Study explains evolution phenomenon that puzzled Darwin

Date: November 30, 2016

Source: Northwestern University

Why do some animals have extravagant, showy ornaments -- think elk and deer antlers, peacock feathers and horns on dung beetles -- that can be a liability to survival? Charles Darwin couldn't figure it out, but now a Northwestern University research team has a possible explanation for this puzzling phenomenon of evolution.

The researchers developed a mathematical model that made a surprising prediction: In animals with ornamentation, males will evolve out of the tension between natural selection and sexual selection into two distinct subspecies, one with flashy, "costly" ornaments for attracting mates and one with subdued, "low-cost" ornaments.

"Ornamentation does persist in nature, and our quantitative model reveals that a species can split into two subspecies as a result of the ornamentation battle that occurs over time," said Daniel M. Abrams, an associate professor of engineering sciences and applied mathematics in the McCormick School of Engineering.



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Support for controversial Darwin theory of 'jump dispersal'

Date:

October 1, 2014

Source:

National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS)

Summary:

More than one hundred and fifty years ago, Charles Darwin hypothesized that species could cross oceans and other vast distances on vegetation rafts, icebergs, or in the case of plant seeds, in the plumage of birds. Though many were skeptical of Darwin's 'jump dispersal' idea, a new study suggests that Darwin might have been correct

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Lost and found: New beetle collected by Darwin 180 years ago published on his birthday

Date:

February 12, 2014

Source:

Pensoft Publishers

Summary:

On Feb. 12, Darwin's birthday, scientists name a long lost new beetle genus and species after him to commemorate the legacy of the father of evolution. The beetle was collected by Charles Darwin in 1832 in Argentina during the Beagle's voyage. The specimen was considered lost for many years until it was rediscovered recently in the Natural History Museum, London.

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Darwin’s Dark Knight: Scientist Risked Execution for Fox Study (Op-Ed)

Brian Hare is an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University and the founder of Dognition, a website that helps you find the genius in your dog. This post was an adaptation from his book "The Genius of Dogs," co-authored with Vanessa Woods (Dutton, 2013). He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Credit: Brian Hare

Today (July 17) is the birthday of one of the most important scientists you've probably never heard of — Dmitri Konstantinovich Belyaev. In the chokehold of Stalin's Russia, where being a geneticist was likely to get you imprisoned, shot or both, Belyaev conducted perhaps the greatest genetics experiment of the 20th century and finally solved the puzzle of how the wolf turned into the dog. 

For almost a century, Darwin's biggest idea had a hole in it. To illustrate natural selection, Darwin did not directly suggest that humans shared a common ancestor with apes. Instead, he used a concept that everyone was familiar with — domestication. Everyone knew that you could selectively breed dogs for certain physical characteristics, like size or coat color. Darwin wanted to stretch this idea a little further and suggest that instead of a human hand, it was natural selection that drove evolution. 

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