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This semester I’m taking a course called Evolution. It does what it says on the tin. We’ve been assigned Jerry Coyne’s Why Evolution is True to read, and I’m getting caught up on chapters over the weekend (since my book came late in the mail). I’m SUPER EXCITED to do this, cause I’ve been wanting to read this book since it was published, but I never really made the effort.
Chapter 2 is a p great overview on transitional fossils from the more famous and well-documented lineages (whales, amphibians, and birds), and has a good bit of discussion on Tiktaalik (pictured). This reminded me how much I love Tiktaalik. LOOK AT THAT HAPPY FACE. LOOK AT IT.
TIKTAALIK: THE FOSSIL THAT LOVES YOU BACK.
(picture from The Tangled Bank: An Introduction to Evolution | The Loom | Discover Magazine)
(via lenieclarke)
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Cheek-Pouches of the Macaque Monkey
The macaques, mandrills, mangabeys, and baboons, all have cheek pouches for food storage. They use the pouches while foraging in the same way that hamsters do.
The Anatomy of the Human Peritoneum and Abdominal Cavity, Considered from the Standpoint of Development and Comparative Anatomy. George S. Huntington, 1903.
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Adult human female and ostrich skeleton, not to scale.
Ostrich engraving originally from Cheselden’s works, included to show analogous structures between the bird and the human. Though the evolutionary significance of homology and analogy of anatomical structures wasn’t understood yet, Linnaeus used many homologous structures in his grouping of creatures within families and species. However, Linnaeus grouped animals based upon morphology, not evolutionary characteristics.
These days, phylogenetics is the science most closely associated with the evolution of homologous structures.
A Series of Engravings Representing the Human Skeleton. John Barclay, 1820.
