The Evolution of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse

City Mouse and Country Mouse. By Arthur Rackham. Via Wikipedia http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rackham_town_mouse_and_country_mouse.jpg The Evolution of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse Many people today still struggle with the idea that evolution could be occurring right now.  In front of us.  This is a really good place to start our understanding of evolution with a current,…

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Gut Microbiome Splits a Species-by Buddhini Samarasinghe

https://plus.google.com/u/0/108510686109338749229/posts/apoxkhhLSva Gut flora (bacteria) is really coming into its own. In our surprisingly germaphobe world, this is kind of surprising. Today, we see ads side-by-side for Activia yoghurt and pill-form probiotics to promote regularity. At some point, perhaps we’ll realise that bacteria are not all evil. In the meantime, this post does a fantastic job…

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How to build an Eye by Buddhini Samarasinghe

https://plus.google.com/u/0/108510686109338749229/posts/S4J7RAt7zNJ Another great post dealing with eye development across species. This one directly goes to the argument that there’s no way something as complex as the human eye could have evolved. In class, we look at diagrams of structures of mollusc eyes as examples of some really basic eye structures. This article summary goes more…

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How to Build a Snake-by Buddhini Samarasinghe

I came across this on Google+ today and thought it was GREAT.  Too bad classes are currently over until fall–I’ll have to wait almost an entire semester until I get to the chapter on Hox genes and development again! We talk about snakes and pelvises, and then later we talk about Hox genes and development……

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Bacterial DNA in Human Genomes | The Scientist Magazine®

Bacterial DNA in Human Genomes | The Scientist Magazine®.   Image credit: Pseudomonas, one of the bacteria groups that have transferred genes to humans. CDC, JANICE HANEY CARR   One of the concepts we talk about late in the term is horizontal gene transfer.  Basically, this is the acquisition of DNA or genes from organisms…

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Rare Breed of Killer Whale May Be New Species

Rare Breed of Killer Whale May Be New Species. In class, we get lots of definitions for a species, including: the phenetic species concept the phylogenetic species concept the evolutionary species definition the biological species definition In my class and most of biology, we tend to stick with the biological species concept, which requires that individuals…

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Mating Fossils

For years, I said nobody ever caught two fossils going at it (copulating, having sex, whatever). I was wrong. Aside from a pair of fossilized, mating turtles, we now also have: Amber-ized mating mites! One of the neat things about these mites: the female appears to be sexually dominant!