Bats and mice and wings and things 18 May 200818 Sep 2017 Comparative limb growth of a bat (top) and a mouse, in utero development. From the paper below. One of my favourite statistics is this: one in every four mammal species you meet is a rat or rodent, and one in every five is a bat. That’s right, nine in every 20 mammal species is covered by one of these taxa: we may as well treat rodents and bats as the standard mammalian species type. So a paper that combines them has to be good. Quintessence of Dust (what a title!) gives an excellent summary and discussion of a paper that tested evolutionary hypotheses of the evolution of bat wings by transplanting bat limb growth genes into mice and observing the result. Both the paper and the post are awesome. And by the way, although in German “bat” is rendered “Die Fledermaus” as every opera buff knows, bats aren’t flying mice. Chiroptera is a whole distinct group from Rodentia. Evolution General Science Species and systematics
Evolution Evolution, or as we call it, EFF Theory 7 Apr 201122 Jun 2018 <img src=”//evolvingthoughts.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/smbc-eff.png” width=”383″ height=”343″”> Read More
Biology Counterintuition: Bdelloid Rotifers 1 Oct 2009 A while back, it was noticed that there was an “ancient asexual scandal” (Judson 1996): Bdelloid Rotifers. These are cool little animals that live in ponds and streams, but which go against the received wisdom that sex is a hedge against environmental challenges that asexual organisms cannot have without some… Read More
Evolution More on the Fodor and Piatelli-Palmerini thing 21 Mar 2010 FAPP have replied to Ned Block’s and Phillip Kitcher’s critique in the Boston Review, showing that the interpretation I gave before is the right one: they really do think that because we cannot say without ambiguity, a priori, what it is that natural selection is selecting, and therefore there is… Read More
Well, apparently the French name evolved this way: Latine origine: ?cawa sorix?(owl-mouse) –> turning ‘calves sorices’ in a plural form –> corrupted into bald-mouse (calves is close to “chauve”/bald in French) (source: http://owen.monblogue.branchez-vous.com/2003/6/25/)
Well, apparently the French name evolved this way: Latine origine: ?cawa sorix?(owl-mouse) –> turning ‘calves sorices’ in a plural form –> corrupted into bald-mouse (calves is close to “chauve”/bald in French) (source: http://owen.monblogue.branchez-vous.com/2003/6/25/)
Even weirder than “Fledermaus”, chiroptera are called bald-mouses in French (litterally translating). I don’t know why, but I’ll try investigating…
Even weirder than “Fledermaus”, chiroptera are called bald-mouses in French (litterally translating). I don’t know why, but I’ll try investigating…
Followed closely by antelopes, right? I do wish that people who think there’s one ladder to the top in evolution would look at some of those taxa. Laurent, “owl-mice” sounds like a good name for bats.
Followed closely by antelopes, right? I do wish that people who think there’s one ladder to the top in evolution would look at some of those taxa. Laurent, “owl-mice” sounds like a good name for bats.