Evolution

When Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life 150 years ago next month, he avoided conjecture about the origin of life and "To my mind it accords better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator" shows that he had limits on the cultural firestorm he wanted to create in the name of science. But the world's most famous British naturalist did explain in other documents how our first ancestors could have come into being, says an international team.  "All organic…

The great diversity of male sexual traits, ranging from peacock's elaborate train to formidable genitalia of male seed beetles, is the result of female choice, say researchers from Uppsala University, but why do females choose among males? In a new Current Biology study they found no support for the theory that the female choice is connected to "good genes". There is no consensus among biologists over the key question why females choose among males but the heart of this debate has two preferred possibilities - that female choosiness is beneficial to the females themselves or that female…

The recent report of a set of fossils of geniune significance for our understanding of human evolution highlights just how scientifically pathetic the PR circus over the primate fossil Darwinius masillae really was. Paleontologist Jørn Hurum, who purchased the fossil from a collector, clearly thought he had made the find of his life, and so he decided to milk it for all it was worth. The result was science via PR blitz. Making ridiculous statements like "This is like finding the Holy Grail for paleontologists... This is the first link to all humans," Hurun hyped the fossil (which he nicknamed…

It takes two to reproductively tango for humans but even when plants  (or animals) can self-fertilize their offspring have longer lives when a mate is involved in the process, according to over 100 mini-evolution experiments involving nematode worms (Caenorhabditis elegans) at the University of Oregon. Going it alone increases susceptibility to genetic mutations and reduces that adaptability to changing environments, says their report in Nature. Sex with self in the animal and plant world is known as 'selfing'. Offspring born from selfing share all of their genes in common with their…

I receive a lot of inquisitive emails from intelligent laymen, and today I received a nice one that asked, in so many words, “Is natural selection fast enough to explain the complex biology we find in our world?” My knee-jerk response was to say, “Well, of course natural selection is fast enough, because here we are?” But I didn’t do that.  I also didn’t respond by taking out my Dawkins-certified religion-bludgeoning stick. I’m not partial to that pedagogical approach, and I figure it only got Dawkins uncomfortably familiar with Ms. Garrison of South Park.  Instead, I responded in…

I liked it. Overall, I think the Discovery Channel did a good job of capturing the painstaking work that goes into scientific research, in this case spanning more than 15 years from discovery to publication. Some other quick thoughts: This was not hype. If anything, it was pretty modest, given the amount and significance of the work involved. I didn't see the Darwinius special, but even the previews had me wincing. Mike Rowe is an excellent narrator. I have enjoyed his work when I have watched Deadliest Catch and Dirty Jobs, but I would also like to see (er, hear) him on more specials…

The folks over at Science and Religion Today were interested in our study on graduate student conceptions of evolution, and asked me to give some thoughts on the question "How detailed an understanding of evolution do we need?" Here is my answer. If by "we" you mean "scientists," then it is extremely important that we gain as detailed an understanding of evolutionary mechanisms and the patterns of diversification that they have produced as we can. The question of the origins of biological diversity is a fundamental one, and obtaining as complete an answer as possible is a primary goal of…

I need most of my body parts. I figure I have my various meaty chunks for good evolutionary reasons, and far be it from me to sell any, no matter how often that creepy guy shows up at my door with a cooler of dry ice offering me money. But if I ever were going to unload one of my body parts, I’d pick the most useless one of all, one that is even more useless than the appendix (although even it has recently been suggested to not be so useless, see Your appendix and your eyes). I would sell my belly button. To illustrate just how useless it is, can you recall when you last used it?   I bet…

Researchers studying Rhesus Macaque mothers and writing on their results in Current Biology have determined that interactions of macaque mothers with their infants have a lot of similarity to human mothers in the first month of a newborn's life. "What does a mother or father do when looking at their own baby?" asks Pier Francesco Ferrari of the Università di Parma in Italy. "They smile at them and exaggerate their gestures, modify their voice pitch—the so-called "motherese"—and kiss them. What we found in mother macaques is very similar: they exaggerate their gestures, "kiss" their baby, and…

My real life has swamped my online one recently, and so I failed to note that the 16th Carnival of Evolution is up at the excellent blog Pleiotropy. Bjørn has managed to collect 50,228 words of blogging about evolution, covering the human brain, man-eating birds, child-eating eagles, sperm wars, evolving views on selfish genes, true sexual reproduction for same-sex couples, and much more. If that's not enough for you, the latest archaeology blogging feast, Four Stone Hearth, is up at A Place Odyssey. This edition includes writing on Stonehenge, how creationism can be attributed to a lack of…