How do they survive the cold? “We think they’re basically pre-adapted to survive in cold climates because they build their own nests and they can vary their diets so dramatically across the year,” says Stephen Pruett-Jones, an ecologist at the University of Chicago, who has been studying birds for decades. “They roost in their nest every single night of the year, so the nest is really more like a home to the monk parakeet. And their diet changes completely during the winter to seed in backyard bird feeders.” JILL LANGLOIS, “Former pet parrots breeding and thriving in 23 U.S. states” at National Geographic Okay, not completely wild. But they have prior adaptations to serious sub-zero temperatures. Paper. (paywall) “The primates Read More ›

Below is a New York Times News Service article that appeared Nov 5, 1980, reporting on a meeting at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History. The discussion of micro- and macroevolution and of the fossil record almost sounds like something from the Discovery Institute blog, the kind of honest assessment of Darwinism which today could cause a biology teacher to lose his/her job. The Times writer assures us, however, that all of this does not suggest “weakness in the fact of evolution”, only in the “perceived mechanism.” He says it actually “reflects significant progress toward a much deeper understanding of the history of life on Earth,” a statement I would certainly agree with! A photocopy of the article as Read More ›