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
General Science Antivaxer story on the way 29 Apr 2009 Although Sunday Night did a very good story on the antivaccination campaign’s cost in lives, it now looks like they will do a follow up that takes the antivaxxer line, if the appearance in the ads of Australia’s least accurate journalist Mike Munro is any guide. Munro is a gutter… Read More
Evolution God and evolution 6: Is Darwinism atheism? 24 May 201324 May 2013 Many Christians and Muslims, and to a lesser extent Jews, think that Darwinian evolution requires or implies atheism, a charge first brought when Darwin was still alive. The Princeton theologian Charles Hodge argued this in his What is Darwinism? (1874). But Darwin himself, and many of his followers such as… Read More
Epistemology Philosophy as forgetting, and index characters 13 Nov 2009 I was talking to a friend, Damian Cox, yesterday, and we were discussing how many of the ideas of, say, a Wittgenstein had been a rediscovery or reformulation of what had been commonly held over a century before. Damian made the comment that philosophy is a process of forgetting what… 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.