Basic introduction to homology 20 Jan 2009 From Evolution: Education and Outreach comes a nice introduction to the concept of homology. Late note: OK, not so good. I saw only the cute pix, and presumed the author understood paraphyly. But as I didn’t have an entirely functional computer at the time I leapt in too soon. See Malte Ebach’s and David Williams’ takedown here. Their point is that paraphyletic groups are formed by what hasn’t evolved, and so they are fundamentally antievolutionary groupings. Evolution Species and systematics
Biology A new philosophy and biology journal 11 Dec 2009 Massimo Pigliucci has just announced Philosophy & Theory in Biology, a new online open access journal. Its stated mission is to bring “together philosophers of science and theoretically inclined biologists to interact across disciplinary boundaries. This interaction fosters a broad conception of what it means to do “theory” in science… Read More
Biology Griffiths on Human Nature, report 14 Aug 2009 I see that Michael Fridman at a Nadder! has given a short rundown of Paul Griffiths’ lecture on Human Nature. I feel very guilty not to have done my own account. I have been trying to get my motorcycle registered, and it wasn’t that easy in New South Wales… So… Read More
Epistemology Are humans, apes, monkeys, primates, or hominoids? 19 Mar 201221 Jun 2018 I suspect the correct literary answer is that we are Yahoos, but here I want to do what I would ordinarily never dare do: disagree with John Hawks. John takes Jerry Coyne to task for calling humans “apes”: Humans are hominoids. Hominoidea is a taxonomic group. Phylogenetic systematics holds that taxonomic… Read More
I disagree. It is not a very good paper on homology at all. It is, however, a good introduction to analogy and homoplasy. Pity she missed out paraphyly and polyphyly and other non-evolutionary concepts. The title is very misleading.
I disagree. It is not a very good paper on homology at all. It is, however, a good introduction to analogy and homoplasy. Pity she missed out paraphyly and polyphyly and other non-evolutionary concepts. The title is very misleading.
I disagree. It is not a very good paper on homology at all. It is, however, a good introduction to analogy and homoplasy. Pity she missed out paraphyly and polyphyly and other non-evolutionary concepts. The title is very misleading.
I wrote something about it here: http://urhomology.blogspot.com/2009/01/absence-of-evolution-homology.html
See Malte Ebach’s and David Williams’ takedown Yeah… I wouldn’t exactly call that a takedown. See Nick and RPM’s comments to the posting, with which I agree. By the way, why is it about “bringing homology into focus”? Because it is in an issue about eye evolution, and there has been significant debate about whether eyes are homologous (genetics) or analogous (structure). She was introducing the concepts in an accessible manner that other authors (Todd Oakley, Joram Piatigorsky, and I) brought up in some more technical articles. That should have been obvious from the abstract: “Anyone who has skimmed a high school biology textbook will be familiar with the iconic examples of homology that seem inseparable from any explanation of the term: the limb structure of four-legged animals, the human tailbone and the more elaborate tail of monkeys, and the remarkable similarities among the embryological development of fish, birds, and humans. These same examples make their way from edition to edition, along with the classic illustration of an analogous structure: the wings of butterflies, birds, and bats. But is that really all there is to say about homologies and analogies? Several articles in this issue discuss these concepts more deeply in the context of eye evolution (Gregory 2008; Oakley and Pankey 2008; Piatigorsky 2008). Homologies and analogies, it seems, are not a black and white issue—especially when it comes to vision. ”
See Malte Ebach’s and David Williams’ takedown Yeah… I wouldn’t exactly call that a takedown. See Nick and RPM’s comments to the posting, with which I agree. By the way, why is it about “bringing homology into focus”? Because it is in an issue about eye evolution, and there has been significant debate about whether eyes are homologous (genetics) or analogous (structure). She was introducing the concepts in an accessible manner that other authors (Todd Oakley, Joram Piatigorsky, and I) brought up in some more technical articles. That should have been obvious from the abstract: “Anyone who has skimmed a high school biology textbook will be familiar with the iconic examples of homology that seem inseparable from any explanation of the term: the limb structure of four-legged animals, the human tailbone and the more elaborate tail of monkeys, and the remarkable similarities among the embryological development of fish, birds, and humans. These same examples make their way from edition to edition, along with the classic illustration of an analogous structure: the wings of butterflies, birds, and bats. But is that really all there is to say about homologies and analogies? Several articles in this issue discuss these concepts more deeply in the context of eye evolution (Gregory 2008; Oakley and Pankey 2008; Piatigorsky 2008). Homologies and analogies, it seems, are not a black and white issue—especially when it comes to vision. ”
See Malte Ebach’s and David Williams’ takedown Yeah… I wouldn’t exactly call that a takedown. See Nick and RPM’s comments to the posting, with which I agree. By the way, why is it about “bringing homology into focus”? Because it is in an issue about eye evolution, and there has been significant debate about whether eyes are homologous (genetics) or analogous (structure). She was introducing the concepts in an accessible manner that other authors (Todd Oakley, Joram Piatigorsky, and I) brought up in some more technical articles. That should have been obvious from the abstract: “Anyone who has skimmed a high school biology textbook will be familiar with the iconic examples of homology that seem inseparable from any explanation of the term: the limb structure of four-legged animals, the human tailbone and the more elaborate tail of monkeys, and the remarkable similarities among the embryological development of fish, birds, and humans. These same examples make their way from edition to edition, along with the classic illustration of an analogous structure: the wings of butterflies, birds, and bats. But is that really all there is to say about homologies and analogies? Several articles in this issue discuss these concepts more deeply in the context of eye evolution (Gregory 2008; Oakley and Pankey 2008; Piatigorsky 2008). Homologies and analogies, it seems, are not a black and white issue—especially when it comes to vision. ”
See Malte Ebach’s and David Williams’ takedown Yeah… I wouldn’t exactly call that a takedown. See Nick and RPM’s comments to the posting, with which I agree. By the way, why is it about “bringing homology into focus”? Because it is in an issue about eye evolution, and there has been significant debate about whether eyes are homologous (genetics) or analogous (structure). She was introducing the concepts in an accessible manner that other authors (Todd Oakley, Joram Piatigorsky, and I) brought up in some more technical articles. That should have been obvious from the abstract: “Anyone who has skimmed a high school biology textbook will be familiar with the iconic examples of homology that seem inseparable from any explanation of the term: the limb structure of four-legged animals, the human tailbone and the more elaborate tail of monkeys, and the remarkable similarities among the embryological development of fish, birds, and humans. These same examples make their way from edition to edition, along with the classic illustration of an analogous structure: the wings of butterflies, birds, and bats. But is that really all there is to say about homologies and analogies? Several articles in this issue discuss these concepts more deeply in the context of eye evolution (Gregory 2008; Oakley and Pankey 2008; Piatigorsky 2008). Homologies and analogies, it seems, are not a black and white issue—especially when it comes to vision. ”