Evolution

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      Recycled fin helped ancestor crawl from the seas

      Posted by Billbar from Codylyonblogolater.blogspot

      Early vertebrates sported only median fins, such as the dorsal fin of modern sharks. In a later fundamental development, vertebrates evolved paired limbs such as the pectoral fins that project like wings from the undersides of lionfish (pictured above) and sharks. These paired limbs allowed such species first to crawl out of the sea, and then eventually to run and swing from trees.

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      Evolution's Backers in Kansas Start Counterattack

      Posted by Billbar from New York Times

      Less than a year after a conservative Republican majority on the State Board of Education adopted rules for teaching science containing one of the broadest challenges in the nation to Darwin’s theory of evolution, moderate Republicans and Democrats are mounting a fierce counterattack. They want to retake power and switch the standards back to what they call conventional science. Several moderate Republican candidates have vowed, if they lose Tuesday, to support the Democratic primary winners in November.

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      And the Evolutionary Beat Goes On . . .

      Posted by Billbar from Washington Post

      "Signals of natural selection are incredibly widespread across the human genome," Pritchard said. "Everywhere we look, there appears to be very widespread signals of natural selection in many genes and many processes." The research offers a fascinating snapshot into how the human genome has continued to change as humans adapted to new circumstances over the past 10,000 years. As people went from hunter-gatherers to agricultural societies, for instance, there is evidence of genetic adaptations to new diseases and diets. Europeans seem to be adapting to the increased availability of dairy products, with genetic changes that allow the enzyme lactase, which breaks down lactose in milk, to be available throughout life, not just in infancy. Similarly, East Asians show genetic changes that affect the metabolism of the sugar sucrose, while the Yoruba people in sub-Saharan Africa show genetic changes that alter how they metabolize the sugar mannose.

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      Fear of Snakes Drove Pre-Human Evolution

      Posted by Billbar from Live Science

      An evolutionary arms race between early snakes and mammals triggered the development of improved vision and large brains in primates, a radical new theory suggests. The idea, proposed by Lynne Isbell, an anthropologist at the University of California, Davis, suggests that snakes and primates share a long and intimate history, one that forced both groups to evolve new strategies as each attempted to gain the upper hand.

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      Finches on Galapagos Islands evolving

      Posted by Billbar from Yahoo News!

      A medium sized species of Darwin's finch has evolved a smaller beak to take advantage of different seeds just two decades after the arrival of a larger rival for its original food source. The altered beak size shows that species competing for food can undergo evolutionary change, said Peter Grant of Princeton University, lead author of the report appearing in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

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    • Intelligent design a difficult foe

      Posted by Billbar from Toronto Star

      One out of every three Americans thinks evolution is "definitely false;" only about one out of seven is convinced it's true. In a ranking of 34 countries whose adults accept evolution, the United States stands 33rd. (Turkey is 34th.) Perhaps the most extraordinary claim made by Jon Miller is that the United States is the only country in the world where a political party wants ID taught in schools.

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    Jeff

    Member since Jul 2008

    Jeff is the founder of NewsCloud. He is also a freelance writer and blogs at Idealog.

    Seattle