Tagged: evolution

The revolution that wasn’t: African tools push back the origins of human technological innovation - Guest Work

Guest Work • Mar 22, 2018 •

• Acheulean,
• adzes,
• Africa,
• archaeology,
• cleavers,
• climate change,
• Environmental,
• Eurocentric,
• evolution,
• hominin,
• human revolution,
• Kenya,
• mammals,
• Middle Stone Age,
• modernity,
• olorgesailie,
• tools

Patrick Randolph-Quinney, University of Central Lancashire and Anthony Sinclair, University of Liverpool This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Just 20 years ago, many archaeologists believed there was a “human revolution” 40,000-50,000 years ago during which modern behaviours such as symbolism, innovation and art suddenly arose. This was thought … Read More

There are dozens of sea snake species in the Indian and Pacific oceans, but none in the Atlantic or Caribbean. Why? - Guest Work

Guest Work • Mar 14, 2018 •

• Atlantic,
• breeding,
• Carribean,
• ciciparous,
• Climate,
• coast,
• coral,
• Coral Triangle,
• currents,
• ecology,
• eggs,
• estuarine,
• evolution,
• Indian,
• ocean,
• Pacific,
• se kraits,
• sea snake,
• species,
• tropical

Harvey Lillywhite, University of Florida This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Beachgoers often find unusual things that have washed up with the tides. But many people were surprised when a venomous yellow-bellied sea snake recently was found alive on California’s Newport Beach. Sea snakes are less well-known than other … Read More

Why Barbra Streisand’s cloned dogs aren’t identical to the original pet - Guest Work

Guest Work • Mar 05, 2018 •

• Barbara Streisand,
• child development,
• clone,
• cloning,
• Diet,
• dogs,
• Dolly the sheep,
• Environment,
• epigenetics,
• evolution,
• genome,
• identical twins,
• selection,
• social interactions

Russell Bonduriansky, UNSW This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could bring back a deceased loved one? Such ideas used to be pure science fiction, but recent advances in biotechnology seem to have brought this possibility within reach (at least for the wealthy). When American … Read More

A tale of two penguins: Bice and Rosie - Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives

Nic Rawlence • Mar 05, 2018 •

• Bice's Penguin,
• Biodiversity,
• Cretaceous,
• Dinosaurs,
• evolution,
• extinction,
• fossil,
• marine life,
• New Zealand,
• Paleocene,
• penguin,
• predation,
• Rosie's Penguin

New Zealand has long been considered the cradle of penguin evolution. But two new fossil discoveries, affectionately known as Bice’s, (pronounced Bee-chee’s), and Rosie’s Penguins, are rewriting early penguin evolution and have taken the world by storm. Move aside Penguins of Madagascar; there are some new and cool kids on the block! But how did we get to this … Read More

Yes the ‘cheerleader effect’ is real – and you can make it work in your favour - Guest Work

Guest Work • Mar 05, 2018 •

• attraction,
• attractiveness,
• categrosiation,
• cheerleader effect,
• ebbinghaus illusion,
• evolution,
• gender,
• group,
• indibidual,
• peers,
• Psychology,
• sex,
• sitcoms,
• studies

Evita March, Federation University Australia This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. When it comes to presenting yourself online – such as your profile pic for Facebook or even Tinder – which type of photo do you chose? The selfie you’ve taken after careful consideration of lighting, hair and maybe makeup? … Read More

Who’s afraid of Noam Chomsky? - Mind Matters

Michael Corballis • Feb 26, 2018 •

• Biblical,
• biology,
• communication,
• evolution,
• grammar,
• intellect,
• James D. McCawley,
• language,
• Noam Chomsky,
• Prometheus,
• Psychology,
• scientific,
• Skinner,
• theory,
• writing

Me. But let’s press on regardless. Noam Chomsky is a polarising figure in modern intellectual life. Best known in popular discourse for his radical criticism of US foreign policy, he has written countless best-selling book on this and related political topics. It is as a philosopher and linguist, though, that he is likely to be best remembered intellectually, … Read More

Walk this Way! Lizards may have run on two feet as early as 110 million years ago - News

Jean Balchin • Feb 20, 2018 •

• anatmoy,
• bipdelaity,
• biped,
• digits,
• evolution,
• fossils,
• gait,
• hind legs,
• lizards,
• stride

A recent study in Scientific Reports has concluded that lizards may have run on two feet (bipedally) as early as 110 million years ago. Although typical lizard locomotion is quadrupedal (on four feet), bipedalism is a behaviour exhibited by over 50 species of lizards. During bipedal locomotion, the forelimbs leave the ground and the trunk of the lizard is elevated; essentially the lizard … Read More

The Immortal Life of a Hydra - BioBlog

Jean Balchin • Feb 09, 2018 •

• evolution,
• fertility,
• genet,
• genetics,
• genus,
• hydra,
• Mortality,
• nonsenescence,
• offspring,
• organism,
• senescence,
• species

Students often get to look at hydras – tiny, fresh-water members of the group that includes sea anemones, jellyfish, corals, and the Portuguese man’o’war. All these cnidarians have a simple body-plan: two layers of true tissue with a jelly-like layer between them, a sac-like gut with a single opening that acts as both mouth and anus, and the characteristic stinging cells –  … Read More

Dogs, Diets and the Impact of Evolution - BioBlog

Alison Campbell • Feb 05, 2018 •

• Diet,
• digestion,
• dogs,
• evolution,
• fat,
• genes,
• glucose,
• metabolism,
• starch

Yvonne d’Entremont (aka SciBabe) recently posted an article on ‘alternative’ foods and health products for pets, in her usual no-holds-barred style. It’s always good to see pseudoscience called out for what it is, and in the case of pet-focused quackery it’s a message that needs multiple repeats. Why? Because pets are dependent on us, & we have a responsibility … Read More

Accelerated Christian Education and pseudo-scientific “education” - Guest Work

Jean Balchin • Jan 15, 2018 •

• America,
• education,
• evolution,
• fundamentalism,
• hopeful monster theory,
• racism,
• sexism,
• teaching

Picture this: grey walls rising up on three sides of you as you sit, hunched over your schoolwork – a science worksheet repudiating the theory of evolution, using the Loch Ness Monster as an example for why Darwin was horrifically, inexcusably wrong.  As you fill in the blanks, copying the answers from the pages of information in … Read More