Evolution Blog is Macrovolution.net's offering of articles on evolutionary biology, evolutionary theory, the history of biology, and various other related topics.
 | | St. Thomas Aquinas |
Hybrids and Immutability
It was once generally believed that hybrid animals and plants had been made sterile in order to preserve a divine "natural order." Modern biologists don't seem to be aware of it, but their own attitudes about hybridization — their claims about hybrids being sterile and inviable in order to prevent distinct types of organisms from blending together — are similar to those of the traditional creationist and lack an empirical basis. Such opinions in the mouths of biological authority lend credence to the arguments of the non-empirical creationists.
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 | | Carolus Linnaeus |
Linnaeus' Theory of Evolution
Carolus Linnaeus, the great classifier, is often maligned as a dyed-in-the-wool creationist. But, in fact, his ideas evolved over time. He was a creationist in his youth, but he later became one of the first scientists to propose a theory of evolution.
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 | | Alfred Wallace |
Alfred Wallace
In 1858, Wallace sent Darwin an essay from Borneo, entitled On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type, that precipitated Darwin into panic. It gave a full account of the theory of natural selection. At the time, Darwin had been working on the theory for some twenty years, but published nothing. This paper should have won Wallace fame at least equal to Darwin's, but most people today have never heard his name.
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 | | Immanuel Kant |
The Richard Dawkins Delusion
In his book, The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins claims there is no god and inveighs against religion and religious people. However, instead of attacking the irrationality of others, it seems Mr. Dawkins should examine his own beliefs. Every philosophical system involves certain unfounded beliefs. Premises are accepted on an irrational basis. From these irrationally posited axioms conclusions are inferred on a logical, rational basis. On a logical, factual basis, then, atheism is really no more defensible than are the various religions that Dawkins attacks. As far as such arguments go, there might or might not be a god or gods. There is no factual proof yea or nay. So neither Dawkins nor his opponents have any rational basis for deciding this issue.
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 | | Humpback Whale |
On the Evolution of Whales - Fact and nonsense
Accepted theory claims whales evolved in the early Cenozoic from ancestors that lived on land. This is nonsense. Well-documented, fossil forms highly similar to modern whales already existed in the Mesozoic. This theoretic emperor truly isn't wearing any clothes.
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 | | Charles Darwin |
The Concept of Radiation
The notion of radiation is widely accepted as a mode of evolutionary diversification. This idea, however, has some serious logical flaws — in particular, it was based on a mistaken analogy.
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The Scala Naturae
Biology today remains heavily under the influence of a mystic, medieval notion that early scientists accepted without empirical verification.
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Homo erectus
The hominid that survived longer than any other.
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The Dinosaur Extinction and the Origin of Mammals
For those who tire of the just-so story of the Cretaceous shrew whose decendants rapidly modified themselves into whales, bats, carnivores, ungulates, and every other type of eutherian mammal — here's different explanation of mammalian origins and of the extinction of the dinosaurs.
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Louis Agassiz (1807–1873). Swiss-born American zoologist, geologist, and paleontologist, with a special expertise in ichthyology. Founder and director of Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, one of the most famous scientists of his day. Read on >>
Charles Lyell (1797–1875). Scottish geologist and paleontologist. Gave the Pliocene Epoch its name. A friend and supporter of Charles Darwin, Lyell, established uniformitarianism as a scientific principle. Read on >>
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More articles from Evolution Blog:
12. Karyotypes as a Basis for Stasis and Variation
13. Louis and Mary Leakey
14. Heterosis and Synergistic Effects
15. Vegetative Reproduction
16. Hybrid Taxa
17. Erwin Chargaff
18. Alternative Life Cycles
19. Reproductive Isolation
20. Baron Georges Cuvier
21. On Species
22. On the Cause of Hybrid Infertility
23. Hugo de Vries
24. On Hybrids
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