Evolution

From Eurekalert: Giant ‘sea scorpion’ fossil discovered The fossil of a previously unknown species of ‘sea scorpion’, measuring over 1.5 meters long, has been discovered in Iowa, USA, and described in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. Dating back 460 million years, it is the oldest known species of eurypterid (sea scorpion) – extinct monster-like predators that swam the seas in ancient times and are related to modern arachnids. Lead author, James Lamsdell from Yale University, USA, said: “The new species is incredibly bizarre. The shape of the paddle – the leg which it would use to swim – is unique, as is the shape of the head. It’s also big – over a meter and a half long!” Read More ›

Provided you don’t ask for much: Today, we often hear that these non-random mechanisms of evolution are consistent with Darwinian evolution (the Modern Synthesis). So, nothing has really changed after all! Not so fast. Darwinian evolution (Darwinism) had better be consistent with all demonstrated mechanisms of change. Unlike horizontal gene transfer, it has proven difficult to witness, and proponents have relied largely on the assumption that it is “the only known theory that is in principle capable of explaining certain aspects of life.” What’s changed is that it can no longer be considered equivalent to “evolution.” It must compete with other known mechanisms. Most of the time, when we think of evolution, we mean mechanisms for the growth of complex Read More ›

From Texas Observer: The beast was a mammal relative with a heavy skull, a mouth full of fangs, and a tall dorsal sail made of skin stretched over long struts of bone. Sinuous as a crocodile, leathery scales shining in the hot sun, it padded along black-mud swamps and highlands shaded by swaying tree ferns. Sixty million years before the first dinosaur, it slept, basked, chased and killed. It breathed. It was alive. That would be about 280 million years ago (Early Permian). So the mystery is: Paleontologists studying the red beds puzzled over Dimetrodon’s ubiquity for years. No modern land ecosystems support that many apex predators. “If you go on a wildlife-watching tour in Africa,” Bakker said, “you will Read More ›

Re the excerpt from Evolution: Making sense of life by science writer Carl Zimmer and evolutionary biologist Doug Emlen (from 2012, hardcover valued at $80): In response to the offer noted here, the reader kindly writes to say, The free download is only the first part of the chapter, not the whole thing. Most of the discussion in this excerpt is about patterns in the fossil record (species diversity temporally and geographically, rates of origination and extinction, etc.) Concerning possible mechanisms of macroevolution, the downloaded pages included this: In Chapter 13 we saw how microevolutionary processes, such as natural selection and drift, can produce new species. The only other references to possible mechanisms of macroevolution included “convergence” as an explanation Read More ›

From Evolution: Making sense of life by science writer Carl Zimmer and evolutionary biologist Doug Emlen: Science writer Carl Zimmer and evolutionary biologist Douglas Emlen have teamed up to write a textbook intended for biology majors that will inspire students while delivering a solid foundation in evolutionary biology. As .pdf, courtesy the Darwin in the schools lobby, here. Note: It takes a couple minutes to download. Thoughts? What’s changed? Note: News posting light till late this evening, owing to O’Leary’s alternate day job. Follow UD News at Twitter!

At Evolution News & Views: Epigenetic change: Lamarck, wake up, you’re wanted in the conference room! To recap, Darwinism entails vertical transfer of genes from a common ancestor to descendants. Horizontal gene transfer means transfer of genes from one organism to another on contact, irrespective of the ancestry of either life form. HGT is a form of evolution, yes. But it drastically weakens the status of Darwinism as the “only known theory.” Any Darwinian claim about evolution must first rule out HGT as a possible explanation. And, as we shall shortly see, it must rule out epigenetics as well. Why does this historic shift in the burden of proof receive comparatively little attention? Probably it’s due to the overwhelming acceptance Read More ›

One of biology’s most important concepts, no? From Pos-Darwinista: A lizard lineage which has evolved over the last 19 million years has helped scientists to re-think one of the most important concepts of modern biology. ‘Adaptive radiation’ is recognised as a pillar of evolutionary science. It describes the development of new biodiversity, and is triggered when a species encounters a new environment with plenty of available resources –this is called ‘ecological opportunity’. This single species then makes the most of these resources and multiplies rapidly into several new forms. When all these resources have been used up by new species, the process of biodiversity proliferation slows down dramatically. ‘Early-bursts’ of new species diversification have previously been seen as a central Read More ›

Suzan Mazur, author of The Origin of Life Circus, recently interviewed Eibi Nevo (86), at Huffington Post. She notes that Nevo largely agrees with post-Darwinian James Shapiro, who, in James Barham’s words, stresses the importance of a key concept for understanding how both life and evolution work—“natural genetic engineering.” While the technical details of this phenomenon can be forbidding, the basic idea is simple enough. In a nutshell, the phrase “natural genetic engineering” refers to cells’ ability to “reprogram” their genomes as necessary—that is to say, purposefully—in order to meet changed environmental conditions. Among many other things, Nevo, Eviatar Nevo’s professional publications include 1,200 scientific articles and 24 books. He’s discovered hundreds of animal species, 77 different Dead Sea mushrooms, Read More ›

Here’s this snippet from a Phys.Org entry. The most remarkable part of it is that they link “cell-type” evolution to the repression of genes, making one wonder if all the necessary genes needed for all of life was somehow present in an original genome. Obviously there are problems with this thesis in terms of genome length and type, bacterial genomes being ciruclar, while animals generally have discrete chromosomes, but, it’s entirely possible that multi-cellular life represents a complete break with bacteria, and that what we’re seeing here is the ultimate in “front-loading,” where everything is in place, yet, per Behe’s first law of adaptation, we see “loss of function” leading to novelties. And, it should be a little troubling, if Read More ›

A series of articles by philosopher of biology James Barham on key new thinkers, collected together on his blog: Part I: The Machine Metaphor Part II: James A. Shapiro Part III: Mary Jane West-Eberhard Part IV: Some Experiments Part V: Life and Emergence Part VI: F.E. Yates’s Homeodynamics Seeing Past Darwin VII: Some Physical Properties of Life Dr. Barham is glad to hear from commenters. So are we. Follow UD News at Twitter!

In robots. From ScienceDaily: A computer science team at The University of Texas at Austin has found that robots evolve more quickly and efficiently after a virtual mass extinction modeled after real-life disasters such as the one that killed off the dinosaurs. Beyond its implications for artificial intelligence, the research supports the idea that mass extinctions actually speed up evolution by unleashing new creativity in adaptations. … “Focused destruction can lead to surprising outcomes,” said Miikkulainen, a professor of computer science at UT Austin. “Sometimes you have to develop something that seems objectively worse in order to develop the tools you need to get better.” In biology, mass extinctions are known for being highly destructive, erasing a lot of genetic Read More ›

Further to: New call for an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (The main problem the extended evolutionary synthesis creates for Darwinism is that evolution happens in many different ways, not just their way): From the paper: By contrast, the EES regards the genome as a sub-system of the cell designed by evolution to sense and respond to the signals that impinge on it. Organisms are not built from genetic ‘instructions’ alone, but rather self-assemble using a broad variety of inter-dependent resources. A reader writes to ask, 1. “designed by evolution”? That means that design is so obvious that you can not get rid of it. But you can not represent “evolution” as an agent because “evolution” is not an agent, a force, Read More ›

Wasn’t suppose to happen in the old days, right? But it turns out to be surprisingly common. From ScienceDaily: The common baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is used to make bread, wine and beer, and is the laboratory workhorse for a substantial proportion of research into molecular and cell biology. It was also the first non-bacterial living thing to have its genome sequenced, back in 1996. However, when the sequence of that genome emerged it appeared that the scientists were seeing double – the organism seemed to have two very different versions of many of its genes. How could this have happened? Researchers from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) Barcelona, Spain, writing in the Open Access journal PLOS Biology in Read More ›

To replace the Modern Synthesis: The Modern Evolutionary Synthesis is the name given to the school of thought which is now broadly accepted by evolutionary scientists around the world. Formal amalgamation of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, Gregor Mendel’s genetics and August Weismann’s germ plasm theory was key to the Modern Synthesis, but other advances in population genetics and palaeontology were also important. Further to: Larry Moran misses the point about Gunther Witzany (The perspective of the critics of the modern synthesis—so far from being shunned—is now one that attracts an “outer circle.” Hardly the sign of a failing cause): There’s a new paper, “The extended evolutionary synthesis: its structure, assumptions and predictions,” Proceedings of the Royal Read More ›

Further to “Philosopher of science: Schoolbook Darwinism needs replacement” (Witzany: All these concepts that dominated science for half a century are falsified now): Over at University of Toronto biochemist Larry Moran’s Sandwalk blog, we are informed, Here’s why you can ignore Günther Witzany Günther Witzany is one of those people who think the Modern Synthesis needs to be overthrown but he missed the real revolution that took place in the late 1960s. He’s part of The Third Way crowd that includes Denis Noble and Jim Shapiro [see Physiologists fall for the Third Way and The Third Fourth Way]. … He was not one of the Altenberg 16 but he clearly wants to be part of the outer circle. It’s not Read More ›