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 Hobbit’s phylogeny, noting that the cladistics won’t determine whether it was a distinct species, because just putting the specimens into the data matrix presumes that they are: The fishy part is that in order to construct cladograms like the ones above, the authors assumed that H. floresiensis and H. sapiens are different species. Once that is done, no other conclusion can be reached. Evolution Species and systematics Species concept Systematics
Evolution Myth 5: Darwin thought evolution relied on accidents and chance 20 Feb 200918 Sep 2017 This myth says a lot about the default views of western thinking, rather like the issue of teleology. Read More
Evolution What clergy think about evolution 16 Sep 2009 The Internet Monk asked his coterie of clergy the following question: A pre-med college student in your congregation comes to you and says “I’ve been learning about evolution at school, and I can’t recall the subject ever being discussed or talked about here at church. I’ve never really asked if… Read More