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Repeated evolution: Penis-baculum evolved multiple times and have been lost multiple times
Several hypotheses for the function of the baculum have been proposed which lead to testable predictions in a comparative framework. Unfortunately, comparative studies have failed to yield general and consistent results Here, we specifically test this hypothesis by modeling the presence/absence of bacula of 954 mammalian species across a well-established phylogeny and show that the […]
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Repeated evolution of blood types
interesting stuff happened here … or perhaps not ? The ABO histo-blood group, the critical determinant of transfusion incompatibility, was the first genetic polymorphism discovered in humans. Remarkably, ABO antigens are also polymorphic in many other primates, with the same two amino acid changes responsible for A and B specificity in all species sequenced to […]
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Evolution does repeat itself after all: How evolution lets stripes come and go
same stuff happened multiple times, independently in various lakes, and at a record speed … Evolution does repeat itself after all: How evolution lets stripes come and go A team of evolutionary biologists discovers the genetic basis for the repeated evolution of color patterns. The findings about the stripes of the especially diverse species of […]
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Repeated evolution: Lactose tolerance arose independently in Africans and Europeans
In January 2007, an international team of researchers led by geneticist Sarah Tishkoff announced that they had uncovered the genetic roots of Africans’ lactose tolerance. Just as in Europe, on this continent, mutations (in this case, probably three) randomly arose, and these happened to have the effect of keeping the lactase gene switched on. https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/070401_lactose
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Repeated evolution: Among insect 236 families in 18 of 44 orders independently invaded water
just another extreme convergent evolution event … stuff happens … No insects returned to land after adapting to aquatic habits Due to different evolutionary rates or periodical changes in water characteristics, non-adapted terrestrial insects repeatedly invaded the aquatic realm with well adapted hydrobionts. The proposed reason for the lack of land return is the character of numerous aquatic adaptations […]