Researchers: “These ultrasonic warning systems seem so useful for evading bats that they’ve evolved independently in moths on multiple separate occasions. In each case, moths transformed a different part of their bodies into finely tuned organic instruments.”
Evolution
At Live Science: Scientists pinpoint the exact moment in evolutionary time when mammals became warm-blooded
“Scientists have pinpointed the moment in time our earliest ancestors evolved to be warm-blooded, and it happened much later and far more quickly than the researchers expected.”
At Mind Matters News: If octopuses are really smart, should we eat them?
At MMN: Octopuses present something of a puzzle. As Canadian investigative journalist Erin Anderssen pointed out earlier this month, “The octopus has already challenged our theories on evolution, intelligence and consciousness … invertebrates like octopuses were expected to be “naturally” less intelligent than, say, raccoons. But they are not less intelligent. They have been called a “second genesis” of intelligence and the jury’s still out on how they came to be so.”
A new giant dinosaur gives insight into why many prehistoric meat-eaters had such tiny arms
“Discovery provides insight about the evolution and anatomy of big, carnivorous dinosaurs.” This study provides an opportunity to ask the question: Does adaptation evince rationality?
Ancestral genetic variation essential for rapid evolution of Darwin’s finches
“An important question in evolutionary biology is how such rapid evolution can take place?”
Robert J. Marks on “machines with minds” vs. the real-life dweebs in his evolutionary programming:
A machine mind didn’t “just evolve” in this experiment; it was programmed in — even if its output was a surprise. The same is likely true of the human mind.
At Evolution News: Conservation of Information — The Theorems
William Dembski: “And no, Darwinian evolution cannot, according to the conservation of information theorems, create information from scratch.”
Domesticated Rice: the Power of Artificial Selection.
I suspect that almost every week there’s at least one article published somewhere that undermines Darwinian theory. Now using the term, ‘Darwinian theory’, might ruffle some people’s feathers. Yet, without Darwinian theory, neo-Darwinism makes no sense; it lacks any intellectual foundation. And, so, here we are inching towards the 200th anniversary of Origin of Species Read More…
At Phys.org: Chinese fossils show human middle ear evolved from fish gills
Researchers: Embryonic and fossil evidence proves that the human middle ear evolved from the spiracle of fishes. However, the origin of the vertebrate spiracle has long been an unsolved mystery in vertebrate evolution.
EH: It seems that evolutionists have a much softer definition of what amounts to proof than in other fields of science.
At Skeptic: Why Christians Should Accept the Theory of Evolution
Larry Arnhart writes: American Christian fundamentalists reject Darwinian evolution for at least two reasons. The first is their belief that the Bible has revealed a clear teaching about the divine creation of the world that denies Darwinian evolution. The second reason is their belief that Darwinian evolution contradicts the foundational principle of the American creed Read More…
At Quanta: Brain-Signal Proteins Evolved Before Animals Did
Researchers found that, “choanoflagellates made protein precursors of two mature neuropeptides, phoenixin and nesfatin.”
At Sci-News: Chromatin First Evolved in Ancient Microbes 1-2 Billion Years Ago, New Research Suggests
Scientists hypothesize that chromatin evolved in this microbe as a result of selective pressures in the primordial environment of Earth.
The Death of Neutral Theory
In today’s Nature, we find this article: “Synonymous mutations in representative yeast genes are mostly strongly non-neutral.” They investigated what effect “synonymous, nonsynonymous and nonsense” mutations involving “21 endogenous genes” would have on yeast. The fitness levels of synonymous and nonsynonymous fell in equal (though not ‘identical’) measure–around 75%. I don’t have access to the Read More…
Eric Holloway: The Salem hypothesis as to why engineers doubt Darwin
Engineers doubt chance evolution because a computer using an evolution-based program to do simple tasks would be chugging away well past the heat death of our universe, as Eric Holloway demonstrates.
At Evolution News: Three Realities Chance Can’t Explain That Intelligent Design Can
Professor Granville Sewell appeals to common sense and the limitations of natural forces to argue the obvious: “Unintelligent forces cannot rearrange atoms into computers and airplanes and nuclear power plants and smartphones.”