Latest Challenges to the Teaching of Evolution

@edgarblythe,

reasonabvle yet probably so overlooked as axiomatic that the Spencerian phrase is tht which "took off" .
My feeling is a corollary instread. Im not ure that the species were busy "extending" their ranges (like lebensraum). I think more , that the environment began encroaching on the species. Like whales for instance, The"paleoceotus and packiceotus" were firat hooved animals that were being encroached by a tidal marsh of a prograding shore line which was responding to an increasing sea level.
The evolution of many animals occurs within sopecific "hot spot" of geography (hominids in the AFar, Ratite birds inSouth AMerica as it was becoming the "western SHore")

I have no data and just look on this whole topic as polite discussion. Yet, Ive gotfossil evidence from work related exploration that shows that the animals dont "spread out" as much as the environment "spreads in"

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@Ionus,

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@spendius,

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I presume you are just up Io. I'm justgoing to bed. Have fun.

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I always do...no serious challenges here....

Thats because everyone holds back with anything too technical lest ANUS trip over his pile of NAtional Geographics and bust his nek trying to look **** up.

Lesseee, Where would ANUS find out about T rex DNA of which he seems so intimately aware ?? Why the same place he was misinformed about cloacas.

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@edgarblythe,

Here is an abstract of the scientific paper that the article refers to:

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Links between global taxonomic diversity, ecological diversity and the expansion of vertebrates on land
(Sarda Sahney, Michael J. Benton, and Paul A. Ferry)

Abstract
Tetrapod biodiversity today is great; over the past 400 Myr since vertebrates moved onto land, global tetrapod diversity has risen exponentially, punctuated by losses during major extinctions. There are links between the total global diversity of tetrapods and the diversity of their ecological roles, yet no one fully understands the interplay of these two aspects of biodiversity and a numerical analysis of this relationship has not so far been undertaken. Here we show that the global taxonomic and ecological diversity of tetrapods are closely linked. Throughout geological time, patterns of global diversity of tetrapod families show 97 per cent correlation with ecological modes. Global taxonomic and ecological diversity of this group correlates closely with the dominant classes of tetrapods (amphibians in the Palaeozoic, reptiles in the Mesozoic, birds and mammals in the Cenozoic). These groups have driven ecological diversity by expansion and contraction of occupied ecospace, rather than by direct competition within existing ecospace and each group has used ecospace at a greater rate than their predecessors.

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@wandeljw,

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the dominant classes of tetrapods (amphibians in the Palaeozoic, reptiles in the Mesozoic, birds and mammals in the Cenozoic). These groups have driven ecological diversity by expansion and contraction of occupied ecospace

So, they wanna have it both ways. Whenever you have a paper pub'd, always

1. ask more questions than you answer, thus leaving great gobs of room for prodigious funding opportunities.

2. Leave the boundaries of the answers you do propose suitably vague and obscure ....(For a more detailed reason refer to item 1 above)

3. Try as hard as you can to coin a totally new technical term that can only be applied to your findings, this insuring that the full conditions of item 1 (Above) will be met.

Ill bet that even ANUS could write a semi literate proposal for funding to go out and hunt down some T-rex DNA. cf. "ECOSPACE"--firt coined by Valentine in 1969 , now recognized as the definative term for exapnsive "range" determinants for evolution {for you EAASEE, for me DEEFEECOLT}

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@wandeljw,

Which challenge to the teaching of evolution does that pile of drivellous big-wordism relate wande?

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T.H.Huxley, Darwin's bulldog, wrote--

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woman's virtue was man's most poetic fiction.

As a scientist he would soon put such delusions to rest eh?

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@spendius,

spendius wrote:

Which challenge to the teaching of evolution does that pile of drivellous big-wordism relate wande?

It represents one explanation of how evolution is tied to ecosystems. Learning about ecosystems is an important part of science education today.

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@wandeljw,

I daresay it is wande but it says nothing about the challenge to teaching evolution to young people on moral grounds which is the only valid challenge.

I hope you don't think that those few lines, which are more or less incomprehensible to a very large majority of the population, represent any sort of explanation about as complex a process as how evolution is connected to ecosystems.

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@spendius,

I don't think I have yet even considered scientifically more than 10% of my connections with my immediate environment. And the ones I have considered invariably raise more questions than I have answers for.

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@spendius,

Seeing the glossy front cover of Biology Letters, which is where wande's quote derives from, reminded me that I had never directed your reverence's attention to the story of Mr Robert Maxwell's rise to fame and fortune and a watery grave, if the rumours are true that is, on the idea that a significant segment of the masses loved to read about the latest science in words of many syllables which they almost understand. He started Pergamon Press and evolved thereafter into as many manifestations as causes the utmost repressed impatience in those underlings unfortunate enough to need the salaries he paid them.

Despite his many faults however I have held him in high regard ever since I read that he had, as a boy, walked all the way across Europe from the east, Czechoslovakia, in order to escape from the Nazis, got himself across the English channel, rose to the rank of Captain in the Army, winning an MC, which is No 2 for having engaged in desperate measures, created a publishing empire which included a leading tabloid newspaper in the Labour Party interest, managed a mention, as Cap'n Bob, sometimes a lengthy one, in almost every issue of Private Eye during the period of his pomp. From a dead start at 17 he taught himself the sort of English pronunciation the Queen approves of in the senior staff she employs. British Intelligence changed his name several times, finally settling on Ian Robert Maxwell. RIP. The sort of man for whom I have the utmost respect.

These books are worth the time of day.

Robert Maxwell: Israel's Superspy : The Life and Murder of a Media Mogul, Carroll and Graf, ISBN 0-7867-1078-0
Maxwell, Champion of Dissemination," LOGOS. 15,2, pp. 65–75.
# A book by Martin Dillon, The Assassination of Robert Maxwell, Israeli Superspy.

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@farmerman,

Damn youse dum ! One mistake after another and you wear it with a badge of pride. It takes you ages to type in a post then you go back and mis-spell everything so people will think you really know that stuff...and what is it with you, **** and arseholes ? You are defective...return to the factory for an overhaul...and take your slavering Mister Ed with you.

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@farmerman,

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Ill bet that even ANUS could write a semi literate proposal for funding to go out and hunt down some T-rex DNA.

Whereas I am not going to bet you can even use a dictionary. You, **** and arseholes...ever wonder why I call you Gomer the Turd ?

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@wandeljw,

If you want to understand evolution it involves gradual change to an environment producing gradual change in species when suddenly there is an opening for expansion. An example is the development of legs before moving onto land. Suddenly a whole new opportunity was available to a species that had legs. They didnt go onto land first...they had the ability to walk on the bottom of the water, then they went onto land.

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@Ionus,

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They didnt go onto land first...they had the ability to walk on the bottom of the water, then they went onto land.

Well, you got it half right. The environments change is by the grace of geology. In the case of the whale, the prograding ocean sequences (visible in the stratigraphy of the area around Pakistan ) imposed a pattern of seasonal inundation, (very similar to the lo countries or present day Bangladesh). Precetaceans gradually begin to appear in the fossil record over 57 mya as thearea became a vast coastal plain. To this day, the greatest number of cetacean species occur in the fossil record of this area of the world.

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@Ionus,

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Whereas I am not going to bet you can even use a dictionary. You, **** and arseholes...ever wonder why I call you Gomer the Turd ?

Im betting that its because you need to try to constantly speak in a derogatory fashion of people who are better educated than you or who have a skill that you wish youd had. Ive seen it happen so often with your brother hillbillies . They always like to critcize others based on some pwerceived challenge to the hiilbilly"s own self esteem.

You can call me whatever you wish. You shall forever be our beloved (though slow headed) ANUS.

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@farmerman,

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Im betting that its because you need to try to constantly speak in a derogatory fashion of people who are better educated than you or who have a skill that you wish youd had.

I wondered why I had been insulted so much.

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@spendius,

good one. Finally you are getting some of the finer points of the "obloquoy offense"

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@farmerman,

Which means, on your previously stated scientific principle, that I'm **** hot at it.

I knew that anyway. I'm only in first gear you know. A2K couldn't take me in top with my foot down.

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@spendius,

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your previously stated scientific principle, that I'm **** hot at it.

I knew that anyway. I'm only in first gear you know. A2K couldn't take me in top with my foot down.

Like a schoolbus at the top of a hill

PWerhaps its just gravity. Youve taken 5 years or so to ctually come up with something clever. Tired old irrelevant quotemining isnt to be confused with cleverness. (Maybe to the ENglish. we Merkins are a bit more demanding )

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@farmerman,

I know fm. You just declare yourselves to be wonderful and, hey presto, you are. It's brilliant I must admit. It must make you feel so, so good about yourselves.

I've never encountered in my pre-A2K existence anybody less demanding that you lot.

I'll bet you preen yourselves when a lady says "That was fantastic darling", Mae West style. We are not happy until we get them chattering like a lemur monkey.

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