Is This Spindly Fossil a 3-Billion-Year-Old Eukaryote? | The Artful Amoeba, Scientific American Blog Network. As we finish up another jam-packed summer term in 2013, this hit the news feed on Scientific American. Looking at the image, I can’t quite tell if it’s a eukaryote–I don’t see a really distinct nucleus or membrane-bound organelles,…
Things you never knew about chickens: How the chicken lost its penis
How the chicken lost its penis : Nature News & Comment.
Why do we laugh? Is laughing unique to humans?
Last laugh » Scienceline.
Giant, fluorescent pink slugs found near Narrabri
Giant, fluorescent pink slugs found near Narrabri. There’s a reason I have a “strange creatures” category of posts. This isn’t the only hot pink creature around, either. In 2008, a hot pink millipede was named # 3 in the Top 10 New Species of 2007: So, before you say you won’t eat something…
The Plague of Locusts 2013
Deciphering the Strange Mathematics of Cicadas [Video] In the Hampton Roads area, the plague of locusts predicted for this year hasn’t really started yet–and it probably won’t, since we’re not in the direct path. I used to discuss locusts and mating cycles in class–a previous textbook offered it as an example. This year is a…
Teeth reveal Neanderthal Weaning Habits
Barium distributions in teeth reveal early-life dietary transitions in primates : Nature : Nature Publishing Group. Seriously? We can tell how early Neanderthals were weaned from their teeth?? Wow. Okay…
We Fit Nature to Us: Evolution’s 2-Way Street | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network
We Fit Nature to Us: Evolution’s 2-Way Street | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network.
Dogs & Humans: Closer than Friends?
Dog And Human Genomes Evolved Together Yet another topic we talk about is how dogs were domesticated. Domestication is, in some ways, a reasonable model for evolution, because it involves heritable variation that is selected for or against–in this case, by humans. It is generally agreed at this point that modern dogs descended from the…
Journal Club: Scarlet macaw genome sequenced | Maniraptora
Journal Club: Scarlet macaw genome sequenced | Maniraptora. One of the questions we spend a chapter discussing is what makes a species unique. We talk about DNA and speciation and chromosome copies. This research is interesting from an evolutionary perspective, because it shows how the scarlet macaw is different from a chicken: how…
Sex & HOX genes: learning about basic reproduction
Mosses Make Two Different Plants From the Same Genome, and a Single Gene Can Make the Difference | The Artful Amoeba, Scientific American Blog Network. This article is pretty amazing and is VERY well-written. I just posted one about fish and asked why they couldn’t just asexually reproduce. Well, this kind of starts pointing you…