Duncan Potter: Interests

Interests

Life & Evolution
Our Universe
Non-humans
Movies & Music

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The Story of Life on Earth

I'm currently re-reading the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, inspired to read the seminal work after reading Carl Sagan's The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence which doesn't - but perhaps should - include the quote I read somewhere:

"the intelligence of a group equals the average intelligence of a group member,
divided by the number of people in the group".

Working in academia, this quotation so often comes to mind.

In one episode of Carl Sagan's television series Cosmos, I remember a wonderful piecing together of the origins of the mammalian auditory system. Since then I've tracked down a few more details here, part of the superb Evidences for Macroevolution, and the superb Evidence of Evolutionary Transitions by Michael Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology.

Evolutionary Links:

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- National Geographic News -

Evolution - hominid/animal

Hominid / Primate & related:

Becoming Human - an interactive documentary telling the story of human origins.

Genetically Speaking, Race Doesn't Exist In Humans (1998) - "Race doesn't matter. In fact, it doesn't even exist in humans ...the conclusion of an evolutionary and population biologist at Washington University."

Introduction to Primates from Mesa Community College.

Chimps beat humans in memory test (BBC, Dec 2007) - "Chimpanzees have an extraordinary photographic memory that is far superior to ours, research suggests."

Hominid: Lucy - Australopithecus afarensis

Lucy: Mother of man - 3.2 million years ago (BBC).
Discovered in 1974, the fossilised adult nicknamed Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) reveals the origins of bipedalism in humans. Lucy was discovered by Prof Donald C. Johanson, currently of the Institute of Human Origins in Arizona, USA.

See Lucy's Skeleton (BBC)

A. Afarensis bipedality - a wonderfully informative article from Mesa Community College's Anthropology department.

Lucy's Baby:

In 2001, in the same region as Lucy, initially dated as 3.4 million years old, a hominid child was unearthed.

Ancient Fossil Child Discovered in Ethiopia (Sept 2006) - 3.3 million-year-old skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis child.

Lucy's Baby Discovered in Ethiopia (BBC, Sept 2006) - an article after five years of research on the Australopithecus afarensis child.

Timelines:

Oldest Modern Human Fossils Found (2003, Africa) - confiming that modern humans evolved in Africa.

Out of Africa - from the American Museum of Natural History, the picture of our migration from Africa.

Human evolution - A look at human origins through species profiles and hominid imagery - superb.

Hominid Timeline - from the superb Hominid Journey page, Mesa Community College, Arizona.

Hominid Species Timeline - Washington State University.

Non-hominid

Mammal rise 'not linked' to dinos (BBC, March 2007) - "The extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago had little effect on the evolution of mammals, according to a study in the journal Nature."

Whale 'missing link' discovered (BBC, Dec 2007) - "The whale is descended from a deer-like animal that lived 48 million years ago, according to fossil evidence."
See also National Geographic article.

Evolution - plant / early life

Fossil find sheds light on ancient plants (BBC, 2003) - earliest traces of lignin in plants detected, 400 million years ago fossil in Scotland. Lignin is essential for land plants as it provides rigidity for their cells.

Tiny fossils reveal inner secrets (BBC Oct 2006) - "The exact moment when a 550 million year old cell began to divide has been captured in an exquisite 3-D image."

Oldest fossil tree found (April 2007) - "Scientists say they have pieced together the world's oldest known tree from two fossils dating back 385 million years, a discovery they say could help explain the role early forests played in climate change."

Evolution - general

Evolution for Beginners - 10/10, encompases But it's just a theory.

Evolution and the Nature of Science Institutes - (ENSI) a wonderful education site.

Evolution Unmuddled - "Fact of Evolution vs Theory of Evolution", from ENSI above.

Institute of Human Thermodynamics - Molecular Evolution Table - I just love the wording of this page, from the Big Bang to what is today termed 'life'.

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online - "50,000 searchable text pages and 40,000 images of both publications and handwritten manuscripts."

Understanding the Evolution of Life in the Universe - an astronomical site, because the evolution of life on this world is only part of the much bigger picture.