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
Species and systematics Some more of Whewell on classification 25 Feb 200918 Sep 2017 This is a kind of note to myself, an aide memoire to remind me of the fact that much of the modern narrative about classification in biology before Darwin is not correct. It’s also interesting that Whewell defines systematics, but most interesting is the reinforcement of the prior note that… Read More
Evolution Sudden impact: Darwin on cognition and a leap of faith 19 May 2008 If scientists working in biology or a related field like psychology want to get attention, they will say something like this: Darwin was wrong, or made a mistake, or is insufficient to explain X, where X is whatever they are researching. It makes them seem to be proposing something important,… Read More
General Science The man who changed the world 24 Dec 2007 OK, so today is Christmas day, December 25. On this day* a man was born who changed the world. He affected a growing tradition that has left no part of the world untouched, for good or ill. He revealed the workings of the universe. He spent his life teaching us… 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.