Are the arthropoda a natural group? An episode in the history of evolutionary biology

1994 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Bowler
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Natural Group ◽  
History Of

The Deconstruction of Philology

boundary 2 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-34
Author(s):  
David Golumbia
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Human Diversity ◽  
Wilhelm Von Humboldt ◽  
History Of

The history of philology provides an exceptionally rich vein for locating what Derrida came to call deconstructions: nodes or pseudo-events in the development of discourse where it appears that foundations collapse, only to be rebuilt in forms that may or may not have changed. The history of philology engages language, the sciences (especially evolutionary biology), and race, all of which are evidenced in the work of the German philologist Wilhelm von Humboldt. The relationships among these discourses have been repeatedly subject to deconstruction, sometimes so as to enhance appreciation of human diversity, and at other times against it. Understanding the history of philology is critical to understanding our present, but there remains significant work to do to reconstruct its liberatory aspects in the service of a more egalitarian future.

scholarly journals Memahami Sensionalisme dalam Berita Televisi: Perspektif Evolusi Biologi

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gentur Agustinus Naru
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Time Difference ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

Although there have been many studies regarding sensationalism on television, there have not been enough studies to explain why sensational news always attracts viewers' attention regardless of space or time difference. Encouraged by this background, this research tries to answer the question, "What makes sensational news interesting to television viewers?" Inspired by a biological evolutionary perspective, this article formulates a hypothesis that reads, "Sensationalism can draw the attention of the audience because sensational news arouses the most basic instincts of humans, namely the mode of survival (Gurven, 2017)". In this view, the model has become inherent in humans as a result of the evolutionary process. In other words, this hypothesis also believes that audience interest in sensational news is universal rather than contextual.   This article explores a variety of literature in biology, psychology, and communication to try to answer that hypothesis. In order to that, this article is divided into three main sections. We will first explore the history of sensational journalism on television to show the historicity of sensational topics and techniques on television. Second, we will demonstrate the philosophical roots of an evolutionary biology view that explains the relationship between information stimuli and the workings of the human brain and the basic instincts we have carried since evolution thousands of years ago. Finally, we will show studies that prove empirically how news patterns (both sensational topics and production formats) impact viewing interest.

The naked ape as an evolutionary model, 50 years later

2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-246
Author(s):  
Nico M. van Straalen
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Model ◽  
Developmental Constraints ◽  
Body Hair ◽  
Product Evolution ◽  
Adaptive Explanation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Popular Texts ◽  
The Brain

AbstractEvolution acts through a combination of four different drivers: (1) mutation, (2) selection, (3) genetic drift, and (4) developmental constraints. There is a tendency among some biologists to frame evolution as the sole result of natural selection, and this tendency is reinforced by many popular texts. “The Naked Ape” by Desmond Morris, published 50 years ago, is no exception. In this paper I argue that evolutionary biology is much richer than natural selection alone. I illustrate this by reconstructing the evolutionary history of five different organs of the human body: foot, pelvis, scrotum, hand and brain. Factors like developmental tinkering, by-product evolution, exaptation and heterochrony are powerful forces for body-plan innovations and the appearance of such innovations in human ancestors does not always require an adaptive explanation. While Morris explained the lack of body hair in the human species by sexual selection, I argue that molecular tinkering of regulatory genes expressed in the brain, followed by positive selection for neotenic features, may have been the driving factor, with loss of body hair as a secondary consequence.

Developmental biology and human evolution

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. e2
Author(s):  
Jeffrey H. Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Population Genetics ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Molecular Change ◽  
Human Fossil ◽  
Evolutionary Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Evolutionary Synthesis ◽  
Organismal Development ◽  
Taxic Diversity

The Evolutionary or Modern Evolutionary Synthesis (here identified as the Synthesis) has been portrayed as providing the foundation for uniting a supposed disarray of biological disciplines through the lens of Darwinism fused with population genetics. Rarely acknowledged is that the Synthesis’s success was also largely due to its architects’ effectiveness in submerging British and German attempts at a synthesis by uniting the biological sciences through shared evolutionary concerns. Dobzhansky and Mayr imposed their bias toward population genetics, population (as supposedly opposed to typological) thinking, and Morgan’s conception of specific genes for specific features (here abbreviated as genes for) on human evolutionary studies. Dobzhansky declared that culture buffered humans from the whims of selection. Mayr argued that as variable as humans are now, their extinct relatives were even more variable; thus the human fossil did not present taxic diversity and all known fossils could be assembled into a gradually changing lineage of time-successive species. When Washburn centralized these biases in the new physical anthropology the fate of paleoanthropology as a non-contributor to evolutionary theory was sealed. Molecular anthropology followed suit in embracing Zuckerkandl and Pauling’s assumption that molecular change was gradual and perhaps more importantly continual. Lost in translation was and still is an appreciation of organismal development. Here I will summarize the history of these ideas and their alternatives in order to demonstrate assumptions that still need to be addressed before human evolutionary studies can more fully participate in what is a paradigm shift-in-the-making in evolutionary biology.

How Virtue Was Born

Gerontology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin A. Nowak ◽  
Karl Sigmund
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolution Of Cooperation ◽  
European Forum ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Life On Earth

This paper summarizes the Opening Lecture of the European Forum Alpbach 2017 in Tyrol/Austria (https://www.alpbach.org/de/). It deals with the evolution of cooperation throughout the history of life on Earth, and in particular human cooperation based on partnership. It emphasizes the role of institutions providing incentives for cooperation, and the role of praise and blame in guiding our actions. This helps for a better understanding of the social contract, based on evolutionary biology and psychology.

(Z)-3-Dodecenoic Acid Is the Main Component of Full-Body n-Hexane Extracts from Two Acacia Gall-Inducing Thrips (Thysanoptera) and May Function as an Alarm Pheromone

2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 335-345
Author(s):  
Erik Hedenström ◽  
Erika A. Wallin ◽  
Olle Anderbrant ◽  
Monica De Facci
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Alarm Pheromone ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Major Interest ◽  
Thrips Species ◽  
Hexane Extracts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Main Component ◽  
Solitary Species

A major interest in the gall-inducing thrips of Australia began with the discovery that some species have eusocial colonies. The origin of social castes remains one of the outstanding questions in evolutionary biology. The inference of the ancestral stage from study of solitary species is important to understanding the evolutionary history of semiochemicals in social species. Here we investigated two solitary species, Kladothrips nicolsoni and K. rugosus. Whole body extracts revealed that (Z)-3-dodecenoic acid, here reported for the first time in a thrips species, is the main component. (Z)-3-Dodecenoic acid and (E)-3-dodecenoic acid were synthesized in high stereoisomeric purity (>99:8%) and exposed to K. nicolsoni 2nd-instar larvae in a contact chemoreception bioassay to test for potential bioactivity. Both isomers decreased the average time spent in the treated area per entry suggesting repellence at the tested dose. (Z)-3-Dodecenoic acid may function as alarm pheromone. (E)-3-Dodecenoic acid increased also the absolute change in direction of larvae compared to an nhexane control and could potentially function as a repellent.

Adaptation

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan B. Losos
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Central Focus ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of

Adaptation—the fit of organisms to their environments—has been a central focus in scientific research for centuries, predating even the rise of evolutionary biology. At its core, the study of adaptation is the study of natural selection—how is it that populations become so well suited to survive and reproduce in the environment in which they occur? Nonetheless, the topic of adaptation has many wrinkles and nuances. Even the definition of adaptation is not agreed on by all. The manner in which adaptations evolve (or fail to evolve) and the consequences they have for the evolutionary history of a lineage have been the subjects of considerable scientific research and discussion for more than a century.

Late Proterozoic–Early Phanerozoic ‘Taphonomic Windows’: The Environmental and Temporal Distribution of Recurrent Modes of Exceptional Preservation

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 289-313
Author(s):  
Patrick J. Orr
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Intermediate Phase ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Exceptional Preservation ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
History Of ◽  
Type Preservation ◽  
Late Neoproterozoic ◽  
Diagenetic History ◽  
Organic Remains

Exceptional biotas—those in which the non-biomineralized tissues of organisms are preserved—are an important record of the evolutionary biology of the late Neoproterozoic—early Phanerozoic interval. Most of these biotas exhibit one of four modes of preservation: preservation of either 1) internal and external detail (Doushantuo-type preservation) or, 2) external cuticles (Orsten-type preservation) in calcium phosphate; 3) coating in pyrite films and infills (Beecher's Bed-type preservation); and 4) preservation of organic remains (Burgess Shale-type preservation). The global environmental and temporal distribution of each mode of preservation is reasonably well constrained, but not why these taphonomic windows existed when they did. The late Neoproterozoic – early Phanerozoic interval is characterized by complex, interlinked, physical, geochemical and biological changes to the Earth's biosphere and geosphere. The changing ecology of marine environments (from matground to mixgrounds: the ‘Agronomic Revolution’) occurred via an intermediate phase of stiffened, but not microbially bound sediments that extended the interval over which exceptional preservation occurred. Prolonged eustatic sea-level rise across flat-lying continental platforms ensured environments conducive to exceptional preservation were developed and, critically, sustained over large contiguous areas. During this, regolith on continental surfaces was recycled, providing an integral source of sediment and ions relevant to mineral authigenesis. Superimposed on these broad-scale changes are specific drivers that controlled the duration of individual taphonomic windows; elucidating these requires a better understanding of the environmental context and diagenetic history of fossiliferous successions at the intra-basinal scale.

Paleontology's Greatest Hits

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 17-40
Author(s):  
Richard K. Bambach
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Analytical Study ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Paleontological Society ◽  
Link Pattern ◽  
The Way

Although this paper mentions many specific discoveries and advances it is not intended as a catalog of the “biggest hits” in the sense of public notice, but rather it is an effort to chart how the diversity of paleontological work in the last century fits into the context of the biggest hit of all, the emergence of a “new paleontology” in which conceptual advances have revolutionized every aspect of our profession. When the Paleontological Society was founded no unambiguous fossils were known from the immense stretch of Precambrian time and no hominine fossils were known from Africa. Rigorous phylogenetic analysis and a seat for paleontology at the “high table” of evolutionary biology were in the future. Where once we learned a series of guide fossils and thought we had studied paleontology, now students explore taphonomy, paleoeocology, geobiology and macroevolution in our general courses on paleontology. This paper attempts to take notice of some of the highlights of our evolution from a field focused on cataloging and describing the contents of the fossil record into a complex, multidisciplinary endeavor focused on analytical study of general questions. Some of those hits have been discoveries that document the course of evolution, some have been new conceptual approaches that give us insights that link pattern to process, some are new ways of compiling, analyzing or communicating our knowledge. But with all that the study of the history of life remains at the heart of our profession. The change has been the shift in goal from description to understanding of that history, from “what” to “how.” The greatest hits have been the steps that have opened the way to understanding, that have made following the path possible.

Th. Dobzhansky and the development of evolutionary biology in the USSR

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 346-371
Author(s):  
Mikhail B. Konashev
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Synthetic Theory ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of

Th. Dobzhansky played a special role in the reception and development of the “synthetic theory of evolution,” as well as in the establishment of scientific connections between Soviet and U.S. evolutionists, and first and foremost, geneticists. These connections greatly influenced the development of Soviet genetics, of evolutionary theory and evolutionary biology as a whole, and in particular the restoration of Soviet genetics in the late 1960s. A discussion of Dobzhansky’s correspondence and collaboration with colleagues in his native country, moreover, allows for an improved understanding of the complex and dramatic history of Soviet genetics and evolutionary theory. It also provides novel insights into the interactions between scientists and authorities in the Soviet Union (USSR).

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