Evolution

Phylogenetics Of Emotion? The Evolution Of Laughter In Apes

Like human infants, young apes are make noises when you tickle them.  Is that really laughter? The answer to the question is yes, say researchers in Current Biology. The researchers analyzed the recorded sounds of tickle-induced vocalizations produced by i ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 4 2009 - 3:47pm

The Issue of Altruism

The issue of altruism in animals is well recognized, but the explanation has always been strained. In particular, the idea that altruism would be beneficial at the group level gave rise to the idea of "group selection". The problems intrinsic in ...

Blog Post - Gerhard Adam - Jun 4 2009 - 5:56pm

In The 'Laughter Evolutionary Tree', We're Closest To Chimps, Says Researcher

Human laughter can be traced back 10-16 million years to the last common ancestor of humans and great apes, according to new research published today.   Dr Marina Davila Ross, a primatologist of the psychology department at the University of Portsmouth, re ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 5 2009 - 12:50am

Life's Beginning: The Shake And Bake Approach

 “May you live in interesting times!” So goes the ancient Chinese curse, and times certainly must have been interesting for Alexander Ivanovich Oparin, who was 23 years old when he graduated from Moscow State University in 1917. Lenin and the Bolsheviks h ...

Article - Dave Deamer - Jun 9 2009 - 8:14pm

Twelve Misunderstandings Of Evolution

No. 1 “Evolution is the external and visible manifestation of the differential survival of alternative replicators.” This is my all-time favourite, the Dawkins Fallacy, the definition of evolution Richard Dawkins gave in The Extended Phenotype p.82. The f ...

Article - Steve Davis - Jun 19 2009 - 12:45am

Cooperation Among Predatory Animals- Biology Part 6

Contrary to many notions about predators, it would seem that there are many whose success is directly linked to their social organization and more specifically to the role of the social leaders that may direct the group. Predation is, by its nature, an ene ...

Article - Gerhard Adam - Jun 10 2009 - 1:59pm

The Problem With Selfish Gene Theory

The idea of the “selfish gene” was intended to shift focus from the organism to the gene to provide a different perspective on natural selection. It was been described as a metaphor, or simply a semantic issue. However, without precision in our use of such ...

Article - Gerhard Adam - Jun 11 2009 - 2:59pm

The Silent Ape: On The Origins Of Language

The Silent Ape: On The Origins Of Language This article is a highly speculative account of how our distant ancestors evolved the capacity for speech, together with the evolved capacities that would later be exapted to the behavioural functions of reading ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - Jun 14 2009 - 2:34pm

The Problem Of Kin Selection Theory

Kin selection is one of those special considerations derived from “selfish gene theory” that postulates that it is the degree of relatedness between organisms that will determine the likelihood that altruistic actions will occur. This also clearly implies ...

Article - Gerhard Adam - Jun 12 2009 - 5:57pm

New Hominid Discovered: Anoiapithecus brevirostris

New Hominid Discovered:  Anoiapithecus brevirostris Edit: were you looking for- New Hominid discovered in Denisova Cave? New Hominid Discovered:  Anoiapithecus brevirostris A study published in PNAS describes a male partial face with mandible of a previou ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - Mar 26 2010 - 5:42pm