Evolution refers to the observed changes in successive generations of biological organisms due to heritable components (genes and DNA). Charles Darwin proposed a major mechanism of evolution: natural selection.
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How does “be altruist to those who are similar to you” evolve?
There are many cases when people commit altruism. One is relationship. I am willing to die for 2 of my children or 8 nieces, say an evolutionary psychologist. Another is reciprocal altruism, which is ...
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Why does so much variation exist within species?
My last phrasing of this question did not go down well, so I will try again.
The genotype of species is not always the same. If you ask yourself why not all of these possible expressions except one ...
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How did butterflies evolve to have eyes on their wings?
Some butterflies, such as the UK native Peacock butterfly (Google Image Search) have markings on their wings that look just like eyes, complete with a white fleck to imitate a convex, transparency ...
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How exactly are game theoretical evolutionary models described during implementation for computer simulations?
When a biologist or a layman tries to reason the evolutionary explanation for something, they would simply use English with some math thrown in (for a random example, pick any explanation out of "The ...
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Are there other mechanisms for mutation besides imperfect DNA replication?
I was reading http://www.askamathematician.com/2012/05/q-is-quantum-randomness-ever-large-enough-to-be-noticed/ and saw:
[...] the evolution of entire species can be changed by a single
mistake ...
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How and why did mouth and nasal cavity evolve separate?
My initial objection is that nose filters air, mouth is for eating but is used for breathing also, plus they both are used to create sounds. What is the cause and reason in this case, why do we need ...
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What evolutionary mechanism caused felines to develop purring?
And why can some felines roar while others meow?
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Computational/mathematical models for predicting phenotype from genotype
Karr, Sanghvi, et al. (2012) propose a whole-cell computational model for predicting phenotype from genotype in Mycoplasma genitalium. Their model simulates myriad cell processes such as DNA ...
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Homologies to insect wings
All winged vertebrates have wings which are homologous to each other and to the forelimbs of the non-winged vertebrates. But what about insect wings? Are all insect wings homologous, and are there any ...
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What is the benefit for cells having the ATP production regulated in mitochondria compared to being from the nucleus?
Mitochondria have their own DNA and appear to be loosely connected to the nucleus and it role.
Why are the functions of mitochondria not in the nucleus? Why doesn't the nucleus control the ...
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What selective factors drove the evolution of lactose in lactation?
As far as I can determine, lactose, and the monosaccharide galactose have few biological uses outside of mammalian lactation. It not only required enzymes for its production, but enzymes in offspring ...
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If Evolution Is In Progress, Why Fight Extinction?
Natural selection is a central dogma of evolution. However, most biologists seem determined to prevent the extinction of the species that have been selected against. Why is this? Preservation of ...
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Why was polyploidy not lethal in certain octodontid rodents?
As discussed in Why is polyploidy lethal for some organisms while for others is not?, polyploidy is normally lethal in mammals.
However, two species of Octodontidae (South American rodents), are ...
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Is extreme cladism a mainstream position in the species debate?
In the philosophy of biology it has been claimed many times that a popular position regarding the question of what species are, among biologists, is cladism. For my current purposes, the defining ...
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Alternatives to fittest-win and Moran processes as simple mathematical models of selection
When modeling selective sweeps as a micro-building block in models of macroevolution (not to be confused with misuses of this in creationist arguments), I use the fittest-win model of selection as a ...
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Could an organism theoretically produce a metamaterial-like structure? [closed]
I'm curious to know if this is physically feasible because during my reading up on synthetic biology and just general research i realise that life is capable of producing some exquisitely complex ...
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Is the theory of evolution being disproved by bats?
For some species the Darwin's theory evolution makes perfect sense. I can easily imagine how, for example, the giraffe has evolved to its current appearance: the natural selection was favoring ...
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Refutation of Darwin's Random Evolution Theory
I saw this refutation online of Darwin's Random Evolution Theory and cannot see any holes with the logic. Can anyone crack this simple refutation?
Refutation of the Theory of Random Evolution
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Which came first: The Chicken or the Egg? [closed]
Has there been any serious scientific inquiries into answering this age old question?
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How does Artificial Selection work?
As far as I know for evolution to work mutations are necessary. Mutations are the raw material on which natural selection works.
But mutations are always completely random and human beings have no ...
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How does natural selection favour large body mass and size (or so it seems)
I was walking through a park this afternoon and observed a few birds having fun flying around and it got me thinking why would natural selection favour birds with flesh at all if it hinders their ...
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Do plant-animal cross races exist?
Plants and animals have the following distinct properties:
Plants live from solar energy by photosynthesis, they use solar energy to make sugar and oxygen out of carbon dioxide, which gives them ...
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Since Darwinian times, has there been any striking/notable effects of evolution on humans?
I understand that evolution is constant process that acts on a population in successive generations. Thus, it is obvious that evolution is happening. However, I'm curious as to the stricking examples ...
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Which sex has higher variance of reproductive rate in modern societies - male or females?
Who has a more varied reproduction rate in modern western societies - men or women? The average rate is the same of course, but I wonder which sex have higher variance - higher variance means that ...
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Birds from the Family Columbidae Feed Young “Crop Milk”
Birds from the family Columbidae (e.g., doves and pigeons) produce a fatty, milk-like substance in their crop. The secretion is often referred to as "crop milk." They feed crop milk to their young ...
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Why would deers keep crossing a river full of crocodiles while some of them have been killed?
I recently watched a clip on Discovery Channel, where I saw deers crossing a river full of crocodiles, ignoring the fact that some of them would have been killed doing so.
What could be an ...
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Good book on Origin of Life [closed]
What is a book that goes into reasonable detail (but isn't textbook-level technical) about the origin of earth and in particular the origin of life on earth? Something intended for a broad audience, ...
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How do archaea relate to eukaryotes and bacteria?
I've read that they all share some genes, internal structure, and behaviour with each other, but with different degrees of overlap depending of what the function is. E.g., archaea have some eukaryotic ...
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Why are eggs “egg” shaped?
Is there a reason as to why chickens lay "egg" shaped eggs, as opposed to spherically shaped eggs (or a random shape)? <--- Main Question
For extra points (actually just to add more words in ...
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What evolutionary pressures pushed Galápagos tortoises to mature so slowly and live so long?
I read that they take up to 40 years (in the wild) to reach the age of reproduction and are thought to live over 100 years, with one in captivity reaching over 170 years.
Can someone explain in ...
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Extraretinal photoreception in mammals? [duplicate]
A Finnish firm Valkee sells light-ear-plugs against thing such as jetlag. I asked a researcher in Aalto university how do they really work and he responded ...
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How and when did a dedicated immune system evolve?
I have recently been doing a lot of research into the interplay between the innate and adaptive immune systems in humans, and mammalian laboratory models. This has led to my reading some interesting ...
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Evolutionary explanation to why we have such large memory capacities?
The scientific consensus is that no one ever fills up their memory capacity by learning facts and so on, even in the information age. My question is therefore, is there an evolutionary reason as to ...
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How to get smallest subtree containing a set of nodes from BioPhylo?
I'm testing out various phylogenetic libraries in Python. I want to read in a Newick tree, then, given a list of taxa, generate the smallest tree that contains them all. This task is quite simple and ...
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Why does sexual selection evolve beautiful features?
First question here. I have a very raw understanding of sexual selection:
Say a group of females of a certain species "likes" some feature of a certain groups of males; by "like" I mean some ...
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Productive turnover and generations in the fruit fly
I was reading about the Lenski experiments on the evolution of E. coli bacterium and Dr. Elders's experiments on the evolution of the guppy.
These two experiments absolutely fascinated me, and seemed ...
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What is the evolutionary reason behind the fragility of teeth?
Almost all organs in the human body have a rather large threshold within which the organ or tissue is capable of repairing itself using materials supplied by the body, whether it's made from organic ...
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Is local equilibrium a reasonable assumption for evolutionary processes?
Whenever I look at discussions of fitness landscapes (in particular, Kauffman's NK model) the questions tend to resemble:
The population is at a local equilibrium, but another equilibrium of ...
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Is there a comprehensive database of fossils (with images) online?
Not sure if this is the best stackexchange to ask...
I have not been able to find a decent database of fossils on the web, does one exist?
Here are some of the links I have found through Wikipedia ...
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Introductory books about evolution
This days I read some debates on evolution. That made me more interested to read something reliable on topic - I mean books.
I'm christian - although I think it doesn't matter on that topic - and I ...
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Is it possible to make bacteria vulnerable to antibiotics it's resistant to?
Since bacteria becomes resistant to antibiotics after an unfinished course, is it possible to do anything to be able to get treatment with the same antibiotic again, and reverse the resistance in the ...
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What factors are known to affect evolution?
My understanding is that the possible mechanisms of evolution are:
Environmental changes
Cultural/mating preferences
Population Immigration
Genetic Mutation
Am I missing anything? I've heard that ...
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Why did the urinary bladder evolve?
Sure it's convenient to decide when to urinate but not essential for survival or reproduction, as I understand. But just convenience is not a drive for evolution.
Does the bladder serve any essential ...
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What evolutionary reason is there for having the urinary duct and reproductive organs so close together?
As the old joke goes, "God must have been a civil engineer. Who else would put a waste facility straight through a recreational area?"
But maybe it wasn't God. Is there any evolutionary reason (or ...
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Why do some animals have 8 Limbs (e.g. Spiders, Octopuses)?
Octopuses have 8 tentacles, spiders have 8 legs.
Is there something special about 8? It seems like an animal that needs 360° mobility has 8 legs.
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How might gene clusters like the lac operon evolve?
The obvious answer for a gene cluster is gene duplication and mutation of one or both genes. But the genes in the lac operon seem not be so functionally/structurally similar (as compared to the Hox ...
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What is the evolutionary rationale for palm sweating?
Sweaty palms seems to be a reaction to stress, anxiety, etc. For our forest-inhabiting primate ancestors sweaty palms could cause unwanted side-effects such as slipping off tree branches under ...
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Is there a timeline for the frequency of evolution of any species?
Evolution is traditionally spoken of as an inherited change over generations.
Does evolution happen one change at a time - or are there multiple changes occurring between two successive generations? ...
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Is there an evolutionary reason for the 5 electron transport complexes in plants and animals?
The electron transport chains of both the light reactions of photosynthesis (in plants) and oxidative phosphorylation (in animals) both contain 5 complexes including ATP synthase, as shown below.
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