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Repeated evolution: Despite its great advantages, photosynthesis lost multiple times in diverse organisms
It is not easy to understand how natural selection works … Shining Sun – is there any cheaper source of energy ? Despite the great advantages, loss of photosynthesis has occurred in diverse lineages of organisms (e.g. apicomplexans, chlorophytes, cryptophytes, diatoms, dinoflagellates, euglenophytes, and Orobanchaceae species), along with heterotrophic free-living algae, holoparasitic plants, and pathogenic […]
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Repeated evolution: Striated muscles in cnidarians and bilaterians evolved independently
what is left of common ancestry ? Striated muscles are present in bilaterian animals (e.g. vertebrates, insects, annelids) and some non-bilaterian eumetazoans (i.e. cnidarians and ctenophores). The striking ultrastructural similarity of striated muscles between these animal groups is thought to reflect a common evolutionary origin Here we show that a muscle protein core set, including […]
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Key evolutionary innovation lost 1000 times! The ability of flight lost repeatedly in the vast majority of insect orders
Let me repeat that: Evolutionary biologists claim, that after insect-species evolved the key evolutionary innovation – the ability of flight – then the ability got lost, and this happened independently, more than 1000 times in vast majority of insect orders … Here is an older article from 1996: WHY WOULD FLIGHTLESSNESS EVOLVE? Why would natural […]
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Repeated evolution: air bladders or lungs in different groups of fishes evolved multiple times
Stuff happens …. Several times throughout their radiation fish have evolved either lungs or swim bladders as gas-holding structures. Lungs and swim bladders have different ontogenetic origins and can be used either for buoyancy or as an accessory respiratory organ. Therefore, the presence of air-filled bladders or lungs in different groups of fishes is an […]
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Repeated evolution: Appendix evolved more than 30 times!
The appendix may not be useless after all. The worm-shaped structure found near the junction of the small and large intestines evolved 32 times among mammals, according to a new study. The finding adds weight to the idea that the appendix helps protect our beneficial gut bacteria when a serious infection strikes. Now get ready […]
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Repeated evolution: Sex chromosomes evolved independently, many times, in various species
Sex chromosomes evolved not once, but many times, independently … stuff happens … Sex chromosomes are derived from autosomes and have evolved independently many times in different lineages. For example, the human X and Y chromosomes originated about 200-300 million years ago in eutherian mammals after the split of monotremes, and sex chromosomes evolved independently […]