Evo-Palaeo This Week!

This week Shayda will be leading the discussion on Chapter 25 "Darwinism in Moral Philosphy and Social Theory." This will be a new topic for many of us and I look forward to it!

See you 5:30 pm at Mikes!

Interesting Recent Papers

Some new papers from Science and BIOS:

Kolbe et al. 2012. Founder Effects Persist Despite Adaptive Differentiation: A Field Experiment with Lizards. Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1209566.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2012/02/01/science.1209566.abstract

Dimond et al. 2011. Feathers, Dinosaurs, and Behavioral Cues: Defining the Visual Display Hypothesis for the Adaptive Function of Feathers in Non-Avian Theropods. BIOS 82:58-63.
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1893/011.082.0302

Ghosh and Holt. 2012. Plate Motions and Stresses from Global Dynamic Models. Science 335: 838-843.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6070/838.short

Secord et al. 2012. Evolution of the Earliest Horses Driven by Climate Change in the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Science 335: 959-962.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6071/959.short

Natural Length of the Current Interglacial

This will be a summary and discussion of Tzedakis et al. 2012. Determining the natural length of the current interglacial. Nature Geoscience 5: 138-141.

Tzedakis et al. (2012) test the overdue glaciation hypothesis by comparing the current Holocene interglacial to similar periods in Earth's history. They use ice cores from which greenhouse gasses have been measured to determine the timing of glacial onset. These results are then used to predict the natural onset of the next glacial cycle.

This paper is interesting in allowing us to contrast the effects of anthropogenic global warming with the potential natural climatic cycles of the Earth. Their comparison to earlier interglacial periods shows that atmospheric CO2 was lower (240 ppmv) than pre-industrial levels (280 ppmv) at the onset of the last glacial. Tzedakis et al. (2012) further state that if comparison to previous periods is valid, modern atmospheric CO2 should have already fallen below 250 ppmv, triggering the next glacial cycle.

I was disappointed that Tzedakis et al. (2012) did not discuss current levels of atmospheric CO2. To me this paper suggests that we cannot expect the onset of a glacial cycle given current global warming (which is obvious). This means that the length of the current interglacial is not a result of low eccentricity, as has been suggested by climate change denialists, but rather of anthropogenic factors.

I suppose this isn't entirely new information, but it is a direct comparison of current conditions to past conditions that highlights the extreme weirdness of today's climate.

Alligator Respiration

Here is an interesting paper. They used CT scanning to investigate the respiratory system of the alligator. They found many similarities with birds and suggest the form of the respiratory apparatus may be plesiomorphic for archosaurs.

Sanders and Farmer. 2012. The Pulmonary Anatomy of Alligator mississippiensis and Its Similarity to the Avian Respiratory System. The Anatomical Record DOI: 10.1002/ar.22427.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.22427/abstract

Humpback Whales!

I've uploaded a video of my whale watching trip in Maui.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hRUkNe_GLQ&feature=youtu.be

New Relevant Papers

I have fallen behind in surveying the recent literature in Science and Nature. We'll blame it on my upcoming comprehensive exam. I'll be browsing through them relatively slowly and posting anything I find relevant here.

Ricklefs and Renner. 2012. Global Correlations in Tropical Tree Species Richness and Abundance Reject Neutrality. Science 6067: 464-467.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6067/464.short

Gibling and Davies. 2012. Palaeozoic landscapes shaped by plant evolution. Nature Geoscience 5: 99–105.
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v5/n2/abs/ngeo1376.html?lang=en?WT.ec_id=NGEO-201202

Tzedakis et al. 2012. Determining the natural length of the current interglacial. Nature Geoscience 5: 138–141.
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v5/n2/abs/ngeo1358.html?lang=en?WT.ec_id=NGEO-201202

I find Tzedakis et al (2012) particularly interesting and will soon provide a review on the blog.

Jaccard and Gailbraith. 2012. Large climate-driven changes of oceanic oxygen concentrations during the last deglaciation. Nature Geoscience 5:151–156.
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v5/n2/abs/ngeo1352.html?lang=en?WT.ec_id=NGEO-201202

New Forum Discussion Topic - Modularity

I have started a new discussion topic on the Evo-Palaeo discussion forum. Please join in!

http://groups.google.com/group/carletonevopaleo/browse_thread/thread/bbff23b7c82228af

Upcoming Whales Exhibition at the CMN

I also wanted to mention the upcoming whales exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Nature. It runs from March 2 - September 3, 2012.

http://nature.ca/en/plan-your-visit/what-see-do/our-exhibitions/whales-tohora

Discussion This Week

This week we are discussing Chapter 15: Functional Evo-Devo from the book The Philosophy of Biology.

Don't forget, we have a new online forum!

http://groups.google.com/group/carletonevopaleo

If you can't make it to discussion, why not discuss online?!

Have a great week!

Canadian Society of Zoologists

This year CSZ is in New Brunswick! The abstract deadline is February 24, 2012. Early registration ends March 16, 2012.

http://csz2012.com/en/

Evolution Blog

Myself and several biologists from Carleton will be blogging about the upcoming Evolution meeting in Ottawa. I hope you'll follow along both before and during the meeting!

http://evolution2012ottawa.com/wordpress/

Upcoming Presenters

Yesterday was an excellent discussion of species concepts.

The presenters for the next 2 discussions are as follows:

February 15 - Danielle (Evo-Devo)
February 29 - Shayda (TBD)

Discussion Forum!!!

We now have a discussion forum! Here we can discuss relevant topics and/or resolve issues from our weekly discussions.

http://groups.google.com/group/carletonevopaleo

This Week

This week Thom H. will lead the discussion of Chapter 19 on Species Concepts.

We will also discuss volunteers for upcoming weeks.

See you tomorrow.

I'll add that I have been very busy the past few weeks but I do plan to add some new features to the site including an online discussion board and a page for memorable or meaningful quotes from the book. Hopefully I can find time for this soon! In the meantime I am preparing for my comprehensive exam.