Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences “Biodiversity impacts ecosystem productivity as much as resources, disturbance, or herbivory“
A Minor Post, Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Habitat Destructionio9 “How the diving bell spider uses physics to breathe underwater” Discovery News “Diving Bell Spider Uses Bubble Like Gills“
A Minor Post, AdaptationScience “Specialized Face Learning Is Associated with Individual Recognition in Paper Wasps“
A Minor Post, Adaptation, Social NetworksNational Geographic “Life in an Icy Inferno” This is an interesting article from the “great extents to which scientists go to do their work” perspective, but disappointingly it was not all that clear in this article what the purpose of finding thermophilic bacteria in Antarctica might be. I suppose that plenty of NatGeo expeditions can Read More
A Minor Post, Adaptation, Microbial EcologyNational Geographic “If They Could Only Talk” National Geographic Easter Island – Video: Testing a Walking Theory The business about moving the statues is fun to think about, but the more interesting issue discussed here has to do with the rapid decline of the island’s earliest human inhabitants. The article does a good job of Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Sustainability, System StabilityNational Geographic “Vanishing Languages” I am fascinated and a bit horrified by the process of language extinction described in this article. The parallels with biodiversity loss are obvious and by-and-large appropriate, but I also think that there is something particularly fascinating and tragic about language extinction. It seems as though we are headed towards a Read More
A Minor Post, Cultural Evolution, Memetic FitnessNature News “Shark species more diverse than thought“
A Minor Post, SpeciationSocial Evolution Forum “The ‘Big Mistake’ and ‘Grand Deception’ Hypotheses: Alternatives to CMLS?” These are flaws in Pinker’s arguments that I failed to identify in my own critique, and Turchin prevents some valuable insights. This idea that the human mind can be so easily parasitized or ‘cuckolded’ by ideas is strange, casting ideas and culture as Read More
A Minor Post, Altruism, Belief, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Group Selection, Memetic Fitness, Phenotypic Plasticity, Psychological Adaptation, WebFrequently I feel like I am listening to an early 2000’s George W. Bush speech when the ‘opponents of group selection’ step up to the podium. Seemingly, you are either “with us or against us” when it comes to considering selection acting at a level above the individual. As someone who is open to thinking Read More
A Major Post, Adaptation, Coevolution, Cultural Evolution, Group Selection, Kin Selection, Memetic Fitness, Multilevel Selection, Natural Selection, Punishment, WebA fascinating new paper published this week in the journal PLoS One demonstrates how selection acting at least three different levels produces distinct selective pressures that shape the song behavior of male Dupont’s lark (Chersophilus duponti) in the Ebro Valley of northwestern Spain. Authored by Paola Laiolo and José Ramón Obeso and entitled “Multilevel Selection Read More
A Major Post, Articles, Behavior, Competition, Group Selection, Multilevel Selection, Population Growth