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Dec 8, 2010 · December 8, 2010 • 8:13 am. The conventional definition of “a species” amongst evolutionary biologists is “a group of organisms whose members interbreed among themselves, but are separated from other groups by genetically-based barriers to gene flow.”. Under this view, the origin of a new species is the origin of those reproductive ...
Feb 20, 2024 · February 20, 2024 • 11:15 am. By Jerry Coyne and Greg Mayer. Yesterday Carl Zimmer wrote a piece for the NYT on species concepts and conservation. Both Greg and I, who discussed the piece and are coauthoring our take on it, found that while Zimmer does not take a position on species concepts (which is good thing), it does have a theme.
Feb 25, 2024 · Here, then, we have two species that were given the same name, perhaps because they had similar morphologies or culturing requirements, or because the genetic distance between them (indicating the time of separation) was pretty low, suggesting a recent origin. These “cryptic species” were seen in 21 of the 91 named bacterial species.
Feb 9, 2018 · The basis of the paper (and an accompanying paper; see below) is the discovery in Myanmar of two pieces of amber dates at least 100 million years old, each containing what appears to be a member of the same species. And that species sheds some light on the origin of spiders. The authors name that species Chimerarachne yingi.
Jan 11, 2021 · Coyne’s work was focused on understanding the origin of species: the evolutionary process that produces discrete groups in nature. To do that, he used a variety of genetic analyses to locate and identify the genes that produce reproductive barriers between distinct species of the fruit fly Drosophila : barriers like hybrid sterility, ecological differentiation, and mate discrimination.
Mar 31, 2018 · Spurred by the later but independent discovery of natural selection by A. R. Wallace, he published his views and evidence in On the Origin of Species in 1859. Within a few years, the whole of the scientific community accepted descent with modification as the key process underlying the phenomena of the organic world, though natural selection as the chief means of modification was not accepted during Darwin’s lifetime.
Apr 12, 2024 · Self-explanatory photos of swallow-tailed gulls (Creagrus furcatus): Nazca booby (Sula granti). Per Wikipedia: Siblicide has been well studied in this species; the first chick is born around five days before the second and is larger and stronger by the time the second is born. It drags its younger sibling out of the nest.
Mar 2, 2013 · It was the publication of the Origin of Species by Darwin the following year that made a splash heard round the world. And there were several reasons for this: it was a work of monumental compilation and argumentation, eagerly anticipated by the leading lights of natural history both in Britain and abroad, and by a well respected and well known naturalist.
Oct 19, 2010 · October 19, 2010 • 7:11 am. Yesterday’s New York Times has a long online commentary by renowned primatologist Frans de Waal, “ Morals without god. ” Read it: it’s a pretty good explication of the evidence for an evolutionary origin of at least the rudiments of human moral sentiments, giving evidence for empathy, fairness, and altruism ...
Feb 25, 2024 · If species weren’t real, however, there would be no problem of “the origin of species”, and nature would be a spectrum—a rainbow with no joints between its constituents. Orangutans, gorillas, and humans would all be arbitrary entities: “social constructs”. So would pigeons, starlings, robins, and cardinals.
