Biology Travel Diary 4 7 Oct 2009 I am in Göttingen now, talking to primatologists at the DPZ (Deutsches Primatenzentrum) conference on hybridisation. Neither I nor any of the said primatologists are in the picture above. This is an appropriate place to give a talk on species concepts, because in the 18th century, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach worked… Continue Reading
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… Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity Konrad Lorenz – a lecture 24 Sep 2009 As I noted before, Paul Griffiths gave a lecture on Konrad Lorenz. The podcast is up now. Sydney Ideas Key Thinkers: Konrad Lorenz Professor Paul Griffiths delivers his 2009 Sydney Ideas Key Thinkers lecture on the remarkable life and legacy of Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989), Austrian zoologist, animal psychologist, ornithologist, and… Continue Reading
Biology Online ornithology 9 Sep 2009 One or another feed notification led me to this wonderful online course in ornithology by Gary Richison at Eastern Kentucky University. I just spent a nice 30 minutes reading just the first lecture. Fantastic. Go check it out. Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity Hybrid species and conservation 4 Sep 2009 Here’s what Elio Schaechter calls a Talmudic Question – if two endangered species hybridise, are their biodiversities conserved? I ask because this is exactly what happens frequently in, say, birds, and because there are a lot of debates over what hybrid species signify. Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity New paper on polyploid speciation 27 Aug 2009 For a long time now, people have known of speciation by the multiplication of chromosomes (polyploidy), either of one’s own chromosomes (autopolyploidy) or by doubling a mismatched set from some other species’ chromosomes (allopolyploidy) to even up the numbers and gene complements. Some have thought this to be an uninteresting… Continue Reading
Biology Obit: Chris Humphries 18 Aug 2009 The Telegraph in the UK has an obituary for Chris Humphries, the botanist and systematist who died recently. Humphries was also a major player in the use of biogeography for conservation. Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity Chris Humphries dies 6 Aug 2009 Influential botanist and conservation biologist Chris Humphries has died aged 62. Roberto Keller has more. Continue Reading
Biology The second in the series “Species and Systematics” 1 Aug 2009 Readers know my book is the first cab off the rank known as “Species and Systematics” at the University of California Press. It was too good to last that I would be the only one. Now Parenti and Ebach have published their Comparative Biogeography as the second volume. They have… Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity Opinion and facts on climate change 1 Aug 2009 Although this is an Opinion column in the Sydney Morning Herald, it is not. This is. Or rather the global warming deniers that it parodies are peddling nothing but devoutly hoped for opinions. Oops: Hat tip Deltoid Continue Reading