Tag Archives: Evolution

Teachers Under Fire!!!

Uncategorized, ,

i-6d830b7f85d83707170f6da2bd1804a3-teachers_under_fire.jpgIt is very common, across the U.S., for science teachers to dread the “evolution” unit that they teach during life science class.

As they approach the day, and start to prepare the students for what is coming, they begin to hear the sarcastic remarks from the creationist students. When the day to engage the evolution unit arrives, students may show up in the classroom with handouts from anti-science sites like Answers in Genesis, to give to their friends. They may carry a bible to the lab station and read it instead of doing the work. If there is a parent conference night around that time, the teacher may be verbally abused by some of the parents for not including “alternative theories” in the classroom.
Continue reading Teachers Under Fire!!! →

Natural Selection vs. Opportunity in Macroevolutionary Patterning of the Fossil Record

Uncategorized, ,

This post was chosen as an Editor's Selection for ResearchBlogging.orgI’m going to talk about one or two peer reviewed papers, but in doing so, I’m going to have to say a few words … and this will not be pretty … about a certain science writer’s report at the BBC.

In an article titled “Space is the final frontier for evolution, study claims” BBC “science writer” Howard Falcon-Lang uses the old, tired, and quite frankly, stupendously unethical tack of making a claim that Darwin has been overthrown by new research. If someone actually overthrows Darwin, then so be it. But this is not what has happened. Falcon-Lang, or perhaps his BBC handlers, have used the cheap trick to sell their wares, and this is not appreciated.

If Howard Falcon-Lang did not a) claim to be a science reporter and b) have a dumb-ass hyphenated name, I’d be nice in my critique of his recent writeup. But no. He left me no choice. I will have to take it apart red in tooth and claw.

Continue reading Natural Selection vs. Opportunity in Macroevolutionary Patterning of the Fossil Record →

New Primate Fossil Informs Us of the Ape-Monkey Split During the Oligocene

Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

ResearchBlogging.orgThe newly reported Saadanius hijazensis may or may not be a “missing link” but in order for this monkey to climb onto the primate family tree, a new branch had to be sprouted. So, not only is Saadanius hijazensis a new species, but it is a member of a new taxonomic Family, Saadaniidae, which in turn is a member of a new Superfamily, Saadanioidea. Why is this important? It’s complicated. But not too complicated.

The fossil was found while University of Michigan paleontologist Iyad Zalmout was busy looking for dinosaur fossils in western Saudi Arabia. He found the monkey, from a much later time period, instead. Ooops.
Continue reading New Primate Fossil Informs Us of the Ape-Monkey Split During the Oligocene →

The Modes of Natural Selection

Uncategorized,

There many ways of dividing up and categorizing Natural Selection. For example, there are the trichotomies of Natural Selection, Sexual Selection and Artificial Selection, and Modes of Selection (Stabilizing, Directional, and Disruptive) trichotomy.

We sense that these are good because they are “threes” and “three” is a magic number. Here, I’m focusing on the Mode Trichotomy, and asking that we consider that there are not three, but four modes of Natural Selection. This will cause tremors throughout the Evolutionary Theory community because Four is not a magic number, but so be it.
Continue reading The Modes of Natural Selection →

The Falsehoods

Uncategorized, , ,

Biology is harder to learn than quantum physics. Why? Because most people think they totally get biology, but everyone knows nobody gets quantum physics. Therefore, any effort to explore quantum physics will result in new learning, but people rarely learn new biology. The bottom line is that our brains are full of biology, which would be good if most of it did not consist of falsehoods.
Continue reading The Falsehoods →