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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Function of the mesentary in segmented worms?
The mesentary that appears at some phyla at some point in evolution, initially, what exact function does it have?
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How do pseudo-coelomates solve what the mesentary later evolve to do?
Pseudo-coelomates have evolved a coelom, but, lack the mesentary. How do they solve what the mesentary evolved to do?
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Is the primitive streak homologous with the archenteron?
Embryogenesis follows different stages across the animal phyla, monoblasts, diploblasts, triploblasts, chordates, and I have a hard time wrapping my head around exactly where they all relate in terms ...
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What could happen if [closed]
What could happen if a microwave zapped on your face, causing a new mutation? Which of the following options are possible?
☆•The mutated cells could spread through Meiosis• | •The mutated cells could ...
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1answer
37 views
Did bilateral symmetry evolved just once?
If I understood correctly, all bilaterians come from a single organism (the Urbilaterian) that showed this type of body plan for the first time at the end of the Ediacaran.
Does that mean that ...
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What is the evolutionary advantage of feeling pain when a loved one dies?
Just as the question says. Social behaviour is shaped by evolution, we feel pain when we're lonely because if you are isolated its more likely you will die. What advantage is there to be struck with ...
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1answer
132 views
Temperature to kill virus
Why do I see only high temperature advice to kill microorganism, and not low temperature?
Why isn't there any low temperature which kills virus? Are they more resistant to low temperature?
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17 views
Radial symmetry and evolution of gut tube
It seems like gut tubes are usually said to have evolved with bilateral symmetry. A tube though is just a cylinder with radial symmetry, and technically, it seems like radial symmetry should suffice (...
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69 views
Why are smaller mammals more prone to cancer and tumors
especially rats and mice usually develop cancer and tumors very fast, reducing their life expectancy.
From an evolutionary point of view, how come that these mammals are so prone to cancer and tumors ...
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1answer
80 views
Why does it take so long for the human brain to develop from an evolutionary point of view?
I have read that it takes about 25 years for the brain to be fully developed.
Coincidentally, humans from the Neolithic and Bronze Age had a very short life expectancy, in fact most of their life ...
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1answer
73 views
Why might long telomeres be selected for in laboratory mice?
In a recent episode of The Portal, Eric Weinstein sits down with his brother Bret Weinstein to discuss Bret's Reserve-Capacity Hypothesis. It's an incredible story of scientific discovery and and ...
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50 views
Evolutionary relationship between liver and spleen?
based on bilateral symmetry, and how embryonic programs work (simple patterns initially, then specialization), for example somitomeres, do the liver and the spleen, that bilaterally occupy the same ...
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Why some humans need assistance to learn to walk in 2 legs?
Walking in 2 legs is a feature possible due to evolution. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe babies try to learn to walk in 2 legs by imitating other people they see around if they aren't taught, ...
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Why is the coremata of Creatonotos gangis huge?
This Australian moth has been some kind of curse image online due to its scent organs (coremata). It is inflated to attract mates. However, why does the coremata have to be inflated for it to work, ...
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1answer
47 views
Is the backward positioning of photoreceptors bad design?
(Several questions have been asked about this topic but most are quite old and there has been at least one study since then that has attempted to answer this in a new way)
Since photoreceptors are ...
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47 views
Research on chicken that cannot feel pain
In was having a conversation about the ethics of vegetarianism, and if it is right to cause pain to other animals.
It is then that I stumbled upon the question, that if, just the way chicken and many ...
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2answers
138 views
Examples of healthy lifelong asymptomatic carrier of a severe infectious disease?
I am curious, is there any known disease/infection that is very severe normally (patient suffers greatly and die easily without medical treatment), but ends up having little to no effect on the lives ...
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2answers
60 views
Does technological developments terminate the evolution of human species? [duplicate]
One of the most agreed upon mechanism for evolution is natural selection.Changing environmental conditions necessities development of variations that enable the survival of that particular species....
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3answers
129 views
Did any warm blooded animals evolve back into cold blooded?
Pretty much as title says - wondering if evolution can go from mammal back to reptile - either in theory or practice.
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Is there more biomass on earth today than there was in the past?
Is there more, (or less) matter on earth sequestered as a part of biological systems than there was at any(arbitrary) time in the past?
Edit:
I realise I don't have a specific question, and was ...
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2answers
86 views
Will all bacteria become resistant against all antibiotics in the long term?
(I asked the same at medicalsciences beta, but I expect a quite different perspective on it here)
This is about bacteria that can infect humans, and their multi-resistance.
The evolution of bacteria ...
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32 views
Why do humans start menstruating so early?
Wikipedia's article on teenage pregnancy says:
Pregnancy can occur with sexual intercourse after the start of ovulation, which can be before the first menstrual period (menarche) but usually occurs ...
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2answers
52 views
Have we found any other life form outside our planet?
I'm not asking about the possibility of formation of life on other planets instead has there been any real evidence of life(such as micro organisms or even very basic structures) that might suggest an ...
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1answer
41 views
Evolution history of virus tracing
How do biologist trace evolutionary history of virus, is there any article on this issue,
e.g. how scientist got to know that coronavirus evolved from bat or camel or pig?
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1answer
63 views
Will the sex ratio of chickens become favourable to females?
As male chickens are killed after birth in mass farming. Will being male become a negative evolutionary trait, that is to say will females become more likely as male death is more likely.
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What does it mean for there to be no correlation between phylogenetic independent contrast?
I am testing the correlation between two physiological parameters in plants using the pic function in R. I am a bit stuck on the interpretation of the phylogenetic independent contrast (PIC). Without ...
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1answer
33 views
Is the frequency at which a species mutate affected by natural selection? [duplicate]
As per natural selection, is it safe to assume that some species will have it genetically encoded so that they produce a certain 'perfect' rate of mutation so that they can adapt to an environment ...
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4answers
146 views
Why doesn't evolution converge on perfection? [duplicate]
I got to know about an organism called "Tardigrade(water bear)" which is an extremely hardy organism and can survive in most conditions.
My question is that if the aim of life in general is to ...
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1answer
125 views
Does natural selection still increase biological complexity?
I recently read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, which I found very interesting. In one of the last chapters, he gives multiple possible explanations to the question "Why did natural selection ...
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2answers
51 views
What might earlier versions of caddisfly shelter-building behavior have looked like?
The caddisfly has an amazing ability to build armor for itself by using a self-produced underwater glue to hold together pebbles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3BHrzDHoYo.
How could this behavior ...
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29 views
What is the oval shaped bone in the heads of some fishes?
I had a dish of fish and found 2 oval shaped nearly 1cm long bones in its head.What help does it do to the fish? what is its name?
I have clicked the picture myself .
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1answer
128 views
How many generations are required for a specific neutral mutation to reach fixation?
In population genetics, the term “time to fixation” is defined as the time it takes for a specific mutation to appear in a population, plus the time required for this mutation to spread throughout ...
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1answer
65 views
What are the disadvantages of myelin
The myelination of axons has plenty of advantages. It increases signal speed in axons, and thereby reduces reaction times. This is, of course, very good for the survival of the animal in question.
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Evolution of the unique mating system of the scorpion Androctonus australis
Sperm transfer in the scorpion Androctonus australis involves a sclerotized spermatophore, which is formed in the paraxial organs of the male reproductive system. The right paraxial organ produces the ...
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2answers
54 views
How did interspecies reciprocity involving cleaner wrasses originate?
The small bluestreak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) will approach a much larger fish (for example a grouper such as Cephalopholis miniata), enter its mouth, and spends several minutes cleaning ...
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Is there any program or website that allows me to create phylogenetic trees without having to insert an already created dataset?
I asked a similar question on Quora before, but did not get any useful answers as the program the one answerer suggested turned out to have the exact same problems as all others I have found so far.
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108 views
Genetic variance for a behavioural trait among human populations
From this article from The Guardian:
We instinctively assume that differences in behaviour that are in fact due to culture must be linked to – even caused by – characteristics of appearance. That ...
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2answers
80 views
What evolutionary advantages does a longer muzzle have against a shorter muzzle and vice versa
Basically I'm curious as to why when it comes to mammalian predators that some like say bears and canines tend to have longer muzzles than those like big cats.
aside from their ancestors/evolutionary ...
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1answer
53 views
What's the evolutionary benefit of stress and cortisol? [closed]
Stress and cortisol lower immunity and increase hard disease.
But why is it that way?
If that's true then we shouldn't be stressful at all.
What's the benefit of stress then?
Why do we (and most ...
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2answers
67 views
Evolution of recurrent laryngeal nerve in a giraffe [closed]
Do natural selection and survival of the fittest explain the divergent length of the recurrent laryngeal nerve...centimeters in the human, 15 feet in the giraffe?
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1answer
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Is Urea excretion a shared ancestral trait of amphibians and mammals relative to synapomorphic Uric Acid excretion in living reptiles?
Is the ancestral condition of prehistoric amphibians and early amniotes urea excretion? Would it follow then that the lineage leading to living reptiles went on to evolve uric acid excretion as a ...
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1answer
31 views
lifespan of Nautilus compared to other cephalopods
Most cephalopods live uncharacteristically short lifes compared to other creatures of their size and intelligence. The octopuses with the longest lifespan for example, the giant pacific octopus, only ...
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3answers
53 views
Can convergent evolution be used to explain similarity of genome of low and high Species e g. gorilla and human?
Example: 1) molecule Rhodopsin in halobacteria for producing energy from light. 2) molecule Rhodopsin for vision in human. These are said to be of different lineages and their high similarity are due ...
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2answers
69 views
Evolution of hunting behavior of parasitoid wasps
Wasps in the genus Pepsis lay their eggs in a specific region on a species of tarantula and their larvae eat the tarantula organs in a specific sequence to keep it alive as long as possible.
How ...
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1answer
68 views
What are the implications/predictions of the selfish gene theory?
Are there any testable predictions or implications of the selfish gene theory? Or it is just interesting interpretation of the observations/experimental data? If this theory is not falsifiable and ...
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1answer
20 views
What is indirect vs direction selection of genes?
As the title suggests, what is the direct and indirect selection of genes. Couldn't find a straightforward answer. Is it the same as direct and indirect fitness?
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1answer
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A theory about the possible connection between protists and first animalia
I learnt that organisms within Kingdom Animalia can be either microanimals or (nonmicro)animals.
a microanimal is any Kingdom Animalia organism that in general cannot be seen by a human eye without ...
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2answers
109 views
Is evolution always unidirectional?
Is it possible, at least in theory, for a species to evolve into another species and then evolve back into the first species?
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A question about the clarity of certain terms
In the Red Queen's depiction, a population must evolve just to be able to survive its ever-evolving natural enemies. I'm trying to refer to a state in which many natural enemies have evolved adaptive ...
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Examples of animals who 'forget' their offspring
Occasionally on the news I read about young children dying in hot cars on a sunny day. Usually the article reports that the parent(s) 'forgot' about their children still being in the car.
Obviously ...
