consistent with its ecology and social organization. Compared to Drosophila, genes in early developmental pathways differ in Apis, whereas similarities exist for functions that differ markedly, such as sex determination, brain function and behaviour. Population genetics suggests a novel African origin for the species A. mellifera and insights into whether Africanized bees spread throughout the New World via hybridization or displacement.

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Video: "Dancing Honeybee Using Vector Calculus to Communicate" (Waggle Dance):

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Non-open access articles include:

Honeybee colonies achieve fitness through dancing

Gavin Sherman and P. Kirk Visscher

Nature 419, 920-922 (31 October 2002) | doi:10.1038/nature01127; Received 27 May 2002; Accepted 3 September 2002

The honeybee dance language, in which foragers perform dances containing information about the distance and direction to food sources, is the quintessential example of symbolic communication in non-primates. The dance language has been the subject of controversy, and of extensive research into the mechanisms of acquiring, decoding and evaluating the information in the dance. The dance language has been hypothesized, but not shown, to increase colony food collection. Here we show that colonies with disoriented dances (lacking direction information) recruit less effectively to syrup feeders than do colonies with oriented dances. For colonies foraging at natural sources, the direction information sometimes increases food collected, but at other times it makes no difference. The food-location information in the dance is presumably important when food sources are hard to find, variable in richness and ephemeral. Recruitment based simply on arousal of foragers and communication of floral odour, as occurs in honeybees1, bumble bees and some stingless bees, can be equally effective under other circumstances. Clarifying the condition-dependent payoffs of the dance language provides new insight into its function in honeybee ecology.

Chronobiology: Reversal of honeybee behavioural rhythms

Guy Bloch1 and Gene E. Robinson

Nature 410, 1048 (26 April 2001) | doi:10.1038/35074183

Adult honeybees have sleep-like states and, like human infants, bees develop their own endogenous circadian rhythms as they mature. But whereas disruption of our sleep cycles and synchronized internal rhythms may adversely affect our physiology and performance, we show here that honeybees can revert to certain arrhythmic behaviours when necessary. To our knowledge, this chronobiological plasticity is the first example in any animal of a socially mediated reversal in activity rhythms.

Genetic kin recognition: honey bees discriminate between full and half sisters

Wayne M. Getz, Katherine B. Smith

Nature 302, 147 - 148 (10 Mar 1983) doi:10.1038/302147a0

The ability of organisms to recognize kin not previously encountered has been demonstrated in monkeys, mice, frogs, a sweat bee and the honey bee. The environmental and genetic components of recognition are difficult to separate even in controlled conditions. Here we show that the honey bee Apis mellifera discriminates between full and half sisters raised in the same hive, on the same brood comb in neighbouring cells, thus demonstrating a significant genetic component to the recognition process. Besides its ethological implications, this work has implications for the evolution of sterile worker castes in hymenopterans.

Evidence from mitochondrial DNA that African honey bees spread as continuous maternal lineages

H. Glenn Hall, K. Muralidharan

Nature 339, 211 - 213 (18 May 1989) doi:10.1038/339211a0

African honey bees have populated much of South and Central America and will soon enter the United States. The mechanism by which they have spread is controversial. Africanization may be largely the result of paternal gene flow into extant European populations or, alternatively, of maternal migration of feral swarms that have maintained an African genetic integrity. We have been using both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA restriction fragment length polymorphisms to follow the population dynamics between European and African bees. In earlier reports, we suggested that if African honey bees had distinctive mitochondrial (mt) DNA, then it could potentially distinguish the relative contributions of swarming and mating to the Africanization process. Because mtDNA is maternally inherited, it would not be transmitted by mating drones and only transported by queens accompanying swarms. Furthermore, the presence of African mtDNA would reflect unbroken maternal lineages from the original bees introduced from Africa. The value of mtDNA for population studies in general has been reviewed recently. Here we report that 19 feral swarms, randomly caught in Mexico, all carried African mtDNA. Thus, the migrating force of the African honey bee in the American tropics consists of continuous African maternal lineages spreading as swarms. The mating of African drones to European queens seems to contribute little to African bee migration.

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A non-technical introduction: "The Biology of the Honeybee"

Listen to the honeybee (in case you've forgotten!)

Featured book: "Honeybees of Africa" (Amazon UK | US)

Books on 'Insects and Evolution' from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

From the Washington Post: "Honeybee Genome May Shed Light on Social Evolution"

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Other posts include:

"Evolutionary history of vespid wasps rewritten by New study"

"Trapped in Amber: Oldest Bee DNA generates a buzz"

"Amber find shows Amazon as biodiversity hotspot"

"Sweat bees' social evolution"

Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 6:18 PM 0 comments

From The Economist (UK): Norway - What is taught in a country's schools reveals much about the national psyche. The Norwegian curriculum requires that all 14-year-olds learn about homosexuality. Assisting with this education, the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo has just opened an exhibition of gay animals.

"Against Nature?" (5 webpages) does not tell zoologists anything new. Homosexuality has been recorded in some 1,500 species so far, and been well documented in about a third of these cases; it has been known since the time of Aristotle, who thought he witnessed two male hyenas having sex with one another. But the exhibition's purpose is not to educate zoologists. It is to persuade the public that, as there are gay whales and worms, gay humans do not disturb the natural order. [Continued at the above link] [Homosexual]
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Featured book: "Conundrum: The Evolution of Homosexuality" (Amazon UK | US)

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 8:28 AM 0 comments

Scientists from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the University of Chicago have uncovered a remarkably well-preserved fossil lamprey from the Devonian period that reveals today's lampreys as "living fossils" since they have remained largely unaltered for 360 million years.

Chicago's Michael Coates (homepage), PhD, joined Witwatersrand's Bruce Rubidge, PhD, and graduate student and lead author Rob Gess to describe the new find in the article, "A lamprey from the Devonian of South Africa" to be published in the October 26, 2006, issue of the journal Nature.

"Apart from being the oldest fossil lamprey yet discovered, this fossil shows that lampreys have been parasitic for at least 360 million years," said Rubidge, director of the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research.

Continued at "Scientists Find Lamprey a 'Living Fossil' 360 Million-year-old Fish Hasn't Evolved Much"
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Based on "A lamprey from the Devonian period of South Africa" (Abstract - Full Text is also currently available but Nature have a tendency to change their minds!)

Books on 'Evolution and Fish' from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

Also see "100-million-year-old lamprey fossil discovered in China" (China View - Xinhua)

From the Washington Post: "Lampreys evolve very little"

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 9:15 PM 0 comments

The discovery of a 100-million-year old bee embedded in amber - perhaps the oldest bee ever found - "pushes the bee fossil record back about 35 million years," according to Bryan Danforth, Cornell associate professor of entomology.

Danforth and George Poinar of Oregon State University found the bee embedded in amber from a mine in northern Myanmar (Burma).

A report [1] on this major fossil discovery, which the researchers say supports a new hypothesis in bee evolution, was published in the October 27 2006 issue of Science.

Scientists have long believed that bees first appeared about 120 million years ago - but previous bee fossil records dated back only about 65 million years. Danforth and Poinar's fossil provides strong evidence for a more remote ancestry. The fact that the bee fossil also has some wasp traits suggests an evolutionary link between wasps and bees.

In a related study [2], published in the October 10 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Danforth and several colleagues from other institutions examined early bees' structures in combination with bee DNA, producing the largest molecular and morphological study to date on bee family-level phylogeny - the evolutionary development and diversification of a species. Their goal was to examine the early evolutionary pattern of bees and how their evolution relates to the evolution of flowering plants. Flowering plants are among the most diverse organisms that have ever existed - Charles Darwin called their origin and diversification an "abominable mystery."

More than 16,000 species of bees, organized into seven families, are known to exist. But scientists disagree on which family is the most primitive. Bees are known to affect plant evolution by spreading pollen and preferring to pollinate some types of plants over others. Because scientists assume that bees have essentially always been around, pollinating plants and "creating" new species, it has been a mystery why the bee fossil record only dated back about 65 million years.

Until now, many researchers believed the most primitive bees stemmed from the family Colletidae, which implies that bees originated in the Southern Hemisphere (either South America or Australia). However, the work of Danforth and his group suggests that the earliest branches of the bee's evolutionary tree originate from the family Melittidae. That would mean that bees have an African origin and are almost as old as flowering plants, which would help explain a lot about the evolutionary diversification of these plants.

Source: Cornell University PR "100-million-year-old discovery pushes bees' evolutionary history back 35 million years" November 6 2006

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[1] Based on the paper:

A Fossil Bee from Early Cretaceous Burmese Amber

G. O. Poinar, Jr. and B. N. Danforth

Science 27 October 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5799, p. 614
DOI: 10.1126/science.1134103

The bee fossil record is fragmentary, making it difficult to accurately estimate the antiquity of bee-mediated pollination. Here, we describe a bee fossil [Melittosphex burmensis (new species), Melittosphecidae (new family)] from Early Cretaceous Burmese amber (approx 100 million years before the present). The fossil provides insights into the morphology of the earliest bees and provides a new minimum date for the antiquity of bees and bee-mediated pollination.

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[2] Based on the paper:

The history of early bee diversification based on five genes plus morphology

Bryan N. Danforth, Sedonia Sipes, Jennifer Fang, and Sean G. Brady

Published online before print October 2, 2006, 10.1073/pnas.0604033103
PNAS | October 10, 2006 | vol. 103 | no. 41 | 15118-15123
OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE

Bees, the largest (greater than 16,000 species) and most important radiation of pollinating insects, originated in early to mid-Cretaceous, roughly in synchrony with the angiosperms (flowering plants). Understanding the diversification of the bees and the coevolutionary history of bees and angiosperms requires a well supported phylogeny of bees (as well as angiosperms). We reconstructed a robust phylogeny of bees at the family and subfamily levels using a data set of five genes (4,299 nucleotide sites) plus morphology (109 characters). The molecular data set included protein coding (elongation factor-1{alpha}, RNA polymerase II, and LW rhodopsin), as well as ribosomal (28S and 18S) nuclear gene data. Analyses of both the DNA data set and the DNA+morphology data set by parsimony and Bayesian methods yielded a single well supported family-level tree topology that places Melittidae as a paraphyletic group at the base of the phylogeny of bees. This topology ("Melittidae-LT basal") is significantly better than a previously proposed alternative topology ("Colletidae basal") based both on likelihood and Bayesian methods. Our results have important implications for understanding the early diversification, historical biogeography, host–plant evolution, and fossil record of bees. The earliest branches of bee phylogeny include lineages that are predominantly host–plant specialists, suggesting that host–plant specificity is an ancestral trait in bees. Our results suggest an African origin for bees, because the earliest branches of the tree include predominantly African lineages. These results also help explain the predominance of Melittidae, Apidae, and Megachilidae among the earliest fossil bees.

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Related posts include:

"Evolutionary history of vespid wasps rewritten by New study"

"Honeybee : Open Access articles and video from Nature magazine ('Web focus')"

"Sweat bees' social evolution"

"Amber find shows Amazon as biodiversity hotspot"

Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 6:49 PM 0 comments

From New Scientist: Our ability to detect the characteristic metallic smell left on the skin after handling iron-containing objects like coins and keys may have evolved for a more gory purpose: to help our hunter ancestors track down wounded prey.

Fats on the skin break down to form volatile, strong-smelling substances called ketones and aldehydes when they come into contact with iron - whether it comes from the environment or from haemoglobin in blood - says Dietmar Glindemann, a chemist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg. [Continued at "Ancient human hunters smelt blood on the breeze"]
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The above is based on a paper from the Angewandte Chemie International Edition titled "The Two Odors of Iron when Touched or Pickled: (Skin) Carbonyl Compounds and Organophosphines" (Abstract) [Odours]

Requests for pdf reprints of this article can be obtained via Scientific Publications of Dietmar Glindemann

Books on Human Origins from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 4:40 PM 0 comments

The volatile issue of teaching creation science in public schools popped up in the Alaska governor's race this week when Republican Sarah Palin said she thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution in the state's public classrooms.

Palin was answering a question from the moderator near the conclusion of Wednesday night's televised debate on KAKM Channel 7 when she said, 'Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important, and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both.'

Her main opponents, Democrat Tony Knowles and Independent Andrew Halcro, said such alternatives to evolution should be kept out of science classrooms. Halcro called such lessons 'religious-based' and said the place for them might be a philosophy or sociology class. [Religion, Intelligent Design, Politics, US]

Continued at "'Creation science' enters the race"
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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 1:24 PM 0 comments

Fascination with flora and fauna usually starts early in life as an all-encompassing childhood pastime. Growing up in Germany in the 1960s and 1970s, I developed an affinity for natural history as a child, inspired by famous television naturalists, such as Jacques Cousteau and Bernhard Grzimek, as well as by role models closer to home. As a child, it seemed quite natural to observe, experiment with, and collect all kinds of animals, dead or alive, and their parts (beetles, butterflies, fish, amphibians, antlers, and skulls) for my private "Wunderkammer," or cabinet of curiosities.

Literature Nobel laureate Vladimir Nabokov (bio), probably most famous for his notorious novel Lolita (Amazon UK | US), was also a distinguished lepidopterist who specialized in the systematics of the butterfly family Lycaenidae. Nabokov's obsession with butterflies also started early in life and arguably influenced his thinking and writing for the rest of it. He published numerous scholarly papers in recognized entomology journals, mostly on species from Europe and North America, and he was inordinately proud that a species of butterfly (Cyllopsis pyracmon nabokovi) was named after him. Nabokov was particularly fascinated by the mapping of spots on butterfly wings.

Continued at "PLoS Biology: Repeating Patterns of Mimicry"
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Featured book: "Avoiding Attack: The Evolutionary Ecology of Crypsis, Warning Signals and Mimicry" (Amazon UK | US)

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 8:16 AM 0 comments

From the Asian Tribune (Bangkok, Thailand): Chandra Wickramasinghe (homepage) the scientist has been always a poet at heart. As a young boy growing up in his native Sri Lanka he looked up at the twinkling canopy of the tropical night sky and wrote:

Amongst the myriad stars
I stand alone
and wonder how much life
and love there was tonight

He wrote it at the age of 15.

From his childhood he has mysteriously felt connected with the universe. Being a Buddhist the idea of life having a cosmic connection was in tune with his philosophy.

Some years ago he told me, "the idea of life being a cosmic phenomenon is fully in tune with Buddhist as well as Vedic philosophy. Ancient Buddhist texts described inhabited circling distant suns, collections of suns to form greater world systems, collections of world systems and so on. I have surely been inspired by these philosophies throughout my scientific studies."

A graduate of the University of Ceylon. He later joined the Cambridge University on a Commonwealth scholarship and did his PhD under the late Sir Fred Hoyle, one of the best astronomers of the 20th century. [Continued at the above link - contains email interview]
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Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe co-edited "Fred Hoyle's Universe: Proceedings of 'Fred Hoyle's Universe" Conference, 24-26 June, 2002'" (Amazon UK | US)

Astrobiology, Astronomy, Science]

Technorati: chandra, wickramasinghe, asian, tribune, bangkok, thailand, scientist, poet, tropical, night, sky, stars, myriad, life, love, childhood, universe, buddhist, cosmic, philosophy, phenomenon, vedic, ancient, texts, suns, systems, university, ceylon, cambridge, fred, hoyle, conference, astrobiology, astronomy, science, sri lanka

Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 8:50 AM 0 comments

Further to today's earlier post "Famed 'Lucy' Fossil to Tour U.S. for 6 Years" (appended below), an update from AP Wire:

"Washington - The famous fossil of Lucy is scheduled to tour the United States, but one place it won't be on display is the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

'Not only is it not going to come to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, it is our position that we don't think it should leave Ethiopia,' museum spokesman Randall Kremer said Wednesday.

Smithsonian scientists feel certain objects, such as Lucy, are too valuable to travel and should remain in their homes, he said."

Continued at "Lucy fossil not coming to Smithsonian"

Famed 'Lucy' Fossil to Tour U.S. for 6 Years

From The Washington Post: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - One of the world's most famous fossils - the 3.2 million-year-old Lucy skeleton unearthed in Ethiopia in 1974 - will go on display for the first time in the United States next year, and is likely to make a stop at the Smithsonian.

Even the Ethiopian public has seen Lucy only twice. The Lucy exhibition at the Ethiopian Natural History Museum in the capital, Addis Ababa, is a reproduction; the real remains are usually locked in a vault. A team from the Museum of Natural Science in Houston spent four years negotiating the U.S. tour, which will start in Houston next September.

...The six-year tour will stop in Houston until August 2008. It is likely to come to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History afterward. No contract has been signed with the Smithsonian and exact dates have not been set. Officials said six other U.S. cities may be on the tour, but they would not release the names, saying all the details had not yet been ironed out.

Traveling with Lucy will be 190 other fossils, artifacts and relics. [Australopithecus afarensis]

Continued at "Famed 'Lucy' Fossil to Tour U.S. for 6 Years"

Donald Johanson, who along with Tom Gray discovered 'Lucy' in 1974 at Hadar in Ethiopia, has published "Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind" (Amazon UK | US)

Books on Human Origins from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

See "Selam - An exclusive interview with the man who discovered the oldest child in the world ('Lucy's Child')"

Also reported by the Washington Post in "Smithsonian Refuses To Exhibit Ethiopia's Fragile 'Lucy' Fossil"

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 11:14 PM 0 comments

From The Washington Post: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - One of the world's most famous fossils - the 3.2 million-year-old Lucy skeleton unearthed in Ethiopia in 1974 - will go on display for the first time in the United States next year, and is likely to make a stop at the Smithsonian.

Even the Ethiopian public has seen Lucy only twice. The Lucy exhibition at the Ethiopian Natural History Museum in the capital, Addis Ababa, is a reproduction; the real remains are usually locked in a vault. A team from the Museum of Natural Science in Houston spent four years negotiating the U.S. tour, which will start in Houston next September.

...The six-year tour will stop in Houston until August 2008. It is likely to come to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History afterward. No contract has been signed with the Smithsonian and exact dates have not been set. Officials said six other U.S. cities may be on the tour, but they would not release the names, saying all the details had not yet been ironed out.

Traveling with Lucy will be 190 other fossils, artifacts and relics. [Australopithecus afarensis]

Continued at "Famed 'Lucy' Fossil to Tour U.S. for 6 Years"
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Donald Johanson, who along with Tom Gray discovered 'Lucy' in 1974 at Hadar in Ethiopia, has published "Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind" (Amazon UK | US)

Books on Human Origins from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

Also see "Selam - An exclusive interview with the man who discovered the oldest child in the world ('Lucy's Child')"

Technorati: washington post, addis ababa, ethiopia, world, famous, fossils, 1974, united states, smithsonian, lucy, exhibition, ethiopian, natural, history, museum, reproduction, vault, science, houston, national, u.s., tour, artifacts, relics, fossil, donald, johanson, hadar, beginnings, humankind, origins, science, evolution, bookshop, australopithecus, afarensis, selam, child

Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 5:48 PM 0 comments

Toronto, Quebec - Quebec has launched a crackdown on unlicensed evangelical schools, saying the province will shut down any institution that does not follow the provincial curriculum and teach Darwinism.

Education Minister Jean-Marc Fournier (homepage) said yesterday some evangelical schools have been operating illegally in the province and teaching their own curriculum. All Quebec schools require a permit to instruct students.

'Schools that have a permit must of course follow the curriculum, which includes the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution,' Mr. Fournier said.

Elsewhere in Canada, governments tend not to interfere with what is taught in independent schools, unless a particular school is using the provincial curriculum. [Creationism, Intelligent Design, Evangelism]

Continued at "Canada: Teach Darwin, Quebec tells evangelicals

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 2:32 PM 0 comments

The NCSE's Nicholas Matzke wrote last summer, 'We don't need the anti-creationists going and mixing their views on religion into their science. In fact, this is probably the surest path to disaster politically and in the courts. Anyone who wants to do this has the right to do it, but it ain't helpful or particularly smart.' Richard Dawkins apparently didn't get Nick's memo. In a recent BBC News interview, Dawkins said that 'America is ready for an attack on religion. ... Britain always has been.' He explained that he wrote his book The God Delusion (Amazon UK | US) to convince "vaguely religious people" that "[t]he religion of their upbringing is probably nonsense" and explained to viewers that "the living world … comes about by Darwinian evolution, by natural selection."

On Monday, Dawkins wrote in The Huffington Post that 'the presence of a creative deity in the universe is clearly a scientific hypothesis' but alleges that 'no evidence for God's existence has yet appeared.' Keep in mind that Dawkins is Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University and that Campbell, Reece, and Mitchell's widely used textbook, Biology, praised Dawkins for his ability to 'engag[e] and challeng[e] nonscientists' (5th ed., pg. 412). Meanwhile, many others are talkin' about Dawkins...

Continued at "Everyone's Talkin' about Dawkins' Crusade Against Religion"

[Creationism, Intelligent Design]

Books on Creationism from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

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Books on 'Science and Religion' from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 7:39 AM 0 comments

October 24, 2006: Trotting with Emus to Walk with Dinosaurs - One way to make sense of 165-million-year-old dinosaur tracks may be to hang out with emus, say paleontologists studying thousands of dinosaur footprints at the Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite in northern Wyoming.

Because they are about the same size, walk on two legs and have similar feet, emus turn out to be the best modern version of the enigmatic reptiles that once trotted along a long-lost coastline in the Middle Jurassic.

'We don't have any documented dinosaur bones and teeth from that period in North America, except for some very scrappy material from Mexico,' said Brent Breithaupt, curator and director of the University of Wyoming's Geological Museum. That makes it very hard to connect the tracks to a particular dinosaur. And of course, 'We unfortunately can't go out and see walking dinosaurs today. Or can we?' [Paleontology, Palaeontology, Geology]
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Technorati: trotting, emus, walk, with, dinosaurs, dinosaur, tracks, footprints, red, gulch, tracksite, northern, wyoming, legs, feet, modern, enigmatic, reptiles, coastline, middle, jurassic, bones, teeth, period, north, america, mexico, university, geological, museum, books, science, evolution, bookshop, geology, paleontology, palaeontology

Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 10:30 PM 0 comments

A new theory on just what causes Earth's worst mass extinctions may help settle the endless scientific dust-up on the matter. Whether you favor meteor impacts, volcanic eruptions, cosmic rays, epidemics, or some other cause for the worst mass extinction events in Earth's history, no single cause has ever satisfied all scientists all the time for any extinction event. That may be because big extinctions aren't simple events.

The new Press/Pulse theory gets around the controversy by rejecting the all-or-nothing approach to mass extinction, calling instead on a combination of deadly sudden catastrophes - 'pulses' - with longer, steadier pressures on species - 'presses.'

'What we wanted to do is move away from the idiosyncratic approach to extinction mechanisms and look for what these intervals had in common. If you have A and B you will get a mass extinction,' said Ian West, a 2006 graduate of Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York.

West and Hobart and William Colleges paleontology professor Nan Crystal Arens are scheduled to present their work on the Press/Pulse theory on Wednesday, 25 October, at the 118th annual meeting of the Geological Society of America held Oct. 22 to Oct. 25 in Philadelphia. [Evolution, Science, Palaeontology]

Continued at "New theory for mass extinctions"
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See "Press/Pulse: A General Theory of Mass Extinction"

Featured book from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: "Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions" (Amazon UK | US)

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Technorati: new, earth, mass, extinctions, meteor, impacts, volcanic, eruptions, cosmic, rays, epidemics, history, press, pulse, theory, controversy, extinction, pulses, presses, species, mechanisms, hobart, william, smith, colleges, geneva, new york, paleontology, geological, society, america, philadelphia, evolution, science, palaeontology, general, bookshop, catastrophes, causes

Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 6:20 PM 0 comments

In a study of orangutans living on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra, scientists from Duke University and the University of Zurich have found what they say is the first demonstration in primates of an evolutionary connection between available food supplies and brain size.

Based on their comparative study, the scientists say orangutans confined to part of Borneo where food supplies are frequently depleted may have evolved through the process of natural selection comparatively smaller brains than orangs inhabiting the more bounteous Sumatra.

The findings "suggest that temporary, unavoidable food scarcity may select for a decrease in brain size, perhaps accompanied by only small or subtle decreases in body size," said Andrea Taylor and Carel van Schaik in a report now online in the Journal of Human Evolution. [Science, Anthropology, Indonesia]

Continued at "Study Suggests Evolutionary Link Between Diet, Brain Size in Orangutans"
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Based on the paper "Variation in brain size and ecology in Pongo"

Technorati: study, orangutans, indonesian, islands, borneo, sumatra, scientists, duke, university, zurich, connection, food, brain, size, study, comparative, evolved, process, natural selection, scarcity, decrease, small, body, journal, human, evolution, science, anthropology, indonesia, link, diet, variation, ecology, pongo, andrea, taylor

Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 3:34 PM 0 comments

From Bahrain's Gulf Daily News: Poland's far-right League of Polish Families (LPR), which is part of the coalition government, claims Darwin's theory of evolution is all wrong, that humans lived alongside dinosaurs and that Neanderthal man is still among us.

Last week, Poland's deputy education minister Miroslaw Orzechowski (info), a member of the LPR, bluntly rejected British naturalist Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and his postulate that man is descended from apes.

'The theory of evolution is a lie, a mistake that we have legalised as a common truth,' said Orsechowski. [Neanderthals, Neandertals, Neandertal]
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The above is the entire news report. For more information see:

"Keep Darwin's 'lies' out of Polish schools: education official"

and "Polish MEP calls for 'scholarly debate' on evolution (Radio Polonia Text + Audio)"

Featured book from the Science and Evolution Bookshop:

"Neanderthal and Modern Humans in the European Landscape of the Last Glaciation": (Amazon UK | US)

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Technorati: bahrain, gulf, daily, news, poland, league, polish, families, coalition, government, darwin, theory, evolution, humans, dinosaurs, neanderthal, man, education, minister, lpr, charles, natural selection, apes, neanderthals, neandertals, neandertal, schools, mep, debate, radio, polonia, audio, science, modern, european, landscape, glaciation

Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 5:50 AM 0 comments

University of Colorado at Boulder researchers have discovered what appears to be the first evidence of parasites in the gut contents of a dinosaur, indicating even the giants that roamed Earth 75 million years ago were beset by stomach worms.

The evidence was found in an exceptionally well preserved duck-billed dinosaur dug from the rocks of the Judith River Formation near Malta, Montana. Assistant Professor Karen Chin of CU-Boulder's geological sciences department and former graduate student Justin Tweet identified more than 200 suspected parasite burrows in 17 samples of gut material from the dinosaur that most likely were made by tiny worms similar to annelids and nematodes that infest animals today, she said.

"Fossil evidence for interactions between dinosaurs and invertebrates usually involves insects," said Chin, also a curator of paleontology for the University of Colorado Museum and an internationally known expert in trace fossils. "This research is exciting because it provides evidence for the movement of tiny, soft-bodied organisms inside the gut cavity of a dinosaur."

The findings are being presented at the 118th annual meeting of the Geological Society of America held Oct. 22 to Oct. 25 in Philadelphia.

The dinosaur, a brachylophosaur dubbed "Leonardo," was excavated in 2000 and 2001 by a team led by Nate Murphy, curator of paleontology at the Phillips County Museum in Malta.

Continued at "Researchers Discover Evidence Of Gut Parasites In Dinosaur"
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More info and links: "Kodak technology pictures dinosaur: The Leonardo Project"

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[Geology, Palaeontology]

Technorati: university, colorado, boulder, evidence, parasites, gut, dinosaur, earth, duck, billed, malta, montana, chin, karen, stomach, worms, annelids, nematodes, fossil, dinosaurs, invertebrates, insects, paleontology, fossils, geological, society, america, leonardo, kodak, science, evolution, bookshop, palaeontology, judith, river, formation, geology

Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 10:53 PM 0 comments