Evolution

Ernst Haeckel created the first phylogenetic ‘tree of life’ of organisms 150 years ago in Jena, and published it in his major work, the ‘General morphology of organisms.’ It allowed for us to see diversity and the connections between species. It was not only Darwin who influenced Haeckel’s creation. He was also inspired by a linguist who was his colleague and friend in Jena. “As early as 1863, the linguist August Schleicher created a first ‘family tree’ to represent the development of Indo-Germanic languages,” says Prof. Uwe Hoßfeld of Friedrich Schiller University Jena in Germany. “Ernst…

Evidence preserved in the internal skeletal structure of the famous Lucy fossil ( Australopithecus afarensis - "southern ape of Afar") suggests the ancient human species frequently climbed trees, according to a new analysis. Lucy was discovered in Ethiopia 42 years ago this month and paleontologists have debated whether the 3.18 million-year-old specimen spent her life walking on the ground or combined walking with frequent tree climbing. A new analysis of the partially fossilized skeleton published shows that Lucy’s upper limbs were heavily built, similar to tree-climbing chimpanzees,…

Around 65 million years ago, a massive asteroid crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, causing an impact so huge that the blast and its aftermath wiped out about 75 percent of all life on Earth, including most of the dinosaurs. It’s known as the Chicxulub impact and it may possibly have created habitats for our early life on Earth because the asteroid hit the Earth’s surface with such force that it pushed rocks – at the time about 6 miles beneath the surface – farther downward and then outward. These rocks then moved inward toward the impact zone and then up to the surface before collapsing…

The following is truthfully reporting a conversation between Lovely Liberal Lisa from the sociology department, a stupid Donald Trump follower in the mathematics department, and a Heil Hitler screaming Nazi, the stupid Donald Trump lover’s secret best friend, as it actually happened in the stupid Donald Trump lover’s office: Heil Hitler Screaming Nazi: Heil Hitler! Congratulations to your victory! Our victory! Stupid Donald Trump Follower: Hey, what the FiretrUCK, don’t do that. The walls have ears. Heil Hitler Screaming Nazi: But The Donald has won! Free speech again. Let’s turn on the gas!…

Evolutionary biology long ago solved the philosophical conundrum 'what came first, the chicken or the egg?' by showing that eggs came long before chickens.  But more relevant to evolution is the 'mother' molecule that led to the formation of life. What is it and how did it replicate itself? RNA may be the answer to the first question, because it has more flexibility in how it recognizes itself than previously believed. The finding might change how we picture the first chemical steps towards replication and life. Today, plants, animals and other organisms reproduce by making copies of…

What is the reason for the steep decay of average intelligence in Germany? Is it the current immigration? What is the brain-drain’s contribution? It is none of these! But why not and what is the reason? I admit that as an antifascist for three decades, I have not foreseen that the fall of the West would start with the race issue. As a progressive mind, race is not on the radar when pondering the future, even although I knew the relevant science. I just did not attend to the connections that race keeps real despite of our denial. I expected bad times to arrive with ideological revolutions,…

New fossils from the Late Triassic period (235 to 201 million years ago) are changing scientists' understanding of what drastically different forms can evolve in the tetrapod forelimb, including skeletal adaptations never before seen in land animals.  The new fossils belong to an ancient reptile known as Drepanosaurus collected from Hayden Quarry in Ghost Ranch, northern New Mexico. Drepanosaurs are an extinct group of reptiles that, although superficially lizard-like, are not lizards, nor dinosaurs. Most were small (only 1 to 2 feet in length) and are known to have lived exclusively…

Occasionally in science there are theories that refuse to die despite the overwhelming evidence against them. The “aquatic ape hypothesis” is one of these, now championed by Sir David Attenborough in his recent BBC Radio 4 series The Waterside Ape. The hypothesis suggests that everything from walking upright to our lack of hair, from holding our breath to eating shellfish could be because an aquatic phase in our ancestry. Since the theory was first suggested more than 55 years ago, huge advances have been made in the study of human evolution and our story is much more interesting and…

Science-fiction is filled with technologically advanced species that could easily overwhelm us - but it may be that we are going to be that first interstellar traveler, and we may discover other life before it even knows it is being discovered. The universe is 13.8 billion years old, while our planet formed just 4.5 billion years ago. That large time gap may mean that life on other planets, should it already exist, could be billions of years older than ours. Or it could be that present-day life is actually premature from a cosmic perspective and we have the huge head start by even being able…

Life isn’t always easy, but some beetles simply behave reckless.Trying to get your eggs inside a colony of murderous all-consuming red woodants (Formica rufa, see the picturebelow) is simply asking for trouble, or is it? The four spotted leaf beetle larvae build a house of excrement (poo) and earth to survive this hostile environment. Meet the four spotted leaf beetle (Clytra quadripunctata, see the pictures.) These beetles look like ladybugs that have been stretched on the rack (a torture device from the middle ages).  These are however no ladybugs at all. Where ladybugs are ferocious…