please take a look at my very own “personal something” from my master thesis:
the idea of “the ascent of the botanist” (based on the famous drawing the ascent of man from evolution biology) came to me while hiking to knivskjellodden (norway), the northernmost point of continental europe, last summer. it turned out to be almost exactly half time for my thesis.
many thanks to chiara, who transformed my idea into an actual picture.
scientists say they’ve found and studied a complete fossil of a primate that is likely to be an early ancestor of the human species. this exciting finding may be an important “snapshot” from the time when humans, apes and monkeys diverged from the other primates such as lemurs.
a brand-new documentary, titled “the link” is set to air soon in the US, UK, norway and germany. a trailer and air dates are presented at revealingthelink.com.
Early Primate Provides Evolution Clues
Scientists say a 47-million-year-old fossil found in Germany may be a key link to explaining the evolution of early primates and, perhaps, telling them about developments that led to modern human beings. [more...]
20 minutes at lake resia may have been 15 too many. :)
on february 12 1809, a little boy named charles robert darwin was born in shrewsbury, england. he was to become one of the greatest naturalists and scientists in history.
in his book “on the origin of species by means of natural selection”, published in 1859, he expressed his theory of evolution1, which would provide a scientific and logical explanation for the diversity of life on earth.
today is his 200th birthday, and the 150 year anniversary of that famous book that revolutionized the entire field of biology.
i’d like to take the opportunity to include a few quotes from the book:
it is a truly wonderful fact that all animals and all plants throughout all time and space should be related to each other in group subordinate to group, namely varieties of the same species most closely related together, (…) species of distinct genera much less closely related, and genera related in different degrees, forming sub-families, families, orders, sub-classes and classes.
here’s a comment that was recently submitted to one of my frogspawn time-lapse videos over at youtube:
“frogs are a good example of evolution seeing as it only take a month or 2 for them to grow”
ontogeny (the development of an individual organism) may be a glimpse into the evolutionary history of a species, but on the other hand, evolution has nothing to with one soft, translucent piece of frog spawn developing into a tadpole.
while evolution is a shift in genetic information during hundreds or thousands of generations, a tadpole growing legs is just part of its existing genetic programme.
i think if people actually knew what the theory of evolution is all about, there wouldn’t be half as much agitation against it.
i’ve prepared a few photos of a bat skeleton from last summer.
it’s a preparation of a greater mouse-eared bat (myotis myotis, grosses mausohr), that i received for a bat presentation. it had been used for demonstration purposes for a long time, so the ribcage is damaged.
i think it’s fascinating to actually “trace back” their evolution and see how over time, the fingers were prolonged, connected with skin (similar to the webbed toes of a duck) and made into wings.
the photos also show that these little creatures adhere to the basic “blueprint” of all mammals.
everything you need to know about the theory of evolution, in 57 seconds:
(more or less) related:
