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
Administrative Oh ghods, I’m on TV 24 May 2008 Nothing is more excruciating to me than to see myself and hear myself. It’s even worse when I’m up against someone who presents so much better than I do. So watch Paul Myers (I think that’s how they spell his name) and me talk about Stuff at Bloggingheads.TV. The video… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity There is no missing link 11 May 2009 Again, the press are talking about “the missing link“. Let’s get one thing clear. There is no missing link. Rather, there are an indefinite number of missing branches. To have a missing link, you need to visualise evolution as a chain. If there’s a gap in the chain, then you… Read More
Evolution When academics attack 5 Dec 2007 I love a good academic stoush, so long as I’m just watching and not involved either as an antagonist or as collateral damage. Recently, Steven Pinker published a book, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature, which was subsequently reviewed by Patricia Churchland, in Nature. Unfortunately,… 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.