Questions tagged [evolution]
Changes in the heritable attributes of populations of organisms over time. The mechanisms of evolution are mutation, migration, drift, and selection.
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What does (G+) (G++) in terms of male mutation rate and male-heterogametic XY-system?
What's the expression for $\alpha_m$ in case of male-heterogametic XY systems (G+)?
Derive the corresponding $\alpha_m$ expression of for (sic) male-heterogametic XY systems (G++)
I have ...
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Do primates have genetic predisposition to dominance hierarchies [on hold]
I’m looking for some evidence to prove (or disprove) that primates are genetically predisposed to dominance hierarchies. I would appreciate any pointers/references to scientific literature.
PS:
The ...
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2answers
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Where did Neanderthals and Denisovan Man come from?
Neanderthals, Denisovans and our species (Homo sapiens) are commonly cited as closely related subspecies, even interbreeding with each other. Yet our species theoretically didn't migrate out of Africa ...
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Has human skin pigmentation adaptation and evolution ceased?
Before asking this question read
Why human skin colour disprove natural selection?
Does darker skin color make it easier to live under sun?
though neither posed the same question or provide the ...
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Why the position of facial organs is the same for almost all animals on Earth?
I was questioning myself on why the position of facial organs (eyes, nose, mouth) is the same for almost all animals on Earth ? Is it because of a common ancestor in evolutionary history ? We don't ...
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1answer
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Animal with “advantageous” trait in a environment where the trait is never utilized (high cold tolerance in mild climate) - natural selection occur?
If you were to put an animal with a certain type of seemingly advantageous "trait" into an environment where the trait was not necessarily needed, ex: Putting an animal with a high tolerance for cold ...
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1answer
35 views
Question regarding when it's a homoplasy in a phylogenetic tree
If you have 2 organisms that both come directly from the same common ancestor on a phylogenetic tree, and that common ancestor does not have trait "x", is it possible for both of its direct ...
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Contructing phylogeny from an asymmetric distance matrix?
Is there any method for constructing a phylogenetic tree from a distance matrix which is not symmetric (i.e. the distance from A to be is not the same as the distance from B to A)?
The distances I ...
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Why does the seed of the coconut tree have a liquid in it?
What is the purpose of water in the coconut seed? The reason I ask this is that I was reading about coconut water and all the benefits it has for us Humans. But why does the tree put a liquid in the ...
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Tetrapod Evolution [closed]
It has been known for a number of years that there have been tetrapod tracks predating Stegocepgalians by tens of millions of years at the least, and now this article has put forward the claim the ...
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3answers
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Evolution question on speciation? Really confusing!
Okay, my teacher assigned this homework question, but nothing like this was ever given in our textbook.
Suppose that a type of tree tends to speciate over 10 million years and a species of fly tends ...
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1answer
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Why is the ability to drink salt water so rare in land-animals?
Apparently, some species are capable of drinking salt water, like the sea lion and otter.
But given how rare fresh water is, and how abundant salt water is, why have more land animals not evolved to ...
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What is the evolutionary context of bitter taste?
Why do we react to bitter taste the way we do, and how did we acquire this function during our evolution as a species?
Could it be that a strong bitter taste is predominantly associated with ...
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What is a neutral and non neutral polymorphism? [on hold]
What is a neutral and non neutral polymorphism?
What is a neutral and non neutral polymorphism?
What is a neutral and non neutral polymorphism?
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1answer
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What ecological niche do disk shaped fish exploit?
I looked up "Early Triassic" to get a sense of what that meant and I ended up on this image of marine life at the time. I noticed some disk shaped fish (#8 in the picture: Bobasatrania (durophagous ...
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What are haplotype blocks and what is the effect of hybridization on these?
In this PDF, there is a quick definition of haplotype blocks.
A haplotype block is a set of closely linked alleles/markers on a
chromosome that, over evolutionary time, tend to be inherited
...
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Where does Darwin state his “principle of multiple utility”?
I have never heard of Darwin's 'principle of multiple utility', but several papers refer to it. For example, from Darwin at the molecular scale: selection and variance in electron tunnelling proteins ...
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Were there any terrestrial species in the ancestry of all crustaceans?
To the exception of woodlice, Crustaceans live in aquatic (marine or freshwater) environments. Crustaceans are arthropods which is an immensely diverse taxon. Many arthropods live in terrestrial ...
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2answers
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Can I change the genetics of a group of plants naturally?
I have been thinking about introducing all sorts of types to certain environments where the plants will have to adjust to survive.
For example having a dark area with one light source right next to ...
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2answers
48 views
Would prehistoric humans have been considered negroid or australoid by modern standards? [closed]
What are your thoughts about this?
For myself I think that the subject statement is rather obvious isn’t it, since Africans, & especially Australian Aboriginals, have the most archaic features &...
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1answer
112 views
Why do some animals have beards?
Why do some animals such as some Goats, Ibex, Orangutan etc, have long well-shaped beard like men?
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1answer
45 views
Theoretical Rules Governing Life in the Universe [closed]
Obviously, no one can know what life on another planet would look like until we discover such life. However, scientists have speculated that (if I'm not mistaken) all living things must be carbon-...
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1answer
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The Hawk-Dove game: why is the average payoff half of the difference between reward and cost?
My question is about the well known Hawk-Dove model used in game theory. It concerns two strategies: the Hawk, which always fights the opponent, and the Dove, which does not fight and will either ...
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1answer
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How much of human's behaviors and preference can be explained by evolution? [closed]
I'm talking about things like the tendency to feel sleepy after eating, avoidance of excrements, general preference for sweet foods, etc. Do all those characteristics have biological or evolutionary ...
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Is there a measure for degree of reticulation in a phylogenetic network?
When working with phylogenetic networks, how does one talk about reticulate (i.e., web-like) the branches are? Is there a standard measure of this?
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1answer
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More general term than “adaptation”
The Wikipedia article about adaptation states:
Adaptation differs from flexibility, acclimatization, and learning.
What is a more general term than adaptation? For example, is there an umbrella ...
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3answers
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Why did a lot of common insects evolve such a thin waist?
Something that doesn't quite make sense to me is why lots of insects like ants, bees and wasps have a such a small petiole when it connects many major organs to the rest of their body from a suddenly ...
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1answer
33 views
If mammals evolved to be nocturnal, then how did we get so staunchly diurnal in such short time?
Much of human health revolves around sleeping well through the night. We know about circadian and body temperature rhythms which make us sleepy at night, peak melatonin production in the middle of ...
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Do four-leaf clovers have some disadvantage in reproduction?
As far as I understand, four-leaf clovers are caused by genetics, so when reproducing, they should produce four-leaved children. I haven't found any disadvantages of four-lead clovers (e.g., ...
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0answers
21 views
Why do some foods do not taste good when eaten together that eaten separately would taste great
The way I understand it, 'good tasting food' is evolutionary concept e.g to be able to distinguish between high nutritional value foods and ones that have no nutritional value whatsoever.
So if well-...
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1answer
44 views
What created the first ribosome
If a ribosome is made of protein, yet is used in protein sysnthesis, what created the first ribosome?
What created the ribosomal RNA?
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2answers
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How do mutations with very little fitness benefit get fixed?
I have one little issue with evolutionary theory that I have not been able to understand.
Suppose genetic mutations happen from generation to generation. Nevertheless, from one generation to the next ...
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0answers
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When we talk of functional macromolecules (e.g. proteins as enzymes, hormones, receptors, antibodies etc), towards what are they evolving?�
Actually this is a question which is given in a book and to be honest,it has baffled me.I'm not so much well versed with molecular evolution so my guess would be,say some sort of enzyme which could ...
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If mutations are random, why was there just one kind of finches on every Galapagos island? [on hold]
When Darwin was observing the Galapagos finches he noticed that there was a different kind on each island. The biggest difference was in their beaks. Darwin concluded that the birds had evolved and ...
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2answers
46 views
Does low gravity exposure to early stages of human fetus have potential to unloc unused genetic information from earlier stages of evolution?
The title seems quite self explanatory but let me elaborate.
New mutations do take a very long time and many generations to occure in the genetic code. But our genetic code already holds all the ...
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0answers
25 views
Convergence compared to genetic distance
Is there an information (preferably in the form of a chart, though anything will do) comparing convergent evolution to how closely related the 2 species are on the tree of life.
My searches for ...
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1answer
24 views
What are mutator genes which cause copying errors in other genes?
Reading Dawkins' book "The Selfish Gene," I came across this line: "There are even genes--called mutators--that manipulate the rates of copying errors in other genes." (The context is his argument ...
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2answers
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How can skull size difference alone explain behavioral differences using evolutionary theory?
I just started Robert Sapolsky lectures series on Youtube on Human behavior biology, and on the second lecture, at this point, he is explaining how evolutionary biology can be used to predict lots of ...
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1answer
38 views
Why did Trilobites evolve armor?
The Trilobite is probably one of the most successful created which evolved in the cambrian explosion.
Though many sources stated the Opabinia has been hunting for Trilobites, this has yet been ...
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1answer
120 views
Why aren't leaves black?
I s'pose this is a variant of the age-old question, "Why are leaves green?" It's fairly easy to ask teh internets and find plenty of answers for that one.
I have a different but related question: ...
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Are evolutionary algorithms calculated in polynomial time? [closed]
How complex are evolutionary algorithms? Also, what is the relationship between variational principles (Lagrangians, minima and maxima,) and evolutionary algorithms? Basically, how hard is it right ...
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1answer
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What is the evidence that plants and animals had a common ancestor?
According to the theory of evolution (which I don't dispute), plants and animals evolved from a common ancestor, probably a eukaryote. I'd like to know how we know that to be true.
Specifically how ...
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2answers
555 views
What is a synonym of the word design that can be used in context of evolution?
For example let's take two sentences; "engineer made a design for camera", "evolution made an X for eye". What is the best X that could be used?
I need it for an essay about evolution.
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1answer
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Balancing selection vs introgression?
Balancing selection can maintain polymorphisms in natural populations for extended periods of evolutionary time. However, in this paper, Dannemann et al. 2016 identify three archaic haplotypes in the ...
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0answers
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(secondary) human/primate advantages over other animals? [closed]
I am trying to understand the advantages that humans have over other species, besides what you could call 'sentience-critical'.
What I mean by this is, the first set of answers you'll get is "more ...
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0answers
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Mild introduction to selective advantage of intelligence/nervous systems in animals?
I have a general understanding of why intelligence, i.e. nervous systems in animals, is advantageous: processing information allows an animal to adapt to its environment dynamically and perform ...
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0answers
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Thermoregulatory characteristics
I have a question that probably is to obvious, or just bad wording..
The terms endorthermy, ectothermy, and heterothermy, are used to describe:
A) cold and warm individuals
B) the three layers of ...
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2answers
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What happens between two nodes in an evolutionary tree?
Hey guys can you help me with this one!?
What happens between two nodes (in an evolutionary tree) or a between a node and a tip?
A) at least one character changes
B) all organisms die
C) ...
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2answers
375 views
What is difference between Incest and Inbreeding? [closed]
Are they the same? As both are related to sexual activity between close relatives.
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1answer
78 views
How valid are Koestler’s criticism of evolutionary theory?
I recently read Arthur Koestler's 1967 book The Ghost in the Machine. In it, Koestler criticises the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution—beneficial random mutations preserved by natural seleciton—as ...
