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Repeated evolution: Warm blood evolved multiple times independently
Endothermy, i.e. the endogenous production of metabolic heat, has evolved multiple times among vertebrates, and several strategies of heat production have been studied extensively by physiologists over the course of the twentieth century. The independent acquisition of endothermy by mammals and birds has been the subject of many hypotheses regarding their origin and associated evolutionary […]
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Repeated evolution of compound eyes: one of two seemingly very unlikely evolutionary histories must be true
From PNAS.ORG: These results illustrate exactly why arthropod compound eye evolution has remained controversial, because one of two seemingly very unlikely evolutionary histories must be true. Either compound eyes with detailed similarities evolved multiple times in different arthropod groups or compound eyes have been lost in a seemingly inordinate number of arthropod lineages http://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/99/3/1426.full.pdf These […]
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Repeated evolution: The same retroviral gene coopted independently by unrelated species to aid reproduction
… in other words: a species gets infected by a virus, the virus inserts a part of its own viral-DNA into the species genome. Later on, a very complex placental structure starts emerging in the infected species – and everything is ready for modified reproduction … and, of course, the modified reproduction works flawlessly from […]
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Repeated evolution: Complex brains and high intelligence evolved many times independently
… yes, that miracle happened not once, but many times…independently … it seems that most miracles happen in biology … over and over again … Within the animal kingdom, complex brains and high intelligence have evolved several to many times independently, e.g. among ecdysozoans in some groups of insects (e.g. blattoid, dipteran, hymenopteran taxa), among […]
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Repeated evolution: A fish living on land is NOT an extraordinary thing but a common phenomenon
Get this: Fish have evolved the ability to live on land many times, challenging the perception that this extreme lifestyle shift was likely to have been a rare occurrence in ancient times. New research shows 33 different families of fish have at least one species that demonstrates some terrestrial activity and, in many cases, these […]
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Repeated evolution: from egg laying to live-birth and then back to egg laying. Lizards re-evolved laying eggs multiple times
Stuff happens … over and over again … A family of lizards has achieved something very unexpected, evolving to give birth to live young, before going back to egg laying. Most remarkably, the zoologists who observed this think it is possible they rediscovered laying eggs multiple times. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/lizards-reevolve-to-lay-eggs-after-having-already-evolved-to-give-birth-to-live-young-/
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Repeated evolution of placenta: at least 100 independent origins across the animal kingdom
First off, let me start with some quotes from mainstream-articles: The placenta is arguably the most important organ of the body, but paradoxically the most poorly understood The placenta: a mysterious organ Despite being critical to a baby’s survival, the placenta remains something of a medical mystery. Detailed understanding about how it carries out all […]
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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 […]