He’s singing about theistic evolution, so he must be one of those appeasers…but since he’s funny, I’ll forgive him.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
He’s singing about theistic evolution, so he must be one of those appeasers…but since he’s funny, I’ll forgive him.
Any other fans of the Phasmatodea out there? For years, we kept a collection of stick insects — they are extremely easy to raise, and although they aren’t exactly dynamos of activity, they’re weird enough to be entertaining — and so I perk up when I notice a paper on them. The latest news is the discovery of a fossil leaf insect (also a member of the Phasmatodea, but a smaller subgroup specialized to resemble leaves rather than twigs) from 47 million years ago that resembles modern forms very closely. The cryptic camouflage of this group is ancient, and probably coevolved with the emergence of angiosperms.
Here’s the specimen.
In case you were wondering about relationships, here’s a very nice cladogram. One other detail is that there are about 3000 species of phasmids with the stick form, but only 37 that are leaflike, and all are confined to Southeast Asia; this fossil was found in Europe, where no such species are native.
Now I’m pining for our old insect pets — we had to leave them behind in one of our many moves. Anyone want to mail me some phasmid eggs?
Wedmann S, Bradler S, Rust J (2007) The first fossil leaf insect: 47 million years of specialized cryptic morphology and behavior. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 104(2):565-569.
Really. This is painfully sad: a young woman enters a water-drinking contest to win a video game console for her kids, and ends up dying of water intoxication.
Just a reminder that I’ll be at MoonBase ConFusion at the Detroit-Troy Marriott in Troy, Michigan this coming weekend. I don’t think it’s too late to get a room, and you can definitely still sign up to attend! I’m committed to do a reading Friday evening, panels on “Remaking Humanity” and “Singularity or Rapture?” on Saturday, an Evolution Q&A on Saturday, and a discussion of evolution with kids on Sunday. Oh, and there’s a casual coffee hour with me on Sunday morning. From the schedule it sounds like there will be parties going on at all hours, too, so I’m hoping no one shows up for that one so I can bogart all the caffeine. I’ll need it.
I’m also bringing along that ferocious grammar Nazi, Skatje. We’ll both be blogging the con in addition to the talking and the wandering and the partying and the spectating and the hey hey glavin.
I couldn’t resist. Shakespeare’s Sister has a satirical post on the female reproductive tract as a source of gay rays, and evolgen chimes in, noting the similarity of her diagram to the nematode vulva (it’s true—if mammalian vulvas are radiating gayness, nematodes are even more common; Ben Shapiro is probably crawling with hermaphroditic nematodes, all oozing sexual ambiguity all over him). So I had to repost my summary of the evolution of the mammalian vagina, and I want you to look at the diagram of Hox gene expression in the female reproductive tract. It’s like a rainbow! Admittedly, there are no disco balls, pink triangles, or floating Melissa Etheridge CDs, but this is research that has only just begun—as we get more details, we’ll have to sprinkle more symbols in there, and I think Shake’s ideas are excellent suggestions.
Once again, liberal leftist irony stands at the forefront of modern scientific research.
(Oh, and if any guys are feeling left out, I do have an article on penis evolution. All the pictures are in black and white, without any hint of a rainbow.)
Q: What unique organ is found only in mammals, but not in fish, amphibians, reptiles, or birds?
The title and that little picture to the left ought to be hint enough, but if not, read on.
Doonesbury hits one out of the park today—don’t trust science, it’s just too controversial.
I like the definition: situational science is about respecting both sides of a scientific argument, not just the one supported by facts. The Discovery Institute ought to etch that on their front door, filigreed in gold.
The beginning will seem a little cryptic, and you’ll wonder what those little glimmering points of light in the deep might be, but be patient—all will become clear.
(hat tip to the Science Pundit)
I could have spent it building a scale model of the Battle of Helms Deep out of candy.
Maybe next year…
That clever fellow John (Chris) Walken has proposed a useful idea—that we put together simple descriptions of basic concepts in our fields of interest for the edification of any newcomers to science. He picked the magic word Clade to write about first; I don’t know why he didn’t pick “Species”, since he could have just dumped his thesis into one short, simple blog post. Maybe he’ll do that next.
Larry Moran has joined in with a lovely lucid explanation of Evolution. This is very useful, because now whenever a creationist comes along here, we can just tell him or her to go to that post and argue with Larry. If they survive that, then they are worthy of further interaction.
All of my science posts are basic and simple, so I’m not sure what I could write to add to this collection. If anyone has any suggestions, chime in and let me know.
