Friday Cephalopod: Nautilus!
Nautilus pompilius From the Aquarium of the Pacific....Posted on May 30, 2008 6:09 AM • 26 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Search this blog
Profile
PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
• a longer profile of yours truly
• my calendar
• Nature Network
• RichardDawkins Network
• facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Atheist Nexus
• the Pharyngula chat room
(#pharyngula on irc.synirc.net)
I reserve the right to publicly post, with full identifying information about the source, any email sent to me that contains threats of violence.
Random Quote
(Complete listing)When I wrote this program, I never thought that it would evolve anything more than a variety of treelike shapes. I had hoped for weeping willows, cedars of Lebanon, Lombardy poplars, seaweeds, perhaps deer antlers. Nothing in my biologist's intuition, nothing in my 20 years experience of programming computers, and nothing in my wildest dreams prepared me for what actually emerged on screen. I can't remember exactly when in the sequence it first began to dawn on me that an evolved resemblance to something like an insect was possible. With a wild surmise, I began to breed, generation after generation, from whichever child looked most like an insect. My incredulity grew in parallel with the evolving resemblance…. I still cannot conceal from you my feeling of exultation as I first watched these exquisite creatures emerging before my eyes. I distinctly heard the triumphal opening chords of 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' (the 2001 theme) in my mind. I couldn't eat, and that night 'my' insects swarmed behind my eyelids as I tried to sleep."
My prize would be for a visually appealing world in which the life-forms have a visible, and preferably 3-D, morphology on the computer screen. They must evolve adaptations not just to 'inanimate' factors like the weather (which would produce essentially predictable, not emergent evolution) but to other evolving life forms (which is a recipe for emergent properties).
Richard Dawkins
Recent Posts
- I wish this were a Poe
- Radio reminder
- Not my cup of tea
- Zombies defend Christmas!
- Nice shirt
- Faith hurts
- There probably isn't
- Enduring damage
- Casey Luskin writes a revealing letter
- Come on down
A Taste of Pharyngula
(Complete listing)Recent Comments
- alex on I wish this were a Poe
- Nick Gotts on I wish this were a Poe
- 'This Himself on I wish this were a Poe
- Little Orphan Annie on I wish this were a Poe
- Blind Squirrel FCD on I wish this were a Poe
- 'This Himself on Zombies defend Christmas!
- AJ Milne on I wish this were a Poe
- J Myers on I wish this were a Poe
- Joe on I wish this were a Poe
- Narc on I wish this were a Poe
Archives
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
Blogroll
(Complete listing)Other Information
Subscribe via Email
Stay abreast of your favorite bloggers' latest and greatest via e-mail, via a daily digest.
Life Science:
Materpiscis attenboroughi
It's not often that something as delicate as details of the reproductive tract get preserved, but here's a phenomenal fossil of a Devonian placoderm containing the fragile bones of an embryo inside, along with the tracery of an umbilical...Posted on May 29, 2008 4:23 PM • 73 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
IEDG2008: Model systems are dead, long live model systems
I've discovered a couple of important things at this meeting. One, late night sessions at west coast meetings are deadly for any of us coming from more eastern time zones. At least the morning sessions are low stress. Two, I...Posted on May 29, 2008 1:59 PM • 23 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
If it's Wednesday, it must be California
And it must also be time for the 106th edition of the Tangled Bank. Read it! Check back at Pharyngula later — I've just arrived at the IEDG 2008 conference on Integrating Evolution, Development, and Genomics, and I'll be...Posted on May 28, 2008 6:54 PM • 31 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
An upcoming Tangled Bank, and a revamp
First and most importantly, there will be a new edition of the Tangled Bank on Wednesday, at Ars Technica — send pzmyers@gmail.com entries soon! The other issue is that my lab server which hosts the old Tangled Bank page...Posted on May 25, 2008 10:03 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Gerobatrachus hottoni
It's another transitional form, this time an amphibian from the Permian that shares characteristics of both frogs and salamanders — in life, it would have looked like a short-tailed, wide-headed salamander with frog-like ears, which is why it's being...Posted on May 25, 2008 3:15 PM • 56 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The superior eyes of shrimp
We mammals have been beaten again. Shrimp have more sophisticated eyes than we do, with the ability to see things we can't, and I'm feeling a bit envious....Posted on May 24, 2008 12:34 PM • 69 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Friday Cephalopod: Standing tall!
Octopus cyanea Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman....Posted on May 23, 2008 11:53 AM • 27 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Another reason to wear underwear at all times
Uh-oh. The creationist expectation of an abrupt transformation from one species to another has been demonstrated: the picture below is of a chicken egg that was cracked open to make a meal, and inside … a dead gecko. A bird...Posted on May 21, 2008 11:46 AM • 137 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It looks like a very tiring way to get around
But at least it is locomotion with style....Posted on May 19, 2008 6:20 AM • 56 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Bat wings and mouse feet
You may recall that a while back I mentioned how Jerry Coyne praised some work on bat evo-devo. I also said that I was going to have to write that paper up sometime. The bad news: I haven't written it...Posted on May 18, 2008 4:02 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Friday Cephalopod: Like a pearl torpedo
Loligo forbesi Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman....Posted on May 16, 2008 12:05 PM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Flamboyance!
Look at this whole gallery of nudibranchs!...Posted on May 15, 2008 6:02 PM • 86 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The subtly different squid eye
By now, everyone must be familiar with the inside out organization of the cephalopod eye relative to ours: they have photoreceptors that face towards the light, while we have photoreceptors that are facing away from the light. There are...Posted on May 15, 2008 3:42 PM • 65 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The platypus genome
Finals week is upon me, and I should be working on piles of paper work right now, but I need a break … and I have to vent some frustration with the popular press coverage of an important scientific...Posted on May 10, 2008 12:32 PM • 197 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
