Species concept Groves on the species concept 13 Sep 2009 Colin Groves, the primatologist from the ANU who does a lot of systematics, has an interview on the topic of species here at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s radio show “Ockham’s Razor”. The podcast will be up in due course. One thing I must dispute with Colin is that there even… Continue Reading
History The Blue Book is in PDF 10 Sep 2009 Systematists know the tome by Gareth Nelson and Norman Platnick, Systematics and Biogeography (1981), as the Blue Book (shades of Wittgenstein!). It was published once and is now so hard to get that I have been unable to find a copy in ten years of looking. Now, Malte Ebach tells… 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
Evolution Some hominid evolution items 19 Aug 2009 Two items worth reading: Mailund notes that the 2006 claim of complex speciation, involving gene exchange for some time after the chimp and hominid lineages split, has been argued against on the grounds that high rates of sperm production in humans and chimps could generate the effect. Pleiotropy discusses the… Continue Reading
Epistemology Two new papers of mine 18 Aug 2009 Deflating genetic information – in which I argue that the only sense in which genes have “information” is the causal sense of specificity Darwin on species and heredity – in which I reprise some blog entries on this site about myths of Darwin. Both are under review, and hence neither… Continue Reading
Species and systematics Wheeler on Yoon on species 8 Aug 2009 Quentin Wheeler has an interesting discussion of the recent book Naming Nature by Carol Kaesuk Yoon; in which he (rightly) dismisses her apparent claim (I haven’t read the book) that species are subjective. Go read it. Continue Reading
Administrative Back in the saddle 16 Jul 2009 So, my conferencing has finished, and I’ve even managed to catch up on some sleep. The Ish conference was amazing: I got to hear a lot of papers on topics I am working on and I got to meet some of the people whose work has strongly influenced me, especially… Continue Reading
Administrative Second book cover 9 Jul 200922 Jun 2018 From Peter Lang publishers, due this year (soon, I hope!). Order yours now! Continue Reading
Biology So much to say, so little time 9 Jul 2009 As I prepare for the conferences I start attending and blathering at from tomorrow, I of course find a treasure trove of things to blog about. Since I can’t really do them all justice, I will merely put a one liner for each below the fold. Continue Reading