evolution
gregladen | February 11, 2009Everyone knows about Darwin's Finches, of the Galapagos Islands. But of course, Darwin made observations of birds throughout his travels on The Beagle. Here, I present a number of passages from The Voyage that include some of these observations.
Struthio Rhea
I will now give an account of ... the Struthio Rhea, or South American ostrich. This bird is well known to abound over the plains of Northern Patagonia, and the united provinces of La Plata. It has not crossed the Cordillera; but I have seen it within the first range of mountains on the Uspallata plain.... The ordinary habits of the…
sa smith | February 11, 2009Well Im glad you all have been having fun while I zipped up to MO for the weekend :P
Cool news for Oklahoma college students!
Explain Why Darwin's Views Remain So Important Today.
Deadline: 15 August 2009. Maximum Length: 500 words. Submit essays to: essaycontest@ou.edu. Open to all college students in Oklahoma. Essays will be judged on originality and quality of writing by a panel consisting of individuals selected by the Darwin 2009 Steering Committee. Winners will be announced by a ceremony on the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in November 2009.…
edyong | February 11, 2009This is the fifth of eight posts on evolutionary research to celebrate Darwin's bicentennial.
Life can sometimes be a futile contest. Throughout the natural world, pairs of species are locked in an evolutionary arms race where both competitors must continuously evolve new adaptations just to avoid ceding ground. Any advantage is temporary as every adaptive move from a predator or parasite is quickly neutralised by a counter-move from its prey or host. Coerced onward by the indifferent force of natural selection, neither side can withdraw from the stalemate.
These patterns of evolution are…
jwhitfield | February 11, 2009So, what is there left to say? Not much. As its title suggests, the fourteenth and final chapter of the origin, 'Recapitulation and Conclusion', mostly restates things that Darwin has already said, often several times.
This relentless piling, sorting and re-arranging of evidence can make Darwin seem a little OCD, like an intellectual version of Wall-E. But he also knows that beneath all the case studies, there's a logical core to evolution by natural selection, even if he can't put it in an equation. Darwin brackets this chapter by showing that, if you accept the most basic evidence the…
grrlscientist | February 11, 2009tags: Charles Darwin, nature, evolution, streaming video
The life and times of Charles Darwin -- a failed student from a rich family whose five year voyage round the world inspired The Origin of Species, a groundbreaking work outlining the theory of evolution. Dr. Chapman explains how Darwin's ideas caused outrage in polite society at the time. [7:16]
pharyngula | February 10, 2009
Fans of the great Cambrian predator, Anomalocaris, will be pleased to hear that a cousin lived at least until the Devonian, over 100 million years later. That makes this a fairly successful clade of great-appendage arthropods — a group characterized by a pair of very large and often spiky manipulatory/feeding arms located in front of the mouth. Here's the new fellow, Schinderhannes bartelsi:
(click for larger image)Holotype of Schinderhannes bartelsi. (A) Ventral. (B) Interpretative drawing of ventral side. l, left; r, right; A1, great appendage; A2, flaplike appendage; sp, spine; fm, flap…
scientificactivist | February 10, 2009Evolution is an established scientific idea, the unifying theme of biology, and an important field of study. "Darwinism", on the other hand, is a term used misleadingly by creationists to attack ideas they can't counter on fact alone and misguidedly by journalists unwittingly assisting this process. With that in mind, the recent essay by Carl Safina in The New York Times entitled "Darwinism Must Die So That Evolution May Live" seems a bit irrelevant:
By propounding "Darwinism," even scientists and science writers perpetuate an impression that evolution is about one man, one book, one "…
clock | February 10, 2009Lots of excitement this week on science blogs and other fans of reality.
The biggest biggy of the biggest biggies is Blog For Darwin blog swarm - submit your entries here.
But there are some other, smaller initiatives out there. For instance, this Darwin Meme. And Darwinfest haiku contest.
And if you are blogging more seriously and sholarly about Darwin's place in history, or his publications, then certainly that would fit into the next Giant's Shoulders carnival.
On Twitter, follow and use the #Darwin hashtag. On FriendFeed, I am assuming that the Life Scientists room will be the place to…
evolvingthoughts | February 10, 2009We are going to hear a lot about Darwin this year, especially this month for his birthday (happy 200th, Chas. You don’t look a day over 150) and in November for the sesquicentenary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. And you will hear or read repetitions of a number of common myths about Darwin’s ideas and theories. I thought, being a fecal disturber, that I would try to clarify one of these below the fold, in celebration of his birthday. I'll do the others when I can. If you can think of any more, let me know.
Myth 1: Darwin did not believe in the reality of species
Myth 2:…
clock | February 10, 2009This will be on the campus of UNC Wilmington and I'll do my best to be there if possible:
Darwin's Legacy: Evolution's Impact on Science and Culture
March 19-21, 2009
UNCW's Evolution Learning Community will be hosting "Darwin's Legacy: Evolution's Impact on Science and Culture," a multidisciplinary student conference on March 19-21, 2009.
The conference will be a unique opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students in the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and arts who are conducting research or creative endeavors related to evolution to present their research, investigate…
gregladen | February 10, 2009Charles Darwin wrote a book called Geological Observations on South America. Since Fitzroy needed to carry out intensive and extensive coastal mapping in South America, and Darwin was, at heart, a geologist more than anything else (at least during the Beagle's voyage), this meant that Darwin would become the world's expert on South American geology. Much of The Voyage is about his expeditions and observations. Part of this, of course, was figuring out the paleontology of the region.
reposted with minor revisions
Bahia Blanca is a port at the northern end of Patagonia. Chapter V of The…
evolvingthoughts | February 10, 2009Theologians can be monumentally stupid when they look at things through their doctrinal spectacles, especially when it comes to science. Since they think everything is theological, it must have a theological standing, either good or bad, and so they will undergo the most amazing gymnastics to achieve this outcome. Here's an example, by Anglican Bishop Tom Frame of the Charles Sturt University theological school:
The problem I face is weariness with science-based dialogue partners like Richard Dawkins. It surprises me he is not chided for his innate scientific conservatism and metaphysical…
pharyngula | February 10, 2009I strongly disagree with the arguments of this essay by Carl Safina, "Darwinism Must Die So That Evolution May Live", even while I think there is a germ of truth to its premise. It reads more like a contrarian backlash to all the attention being given to Darwin in this bicentennial of his birth. The author makes three general claims that he thinks justify his call to "kill Darwin".
The first is a reasonable concern, that "equating evolution with Darwin" is misleading and can lead to public misunderstanding…but then Safina charges off into ridiculous hyperbole, that scientists are making…
clock | February 10, 2009No, really, it was Anne-Marie's idea. She started it! Yeah, don't look at me!
Charles Darwin is on Twitter, Alfred Wallace is on Twitter, Richard Owen is on Twitter, even Bishop Wilberforce (aka Soapy Sam) is on Twitter. Where is Huxley?
We are already having fun retweeting non-existent Darwin tweets ;-) I hope the real Darwin and others respond with humorous stuff:
@BoraZ I can see it; "@arwallace: damn!"
Bora: @rowen next time I'll block you!
BoraZ: RT @cdarwin Please: need info on modification/domestication in pigeons for a book
BoraZ: RT @cdarwin w00t! Going on a cruise: Argentina,…
edyong | February 10, 2009This is the fourth of eight posts on evolutionary research to celebrate Darwin's bicentennial.
Charles Darwin was a visionary in more ways than one. In 1862, Darwin was studying a Malagasy orchid called Angraecum sesquipedale, whose nectar stores lie inaccessibly at the bottom of a 30cm long spur (tube). Darwin predicted that the flower was pollinated by a moth with tongue long enough to raid the spur.
Few people believed him, but in 1903, zoologists discovered Darwin's predicted moth, Xanthopan morgani praedicta, and it did indeed have a very long tongue. Darwin accurately predicted the…
grrlscientist | February 10, 2009tags: Charles Darwin, nature, evolution, streaming video
The life and times of Charles Darwin -- a failed student from a rich family whose five year voyage round the world inspired The Origin of Species, a groundbreaking work outlining the theory of evolution. Dr. Chapman explains how Darwin's ideas caused outrage in polite society at the time. [8:34]
razib | February 9, 2009Carl Safina has a provocative essay in The New York Times, Darwinism Must Die So That Evolution May Live. I'm sure others will jump all over this, so I'm not going to go exegetic on the essay. Though I disagree with the overly broad assertions, it is elegantly written and points to a reality: there is a cult of Charles Darwin. Where after all is the cult of Isaac Newton? Albert Einstein week? The remembrance of Gregor Mendel? Ruminations on the legacy of Antoine Lavoisier? But that cult is a reaction to the fact that there exists an organized lobby aimed at tearing down the science which…
gregladen | February 9, 2009We're half way through Darwin Month, and only a tiny ways through the voyage. Need to hurry up! So, let's skip ahead a bit and hit the Gauchos....
reposted with minor modifications
Well, you don't really want to hit at Gaucho ... they hit back rather hard....
The Gauchos are the cowboys of the so-called Southern Cone and Pampas. The Gauchos are a Latin American version the horse mounted pastoralists that emerge wherever four things are found together: Grasslands, horses, people and cattle. Like all horse-mounted pastoralists, they have been known to have certain cultural tendencies or…
razib | February 9, 2009Two articles of note, The evolution of Darwin's theory & They Don't Make Homo Sapiens Like They Used To. John Hawks gets a lot of face time....
gregladen | February 9, 2009Eventually, the Beagle headed south to the area of Uruguay and Argentina, still on the Atlantic Coast, where extensive mapping of the coastal waters was required.
The Parana and Uruguay Rivers meet in the Atlantic estuary known as Rio de la Plata. On the north side of this huge body of water is Montevideo, Uruguay, and on the south side, the northern coast of Argentina. There is an interesting story linked with early European exploration of this area. A Spanish ship is the first known European craft to explore La Plata. The ship's captain and a small crew went inland, and never came…