" We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged." - Dissent from Darwin

Natural selection [is used] carelessly as a mantra, as in the evidence-free “just-so stories” concocted out of thin air by mentally lazy adaptationists. (Stephen Jay Gould)

In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence. (Isaac newton)

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

How DOLPHIN learnt to hear

Two new studies in the January 26th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, show that bats' and whales' remarkable ability and the high-frequency hearing it depends on are shared at a much deeper level than anyone would have anticipated -- all the way down to the molecular level.

If you draw a phylogenetic tree of bats, whales, and a few other mammals based on similarities in the prestin sequence alone, the echolocating bats and whales come out together rather than with their rightful evolutionary cousins.

"We were surprised by the strength of support for convergence between these two groups of mammals and, related to this, by the sheer number of convergent changes in the coding DNA that we found," Rossiter said.

Storyteller: Stephen Rossiter of the University of London
Source: In Bats and Whales, Convergence in Echolocation Ability Runs Deep

2 comments:

Caz said...

I have a question.

These articles - which by the way are fascinating, thank you for collecting them - make me think that the theme of this blog is "come look at all this awesome stuff that scientists are discovering". But the smug "About Me" and the quotes at the top have me thrown. Is this blog supposed to be pro- or anti-evolution?

Dolly Sheriff said...

Hi Caz

This blog is neither pro nor against evolution per se. It is also not meant to be smug but rather a light hearted look at how scientists currently try and fit the puzzles of nature into the pre-vailing neo-darwinism paradigm....More and more of us realise that this approach is neither convincing nor satisfying.

To quote the Dissent from Darwin site: "We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged."

love Dolly