network profile
| bio | website | |
|---|---|---|
| location | ||
| age | ||
| visits | member for | 7 months |
| seen | 5 hours ago | |
| stats | profile views | 2 |
I'm a phylogeneticist.
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May 18 |
answered | What kind of arthropod/animal is this? |
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May 3 |
comment |
Do forever-living organisms exist? I find your distinction between internal and external factors a bit arbitrary. What is your motivation for excluding bacterial infections as external cause of death? You might be interested in what happens in plants. Here is an example, where the plants get cloned and seem to be able to do this for an indefinite amount of time, but they loose their fertility: wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/aspen-immortality |
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Apr 9 |
comment |
What's the Evolutionary Purpose of Religion? In my opinion, social evolution is a continuation of biological evolution. In that sense, the question might be considered legitimate here. |
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Apr 9 |
comment |
What's the Evolutionary Purpose of Hair in Humans (namely the hair that grows on their skin, NOT internal hairs)? I remember that a teacher once explained that pubic hair had probably been retained in part because it provides protection to some sensitive body parts. |
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Feb 22 |
comment |
Human evolution: Where *exactly* did the first human come from, whose parents were not? There are cases of abrupt speciation, I think, when chromosomes are duplicated in a hybrid that would otherwise not be able to reproduce sexually. The duplication restores the ability to form viable gametes (the chromosomes can now form pairs during meiosis: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiosis#Prophase_I). This is documented in plants, where vegetative reproduction allows survival of a sterile hybrid population until chromosome duplication occurs. |
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Feb 21 |
comment |
What are some alternatives to Charles Darwin evolution except creationism? Just a precision: I don't think bacteria "reproduce sexually": as far as I know, genetic exchanges happen between bacteria, but are independent from reproduction. |
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Feb 21 |
comment |
What species of bird is on this coin? I know a professional ichthyologist who once had to propose an identification for a fish painted on a cave wall. Surely it is more difficult than identifying from a real specimen, a photo or a scientific drawing, but in some case, artistic representations have a precise biological source of inspiration, and it is meaningful to try identifying it. If we didn't already knew what species of bird is represented here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… I think it would make sense trying a identification. |
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Jan 7 |
answered | Parsimony (cladistics) |
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Nov 27 |
comment |
Are genes associated with obesity selected for? I would think that genes favouring obesity nowadays in contexts of constant food abundance were in the past useful to store extra nutrients, when the food availability was irregular. One day you get something, you eat as much as you can of it and store the extra in the form of fat, and then you starve for some days, living on the fat you stored on the good day. I think I heard or read about such theories, but I have no reference for it. |
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Oct 26 |
answered | Filamentous algae - what exactly am I looking at? |
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Oct 18 |
awarded | Supporter |
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Oct 5 |
awarded | Editor |
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Oct 5 |
revised |
Use of amino-acid sequences versus use of nucleotide sequences in phylogenetic analysis Corrected typos, and I had written "amino-acid" but I meant "nucleotide" |
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Oct 4 |
answered | What's the name of this bird? |
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Oct 4 |
awarded | Teacher |
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Oct 4 |
answered | Use of amino-acid sequences versus use of nucleotide sequences in phylogenetic analysis |
