Creationism in Crisis - How Elephants Are Helping Us Understand Human Evolution

Creationism in Crisis

How Elephants Are Helping Us Understand Human Evolution

Creationism in Crisis

How Elephants Are Helping Us Understand Human Evolution

Creationism in Crisis

How Elephants Are Helping Us Understand Human Evolution

Creationism in Crisis

How Elephants Are Helping Us Understand Human Evolution

Creationism in Crisis

How Elephants Are Helping Us Understand Human Evolution

Elephants as a new model for understanding human evolution | Max Planck Institute

More very bad news for Creationists today. It comes in the form of a paper which depends on the Theory of Evolution by Natural selection to explain not only our own social evolution but why behaviour such as empathy, concern for the welfare of others, and ability to communicate are not the uniquely human characteristics Creationists claim them to be, as evidence of our special creation by a magic creator.

I've recently written about 'Domestication Syndrome' , how it can be seen in several of our domesticated animals, and how it probably played a part in our own evolution by a process of self-domestication.

Now a group of researchers led by Limor Ravi of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, have found that elephants also appear to have self-domesticated and have proposed that they could form a model for understanding how prosocial behaviour evolved.

Domestication Syndrome refers to a suite of physical and behavioral changes observed in domesticated animals as a result of artificial selection by humans. These changes can include reduced brain size, smaller teeth and jaws, reduced aggressiveness, and changes in coat color and texture.

The concept of Domestication Syndrome was first proposed by Russian geneticist Dmitri Belyaev in the mid-20th century. Belyaev conducted an experiment in which he selectively bred silver foxes for tameness, based on their willingness to approach humans without showing fear or aggression. Over several generations, the foxes developed a range of physical and behavioral changes that resembled those seen in domesticated dogs, including floppy ears, curly tails, and a greater tolerance for human interaction.

Since then, studies have shown that similar changes occur in many other domesticated species, including dogs, cats, pigs, cattle, and chickens. These changes are thought to result from a combination of genetic and environmental factors, with genetic changes driving physical traits and behavioral changes resulting from the animals' exposure to human environments.

References:

• Trut, L. N. (1999). Early canid domestication: The farm-fox experiment. American Scientist, 87(2), 160-169.
• Wilkins, A. S. (2014). Wrangling over domestication syndrome. BioScience, 64(11), 1021-1028.
• Driscoll, C. A., Macdonald, D. W., & O'Brien, S. J. (2009). From wild animals to domestic pets, an evolutionary view of domestication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(Supplement 1), 9971-9978.

ChatGPT. (2023, April 6). Tell me about "Domestication Syndrome", with references, please.
Retrieved from https://chat.openai.com/chat

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The process of self-domestication refers to the theory that humans have undergone a form of self-domestication over the course of our evolutionary history, in which we have become more cooperative, less aggressive, and more tolerant of each other. This process is thought to have led to the development of complex social structures and the ability to work together to achieve common goals.

One of the key researchers in this area is Richard Wrangham, a biological anthropologist at Harvard University. Wrangham has argued that the process of self-domestication in humans was driven by the selection for less aggressive and more cooperative individuals. This selection was likely driven by a number of factors, including the need to work together to secure food and defend against predators, as well as the benefits of cooperation in social groups.

Other researchers have supported the idea of self-domestication in humans, and have proposed various genetic and neurological mechanisms to explain the process. For example, some researchers have suggested that self-domestication may have been driven by changes in genes associated with the regulation of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is involved in regulating mood, social behavior, and aggression.

References:

• Hare, B., & Wrangham, R. W. (2017). The self-domestication hypothesis: Evolution of bonobo psychology is due to selection against aggression. Animal Behavior and Cognition, 4(3), 307-318.
• Jensen, P. (2010). The self-domestication hypothesis: evolution of humane behavior. Current Zoology, 56(3), 338-346.
• Wrangham, R. W. (2018). Two types of self-domestication, and what they tell us about humanity. Current Anthropology, 59(2), 151-162.
• Wrangham, R. W. (2018). How cooking made us human. In H. LeVine (Ed.), Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology (pp. 139-156). Wiley.

ChatGPT. (2023, April 7). Tell me more about the process of self-domestication, with references, please.
Retrieved from https://chat.openai.com/chat

'Domestication syndrome' includes behaviour that is less aggressive and more prosocial, such as playfulness and other behaviour which encourages group cohesion. Limor Raviv's team which included researchers from the City University of New York, New York, NY, USA, the University at Buffalo The State University of New York (SUNY), Buffalo, NY, USA and The University of Seville, Seville, Spain, have identified elephants as another species, in addition to humans and bonobos that have self-domesticated in their evolutionary history and so show evidence of 'domestication syndrome'.

They therefore conclude that elephants may be a model species for the study of the evolution of prosociality.

As the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics news release explains:

Human Evolution in Africa - A Forgotten Settlement in 'The Cradle of Humankind'

Human Evolution in Africa

A Forgotten Settlement in 'The Cradle of Humankind'

Human Evolution in Africa

A Forgotten Settlement in 'The Cradle of Humankind'

Human Evolution in Africa

A Forgotten Settlement in 'The Cradle of Humankind'

Human Evolution in Africa

A Forgotten Settlement in 'The Cradle of Humankind'

A Forgotten settlement in the Cradle of Humankind adds a note to southern African history

Four different Australopithecus crania that were found in the Sterkfontein caves, South Africa. The Sterkfontein cave fill containing this and other Australopithecus fossils was dated to 3.4 to 3.6 million years ago.

Because of the hominin remains found there, the system of caves at Driefontein in Gauteng, South Africa is a designated world heritage site, known as 'The Cradle of Humankind'. It is believed by some to be where modern Homo sapiens evolved out of ancestral hominins.

Driefontein is a cave system located in the Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage Site in Gauteng, South Africa. The Cradle of Humankind is a paleontological site that is home to some of the world's most important hominid fossil finds, including the fossils of "Mrs. Ples" and "Little Foot."

The Driefontein cave system has been of particular interest to paleontologists because of the discovery of early hominid fossils there. The fossils found at Driefontein date back over 2 million years, and include specimens from several species, including Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus.

One of the most notable discoveries made at Driefontein was that of the "Little Foot" skeleton, which was found in the Sterkfontein Caves in 1994. Little Foot is an almost complete Australopithecus skeleton, estimated to be around 3.67 million years old, making it one of the oldest hominid fossils ever found.

The Cradle of Humankind is a significant site for the study of human evolution and the history of life on Earth. Its importance has been recognized by UNESCO, which designated it a World Heritage Site in 1999.

References:

1. "Driefontein, Cradle of Humankind." South African Heritage Resources Agency. https://www.sahra.org.za/sahris/sites/77811012-740e-4d30-9c17-9b21ef4d3b53
2. "The Cradle of Humankind: Driefontein Cave." South African Tourism. https://www.southafrica.net/gl/en/travel/article/the-cradle-of-humankind-driefontein-cave
3. "Little Foot, Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa." University of Witwatersrand. https://www.littlefoot.org.za/

ChatGPT.(6 Apr 2023) "Tell me about the Driefontein 'Cradle of Humankind', in South Africa, with references."
Retrieved from https://chat.openai.com/chat

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"Mrs. Ples" and "Little Foot" are two important hominid fossils found in the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa.

1. "Mrs. Ples":
   "Mrs. Ples" is the nickname given to a fossil skull discovered in 1947 by paleontologist Robert Broom at the Sterkfontein Caves, which are part of the Cradle of Humankind. The fossil is officially known as StW 5, and is believed to be around 2.05 million years old. "Mrs. Ples" is believed to be a member of the species Australopithecus africanus, and is one of the most complete early hominid skulls ever found.
2. "Little Foot":
   "Little Foot" is the nickname given to a nearly complete Australopithecus skeleton discovered in the Sterkfontein Caves in 1994. The fossil is officially known as StW 573, and is believed to be around 3.67 million years old, making it one of the oldest hominid fossils ever found. The discovery of "Little Foot" is significant because it provides important insights into the evolution of bipedalism, or walking on two legs. The skeleton is also notable for being nearly complete, which is rare in the field of paleoanthropology.

References:

1. "Mrs. Ples." Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/life-science/origins-humankind/mrs-ples
2. "Little Foot, Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa." University of Witwatersrand. https://www.littlefoot.org.za/
3. "Little Foot: A Rare Look at One of the World's Oldest Skeletons." National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/12/little-foot-fossil-stw-573-australopithecus-south-africa-human-origins/

ChatGPT. (6 Apr 2023) "Tell me more about the fossils 'Mrs Ples' and 'Little Foot', with references, please."
Retrieved from https://chat.openai.com/chat

In the following article, reprinted from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license, Tim Forssman, Senior lecturer, University of Pretoria, South Africa, explains the significance of the site in the story of the evolution of modern humans.

The article has been reformatted for stylistic consistency.

Human Evolution in Africa - How Hunter-Gatherers Contributed to Cultural Evolution

Human Evolution in Africa

How Hunter-Gatherers Contributed to Cultural Evolution

Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa

Human Evolution in Africa

How Hunter-Gatherers Contributed to Cultural Evolution

Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa

Human Evolution in Africa

How Hunter-Gatherers Contributed to Cultural Evolution

Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa

Human Evolution in Africa

How Hunter-Gatherers Contributed to Cultural Evolution

Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa

Human Evolution in Africa

How Hunter-Gatherers Contributed to Cultural Evolution

Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa

Human Evolution in Africa

How Hunter-Gatherers Contributed to Cultural Evolution

Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa

Archaeology shows how hunter-gatherers fitted into southern Africa’s first city, 800 years ago

Golden rhinoceros from Mapungubwe

In the west, we tend to minimise the cultural achievements of Africa because it never attained the advanced technological economies Europe and Asia achieved n=my the Late Middle Ages. The factors which caused Africa to remain technologically under-developed include climate, lack of animals suitable for domestication as draught animals and beasts of burden, and the presence of tropical parasites such as the tsetse fly making it difficult to use domestic animals imported from Eurasia.

But despite this there is evidence of sophisticated cultures and political entities such as Great Zimbabwe, Kiliwa and the Kingdom of Mapungubwe, in south Africa, which by 800 CE was trading with China, and India as well as the rest of Africa.

Mapungubwe is a significant cultural site in South Africa, as it was the capital of the Mapungubwe Kingdom, which flourished between the 9th and 13th centuries AD. This kingdom was one of the largest and most complex societies in southern Africa at the time, and its people traded with China, India, and other parts of Africa.

The Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, as it provides insight into the development of African societies before the colonial period. It is also considered a symbol of African cultural identity and the resilience of indigenous cultures in the face of colonialism.

Furthermore, Mapungubwe is considered an important archaeological site, as it has yielded a wealth of artifacts, including gold objects, pottery, and glass beads. These artifacts provide evidence of the advanced technological and artistic skills of the Mapungubwe people and their connections to other parts of the world.

References:

• "Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape." UNESCO World Heritage Centre, whc.unesco.org/en/list/1099/.
• "Mapungubwe." South African History Online, www.sahistory.org.za/place/mapungubwe.
• "Mapungubwe National Park and World Heritage Site." South African National Parks, www.sanparks.org/parks/mapungubwe/.

ChatGPT. (2023, April 6). What's the cultural significance of Mapungubwe in South Africa? References, please. [Response to a question on OpenAI]. Retrieved from https://openai.com

In the following article, Tim Forssman, Senior Lecturer, University of Mpumalanga, South Africa, explains how his team are excavating the site in the Mapungubwe National Park and World Heritage Site and the significance of their discoveries, especially how the hunter-gatherers around the city were essential to its continuation and prosperity.

His article is reprinted here under a Creative Commons license, reformatted for stylistic consistency. The original can be read here.

Published: April 3, 2023 2.58pm BST

Archaeology shows how hunter‑gatherers fitted into southern Africa’s first city, 800 years ago

Archaeologists excavate inside and outside Little Muck Shelter, in the Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa.

Photo: Tim Forssman

Tim Forssman, University of Mpumalanga

Where the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers meet, forming the modern border between Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, lies a hill that hardly stands out from the rest. One could easily pass it without realising its historical significance. It was on and around this hill that what appears to be southern Africa’s earliest state-level society and urban city, Mapungubwe, appeared around 800 years ago.

After nearly a century of research, we’ve learnt quite a lot about this ancient kingdom and how it arose among early farmer society and its involvement in global trade networks. However, before farmers settled the region, this terrain was the home of hunter-gatherer groups, who have hardly been acknowledged despite, as it seems, their involvement in the rise of Mapungubwe.

My team and I have been working in northern South Africa at sites that we believe will help us recognise the roles played by hunter-gatherers during the development of the Mapungubwe state in a bid to generate a more inclusive representation of the region’s past.

Creationism in Crisis - Evolution Explains Why Humans, Chimpanzees and Bonobos Have So Much in Common

Creationism in Crisis

Evolution Explains Why Humans, Chimpanzees and Bonobos Have Much in Common

Bonobo, Pan paniscus

Creationism in Crisis

Evolution Explains Why Humans, Chimpanzees and Bonobos Have Much in Common

Bonobo, Pan paniscus

Creationism in Crisis

Evolution Explains Why Humans, Chimpanzees and Bonobos Have Much in Common

Bonobo, Pan paniscus

Creationism in Crisis

Evolution Explains Why Humans, Chimpanzees and Bonobos Have Much in Common

Bonobo, Pan paniscus

Creationism in Crisis

Evolution Explains Why Humans, Chimpanzees and Bonobos Have Much in Common

Bonobo, Pan paniscus

Creationism in Crisis

Evolution Explains Why Humans, Chimpanzees and Bonobos Have Much in Common

Bonobo, Pan paniscus

Creationism in Crisis

Evolution Explains Why Humans, Chimpanzees and Bonobos Have Much in Common

Bonobo, Pan paniscus

Creationism in Crisis

Evolution Explains Why Humans, Chimpanzees and Bonobos Have Much in Common

Bonobo, Pan paniscus

Creationism in Crisis

Evolution Explains Why Humans, Chimpanzees and Bonobos Have Much in Common

Bonobo, Pan paniscus

Bonobos and chimps: what our closest relatives tell us about humans

Common chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes

Evolution not only explains why humans share 98.7% of our DNA with chimpanzees and bonobos, it also explains why so much of our basic culture has its counterpart in those two species, and why so much of what we once wrongly thought was unique to our species is to be found in those species too.

For example, we were once believed to be the only species able to construct and use tools, or devise solutions to problems, but chimpanzees, as well as many other unrelated species) are capable of those things too; we once thought we were the only ape that routinely gathered food then shared it with others, but bonobos do that too. Bonobos even offer food to strangers in a form of hospitality that has its counterpart in the way we offer food and drink to visitors in our homes. Captive bonobos have been shown to prefer to share their food with another bonobo who has none, than to eat alone.

The Evolution of Religions - More AI Output

Continuing my exploration of the artificial intelligence app, Ask AI, here is the latest example if its ability to produces professional-looking essays to order.

Me:
Write a 1000 word essay on how religions evolve in human culture. With references

Ask Al Chat App:
Religions have been an integral part of human culture since the dawn of civilization. They have played a significant role in shaping human societies, providing a sense of meaning and purpose to people's lives, and offering guidance on how to live a good life. However, religions are not static entities, and they evolve over time in response to changes in society, culture, and human understanding of the world.

The evolution of religions can be observed in many ways. One way is through the study of religious texts, which can reveal changes in beliefs, practices, and values over time. For example, the Bible, the foundational text of Christianity, has undergone numerous translations, revisions, and interpretations throughout history, reflecting changes in the social, cultural, and political contexts of the communities that produced and consumed it.

Another way to understand the evolution of religions is to examine the historical context in which they emerge and develop. For example, the emergence of Buddhism in ancient India can be understood as a response to the social and religious conditions of the time, including the caste system, the dominance of Brahmanism, and the search for spiritual liberation.

Similarly, the rise of Islam in the 7th century can be understood as a response to the political and cultural context of Arabia, including the tribal conflicts, the decline of the Byzantine and Sassanid empires, and the need for a unifying ideology.

Superstition News - Why Do People Fall For Wackadoodle Ideas?

Superstition News
Why Do People Fall For Wackadoodle Ideas?

Supernatural beliefs have featured in every society throughout history. New research helps explain why

It seem the 'God of the gaps' explanation carries a great deal of weight, especially as an explanation for natural phenomenon such as disease, drought, floods, earthquakes, etc., in smaller societies. Only as societies get larger are these supernatural explanation used to explain man-made disasters such as war, theft, mass murders, etc.

It's also true that, while developed societies such as the USA tend to look for supernatural explanations for man-made disasters, they also, with better education tend to look to science to explain natural phenomena and less so to imaginary supernatural causes.

The result is that the search for gaps in which to sit their god becomes an obsession of those who benefit from people's superstition, such as fundamentalist televangelists and Creation cult leaders, who continually attack science looking to find gaps, either real or imaginary in which to sit their ever-shrinking god and keep the income stream flowing.

Quite why there should be a difference between larger and smaller societies is discussed in an article by Dr. Joshua Conrad Jackson, postdoctoral fellow, Kellogg School of Management, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA and Professor Brock Bastian, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Australia.

The article is reprinted here under a Creative Commons license, reformatted for stylistic consistency. The original can be read here.

Artificial Intelligence - How Good Is It And Will It Upset Creationists With Science?

Artificial Intelligence

How Good Is It And Will It Upset Creationists With Science?

I've been playing with the Artificial Intelligence App, Ask AI, available from Google Playstore.

I have to say it is pretty good at retrieving information quickly and accurately and presenting it in a well-written form. The following each took about 5 seconds to generate.

But is it accurate? Judge for yourself. The following was produced in the form of a .png image which I pasted into MS OneNote and extracted the text using OneNote's OCR. The formatting is mine:

Trumpanzee News - Success of The MAGA Cult's Self-Inflicted Genocide With COVID-19

Trumpanzee News

Success of The MAGA Cult's Self-Inflicted Genocide With COVID-19

Excess death gap widens between U.S. and Europe, study finds: U.S. has an increasingly high proportion of excess deaths compared to five European countries -- ScienceDaily

Figures published in PLOS a few days ago point to an astonishing success rate for the self-inflicted genocide campaign waged by the MAGA/Trumpanzee cult during the COVID-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2021.

Probably as a result of the antivaxx campaign and the evangelical Christian and Repugnican-led campaign against the measures to impede the spread of the virus and lower pressure on health services such as social distancing, prohibiting indoor gatherings and wearing face-masks, the 'excess deaths' gap between Europe and the USA grew even wider.

Creationism in Crisis - The Fallacy of the Fine-Tuned Universe

Creationism in Crisis

The Fallacy of the Fine-Tuned Universe

Great Mysteries of Physics 2: is the universe fine-tuned for life?

It won't be long in any debate forum with Creationists, or even theists who are not Bible literalists but still like to think their magic invisible friend created the Universe with them in mind, that someone will claim the Universe is fine-tuned for life. The claim is that there are about 30 constants which all have to have just the values they have for intelligent life to exist.

There are of course many problems with this claim, most of which the person making it will be completely unaware, having only read what they want to believe and not anything that might contradict their 'faith'.

The main ones are:

• In effect, they are arguing that their putative creator god can only create life within very narrow parameters, and yet an omnipotent god who allegedly created the 'rules' should be capable of creating anything it wants to create in any given set of parameters. So, if the creator constrained by natural laws and incapable of working outside its limitations? If so, who or what set those limitations.
  
  The fine-tuned argument is actually an argument against the existence of an omnipotent creator god, not for one.
• Discussions about the existence of intelligent life can only be conducted in a Universe in which intelligent life exists, therefore, the fact that the debate is taking place means the Universe must be capable of giving rise to intelligent life. Trying to work out the probability of something happening that has already happened is statistical nonsense. The probability is 1 (certainty).
• Assuming those constants do have a range of possible values (and that's only an assumption with no evidence ever presented), in order to calculate the probability of it having the value it has in this Universe, we would need to examine a large sample of universes. That of course is impossible, so, for all we know, the probability of any constant having its current value may be certainty, i.e. it might not be capable of having any other value. That the probability of it having its current value being unlikely, is merely an assumption - a claim without evidence which can be dismissed without evidence.
• In this universe, the vast majority of it is highly hostile to life as we know it. Even in this planetary system, life can only exist on one planet, and intelligent (human) life can only exist on a fraction of the surface of this planet and within a few thousand feet of its surface without special equipment. So, far from being fine-tuned for life, almost all of it is fine-tuned to make life impossible.
• Earth is not particularly well designed for human life (which is what Creationists men by 'intelligent life'). It is tectonically active which means it is subject to frequent natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis; humans cannot survive for long and without equipment in the oceans or at the top of mountains, in deserts of at the poles. Earth is subject to occasional cosmic disasters such as meteorite strikes and it orbits a sun which will one day destroy it by turning into a red giant, hence intelligent life such as that on Earth will only exist for a fraction of the time the Universe will exist.
• There are very many more black holes in the Universe than there are humans, so it would be more logical to argue that the Universe is fine-tunes for making black holes.

Creationism in Crisis - Does Reality Really Exist? Science is Still Working On It.

Creationism in Crisis

Does Reality Really Exist? Science is Still Working On It.

Great Mysteries of Physics: does objective reality exist?

One of the more hilarious arguments against science that I have had levelled at me by a Creationist is that you can't prove reality exists, and yet the whole of science claims to be a description of reality and the scientific method is an examination of it based on materialist principles.

The conversation was ended abruptly with the traditional condescending insult when I pointed out that he was trying to persuade me that reality doesn't exist in order to justify his belief in a creator of it!

Whether or not reality exists as we see and experience it, or whether what we see is an optical illusion or an emergent product of the underlying structural chaos of spacetime is irrelevant to our everyday lives, or course. If you're shot to death by a gun, or hit and killed by a bus, you're just as dead, whether or not the gun or bus actually exists.

Creationism in Crisis - How Evolution Drove Sex Into Some Strange Places

Creationism in Crisis

How Evolution Drove Sex Into Some Strange Places

The Tasman Peninsula dusky antechinus, Antechinus vandycki

Gary Cranitch / Queensland Museum

Tasmanian devil

Source: World Wildlife Fund

A rare video of wombats having sex sideways offers a glimpse into the bizarre realm of animal reproduction

Given that, for a male, the most important stage in ensuring more of your descendants survive to breed, than carriers of other alleles of your genes, is finding a mate and ensuring her eggs are the ones that develop into the next generation, carrying your genes, it is hardly surprising that the sex act would have evolved in ways that ensure more success.

Part of that strategy will be to minimise the chance of another male using the same mate, so she carries his offspring, not yours.

Nor is it surprising that the female in that interaction will be interested in selecting the best mate to ensure her offspring are the most successful. So, given a combination of those two forces, it is hardly surprising that the sex act would have evolved some strange practices and rituals, including cannibalism and even the death of the male.

Hypocrisy News - Pope Turns to Medical Science to Delay His Meeting with God

Hypocrisy News

Pope Turns to Medical Science to Delay His Meeting with God

Holy hypocrite

Pope Francis in hospital with respiratory infection - BBC News

If anyone should be looking forward to the next life where he will spend eternity with God, according to the teachings of the church he heads, it's Pope Francis.

And yet we see him tonight in Hospital desperately trying to put off that day as long as possible. Like so many evangelicals preachers who told us we could look forward to a blissful after-life if only we obeyed all the rules, paid the tythes and did what they told us, Pope Francis is in hospital in Rome where medical science will be used to delay his meeting with God as long as possible.

Prayer having failed to cure his chest infection, or at least been recognised as ineffective, the pontiff has turned to science for help.

Having supposedly been chosen personally by God, who inspired the cardinals in conclave to vote for him, to be his personal representative and mouthpiece on Earth, like all his predecessors, Pope Francis should be confident of his place in Heaven.

Unless he knows something we don't know, of course.

Creationism in Crisis - How African Megafauna Shaped Human Evolution

Creationism in Crisis

How African Megafauna Shaped Human Evolution

Peter Bischoff/Getty Images

Homo Erectus

A reconstruction of a Homo erectus female (based on fossil ER 3733) by paleoartist John Gurche, part of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Human Origins Program.

Large mammals shaped the evolution of humans: here’s why it happened in Africa

Childish Creationist superstition dictates that cult members believe humans were magically created without ancestors somewhere in the Middle East and that we have spread from there, following a genocidal flood a few thousand years ago.

It must be galling for them to learn then that the archaeological evidence is that we evolved over millions of years in Africa from a common ancestor of the chimpanzees and the Gorilla out of a genus of hominins known as the Australopithecines, anatomically intermediate between our last common ancestor with chimpanzees and archaic hominins such as Homo habilis and Homo erectus.
And yet the evidence is that much of what we are today is the result of our co-existence with the African megafauna of the time.

I have often made the point in these blog posts that if you want to understand why we are as we are today, think, 'East African plains'. It was there that we evolved from a clever ape to a tool-making, intelligent hominin, ready to take on the rest of the globe and exploit what it had to offer.

How the African environment, and in particular the presence of large herbivores, contributed to the evolution is the subject of an article in The Conversation by the author and academic, Professor Norman Owen-Smith, emeritus research professor of African Ecology, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. His article is reprinted here under a Creative Commons licence. The article has been reformatted for stylistic consistency. The original can be read here.

Creationism in Crisis - Scientists Have Discovered How Plants Evolved About 420 Million Years Ago

Creationism in Crisis

Scientists Have Discovered How Plants Evolved About 420 Million Years Ago

Selaginella

Photo: Vicky Spencer

Saginella root tip

Photo: Jill Harrison

March: Origin of plants | News and features | University of Bristol

News today of yet another casual and incidental refutation of some of the Creation cult's fundamentals.

First, a little anecdote from one of my previous lives.

Back in the 1980's I was managing a rural ambulance station, a role which included manning an emergency ambulance as part of a crew of two, so I spent a lot of time with a regular crew mate who was a fundamentalist Creationist 7th Day Adventist.

We rarely spoke about religion (in the UK religion is a private matter and not a suitable subject for discussion in the workplace and anyway, he regarded me as a lost cause, Satan having blinded me with science) but somehow we had got onto the subject of everything in nature being designed by God, and to illustrate his point, my crewmate pointed to a small holly tree that was growing near the front entrance to the station and said its growth pattern was set by God so it would grow according to his plan ("Look at the trees!" Yes, that was the level of his theology). It was Spring and the tree was in active growth.

So I asked if I would be able to change God's plan by changing the growth pattern of the tree. "Of course not! That would make you more powerful than God, and nothing can be!"

In an even earlier life, I had been a senior medical research technician and had studied plant physiology, amongst other sciences, as part of my degree course, so I knew a little bit about plant hormones called gibberellins and auxins.

So, I pointed out that if you look at a growing shoot, you will notice that the side shoots get longer the further away they are from the growing tip. I then snipped off the tip of the growing shoot with a pair of scissors and told him to watch what happened over the next few days. After a few days it was obvious that side-shoots were now forming and growing quickly near what had been the growing tip with the longer shoots now closer to the tip in the reverse of what was the normal pattern of growth. I had changed his god's plan, apparently and reversed the growth pattern of a holly tree.

Over the next few weeks, I saw my crew mate frequently examining the holly tree and snipping off growing shoot himself.

Eventually, he conceded that I (and now he) could change the growth pattern of a holly tree, and asked my how it had happened. I explained that the cells in the growing tip (the meristem cells that were differentiating into the different cell types as the shoot grew) produced a type of hormone called auxin which inhibited the side shoots closer to the tip but its effects were diluted lower down the shoot and eventually, in low concentration, they were growth stimulants. By clipping off the tip, we had removed the hormone, so the previously inhibited side shoots were now free to grow. The growth pattern is not controlled by his god but by physiological processes.

Eventually, my crew mate concluded that his god had devised the hormone system so we weren't playing God and tinkering with his plan for the holly tree after all. God was safely back in the growing tips of the holly tree where he belonged, according to 7th Day Adventists.

You can lead a horse to water…

That was by way of an introduction to the work of scientists from Bristol University, UK, who have discovered how the earliest vascular plants evolved the ability to branch - a key development in the evolution of multicellular plants. What they have discovered is fundamental to distantly-related plants, strongly indicating common ancestry.


To make matters worse for Creationists, it all happened over 400 million years before they believe the Universe existed!

Creationism in Crisis - Scientists Explain the 'Domestication Syndrome' as an Evolutionary Process

Creationism in Crisis

Scientists Explain the 'Domestication Syndrome' as an Evolutionary Process

Skull of a grey wolf and a chihuahua

By Dmccabe - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Creationism in Crisis

Scientists Explain the 'Domestication Syndrome' as an Evolutionary Process

Homo erectus and 'self-domesticated' modern human

© Linda Bucklin/shutterstock

Why do animals living with humans evolve such similar features? A new theory could explain 'domestication syndrome'

Domesticated 'silver' variety of the red fox, Vulpes vulpes

In an open access paper published a few days ago in Proceedings of the Royal Society B two scientists from The Australian National University, Acton, ACT, Australia, Ben Thomas Gleeson and Laura A. B. Wilson attempted to reconcile conflicting scientific opinions regarding the evolution of features common to many domesticated species, collectively known as the 'domestication syndrome'.

The results will upset Creationists for two main reasons:

1. The scientists are in no doubt that the cause is an evolutionary process, albeit with one in which humans are the selectors and fitness is suitability for human exploitation, giving the lie to the absurd claim that the Theory of Evolution by natural selection is a theory in crisis.
2. Creationists believe all animals were created by a perfect, omniscient god specifically for humankind to serve our needs. If that were true, there would be no need to improve them for our purpose by the process of taming, domestication and selective breeding, since they would have been tame and perfectly designed for our purposes already, so there would be no 'domestication' syndrome'.

Creationism in Crisis - 25 Million Years of Australian Evolutionary History Revealed.

Creationism in Crisis

25 Million Years of Australian Evolutionary History Revealed.

Giant wombat, Diprotodon optatum

WillemSvdMerwe

Creationism in Crisis

25 Million Years of Australian Evolutionary History Revealed.

Creationism in Crisis

25 Million Years of Australian Evolutionary History Revealed.

Creationism in Crisis

25 Million Years of Australian Evolutionary History Revealed.

Creationism in Crisis

25 Million Years of Australian Evolutionary History Revealed.

Creationism in Crisis

25 Million Years of Australian Evolutionary History Revealed.

Creationism in Crisis

25 Million Years of Australian Evolutionary History Revealed.

25-million-year-old fossils of a bizarre possum and strange wombat relative reveal Australia's hidden past

Giant wombat, Diprotodon

More bad news for Creationists comes in the form of fossil evidence showing that there were diversified marsupial mammals living in Australia 25 million years ago, and some of these were bizarre by today's standards.

Koalas had already diversified into several different species; the ancestral kangaroo was the size of a possum and a wombat-sized animal was soon to produce the largest ever marsupial, Diprotodon optatum which weighed about 2.5 tonnes. Central Australia was at the time a vast, lush forest, dominated by giant flightless birds and crocodiles.

All a far cry from the Creationist cult superstition about special creation just a few thousand years ago, not to mention the supposed global flood genocide even more recently, following which the marsupials all managed to get back to Australia but no other mammals, apart from bats, dingoes and humans, managed to make it there, and there they underwent warp-speed evolution to reach today's level of diversity, with several new species every generation, then stopped evolving completely just as humans began keeping records.

The evidence for those claims comes from the fossil record excavated from near Pwerte Marnte Marnte, south of Alice Springs, which is the subject of an article in The Conversation by three palaeontologists, Arthur Immanuel Crichton, PhD candidate, Aaron Camens, Lecturer in Palaeontology and Gavin Prideaux, Associate professor all of Flinders University, Australia.

Their article is reprinted here under a Creative Commons licence, reformatted for stylistic consistency. The original can be read here.

Creationism in Crisis - How the 'Resurrection Plant' Evolved Its Special Ability to Survive Dehydration

Creationism in Crisis

How the 'Resurrection Plant' Evolved Its Special Ability to Survive Dehydration

'Resurrection plant, Craterostigma plantagineum

Creationism in Crisis

How the 'Resurrection Plant' Evolved Its Special Ability to Survive Dehydration

'Resurrection plant, Craterostigma plantagineum

Creationism in Crisis

How the 'Resurrection Plant' Evolved Its Special Ability to Survive Dehydration

'Resurrection plant, Craterostigma plantagineum

Creationism in Crisis

How the 'Resurrection Plant' Evolved Its Special Ability to Survive Dehydration

'Resurrection plant, Craterostigma plantagineum

Creationism in Crisis

How the 'Resurrection Plant' Evolved Its Special Ability to Survive Dehydration

'Resurrection plant, Craterostigma plantagineum

Creationism in Crisis

How the 'Resurrection Plant' Evolved Its Special Ability to Survive Dehydration

'Resurrection plant, Craterostigma plantagineum

Many genes are involved in “resurrection” — University of Bonn

Craterostigma plantagineum, able to recover quickly from dehydration.

If they are to survive in an environment subject to prolonged periods of dry weather, plants need to be able to survive without water for long periods and then spring back to life again when the rains come.

Ho they do this was the subject of a recent study by researchers from the universities of Bonn and Düsseldorf, Germany, and Michigan, USA, and, not surprisingly to anyone who understands biology, they found that the genes giving the so-called resurrection plant, Craterostigma plantagineum, this ability evolved out of genes also present in other plants.

In doing so, they exposed the Creationist claim that no new information can arise in a species genome without magic, otherwise it violates a fundamental law of physics, the Second Law of Thermodynamics [sic], forgetting for a moment that even with magic, that Law would still be violated, assuming for the sake of argument that it has anything to do with the amount of information in a species genome. It doesn't, of course, but the frauds who feed their cult with that sort of scientific gobbledygook know they love to think they sound all sciency and knowledgeable, but, like parrots, won't understand the noises they are making.

The resurrection plant Craterostigma plantagineum - in irrigated condition (left), desiccated (center), and then "resurrected" (right).

Photo: © AG Bartels/University of Bonn

So, what the scientists at Bonn found was that C. plantagineum not only has the genes that other plants have so their seeds can be dehydrated but still germinate, but that not only do they then not switch these genes off, but they are present in multiple copies.

C. plantagineum is an octoploid species, meaning that unlike most plants and all mammals which have just two copies of each gene, C. plantagineum has eight. At some point during its evolution, C. plantagineum doubled its genome, then doubled it again.

This gives the plant the ability to rapidly makes lots of the enzymes needed to kick-start growth after dehydration.

But that's not all. The plants have multiple copies of other genes involved in the kick-start process - the “early light inducible proteins” (ELIPs); in some cases about 200 copies, in several small clusters in their genome. These are rapidly activated by light and protect the cells from oxidative stress.

As the News release from Bonn University explains:

Creationism in Crisis - Scientists Now Know How Flight Evolved. No Gods Were Involved

Creationism in Crisis

Scientists Now Know How Mammalian Flight Evolved.
No Gods Were Involved

Sugar glider

Creationism in Crisis

Scientists Now Know How Mammalian Flight Evolved.
No Gods Were Involved

Flying Squirrel

Creationism in Crisis

Scientists Now Know How Mammalian Flight Evolved.
No Gods Were Involved

Colugo

Creationism in Crisis

Scientists Now Know How Mammalian Flight Evolved.
No Gods Were Involved

Pipistrelle

Creationism in Crisis

Scientists Now Know How Mammalian Flight Evolved.
No Gods Were Involved

Colugo

Creationism in Crisis

Scientists Now Know How Mammalian Flight Evolved.
No Gods Were Involved

Pipistrelle

Marsupials and other mammals separately evolved flight many times, and we are finally learning how

Sugar glider, Petaurus breviceps

Credit: Simon Stone
Source: Wilderness Society

It's almost an article of faith in the Creationist Cult that flight can't have evolved because the wing only works when fully formed, so must have been intelligently designed in a single act of magic creation.

That's nonsense, of course, as gliding mammals and feathered dinosaurs have shown.

Now a team of scientists, led by Dr. Charles Feigin, then of Princeton. University, now of the University of Melbourne, have shown that the genes controlling the development of mammalian powered flight and gliding are common to all mammals, including marsupial gliders and humans, so must have been present in an early common ancestor.

Because no known early mammals had flight, these genes must originally have had some other function and have since been exapted for a different function.

The team's findings were published yesterday, open access, in Science Advances.

The finding is the subject of an article in The Conversation by lead author, Charles Feigin, Postdoctoral Fellow in Genomics and Evolution, The University of Melbourne. His article is reprinted here under a Creative Commons licence, reformatted for stylistic consistency. The original can be read here.

Published: March 24, 2023 7.20pm GMT

Marsupials and other mammals separately evolved flight many times, and we are finally learning how

Anom Harya/Shutterstock

Charles Feigin, The University of Melbourne

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land on the next tree. Many groups of mammals seem to have taken this evolutionary advice to heart. According to our newly published paper in Science Advances, unrelated animals may even have used the same blueprints for building their “wings”.

While birds are the undisputed champions of the sky, having mastered flight during the Jurassic, mammals have actually evolved flight more often than birds. In fact, as many as seven different groups of mammals living today have taken to the air independently of each other.

These evolutionary experiments happened in animals scattered all across the mammalian family tree – including flying squirrels, marsupial possums and the colugo (cousin of the primates). But they all have something in common. It’s a special skin structure between their limbs called a patagium, or flight membrane.

The fact these similar structures have arisen so many times (a process called convergent evolution) hints that the genetic underpinnings of patagia might predate flight. Indeed, they could be shared by all mammals, even those living on the ground.

If this is true, studying patagia can help us to better understand the incredible adaptability of mammals. We might also discover previously unknown aspects of human genetics.

Sugar gliders are one of several mammals that have independently evolved the ability to fly through the air.

apiguide/Shutterstock

A deceptively simple membrane

Despite being seemingly simple skin structures, patagia contain several tissues, including hair, a rich array of touch-sensitive neurons, connective tissue and even thin sheets of muscle. But in the earliest stages of formation, these membranes are dominated by the two main layers of the skin: the inner dermis and outer epidermis.

The patagium in sugar gliders (red arrow) forms after birth when the newborn, or joey, is in its marsupial mother’s pouch.

Charles Feigin, Author provided

At first, they hardly differ from neighbouring skin. But at some point, the skin on the animal’s sides starts to rapidly change, or differentiate. The dermis undergoes a process called condensation, where cells bunch up and the tissue becomes very dense. Meanwhile, the epidermis thickens in a process called hyperplasia.

In some mammals, this differentiation happens when they are still an embryo in the uterus. Incredibly though, in our main model species – the marsupial sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps) – this process begins after birth, while they are in the mother’s pouch. This provides us with an incredible window into patagium formation.

Starting with the sugar glider, we examined the behaviours of thousands of genes active during the early development of the patagium, to try and div out how this chain of events is kicked off.

A rare discovery: we found the sugar glider is actually three species, but one is disappearing fast

From gliders to bats

We discovered that levels of a gene called Wnt5a are strongly correlated with the onset of those early skin changes – condensation and hyperplasia. Through a series of experiments involving cultured skin tissues and genetically engineered laboratory mice, we showed that adding extra Wnt5a was all it took to drive both of these early hallmarks of patagium formation.

Interestingly, when we extended our work to bats, we found extremely similar patterns of Wnt5a activity in their developing lateral patagia to that in sugar gliders. This was surprising, since bats (placental mammals) last shared a common ancestor with the marsupial sugar glider around 160 million years ago.

Perhaps even more remarkably, we found a nearly identical pattern in the outer ear (or pinna) of lab mice. The pinna is a nearly universal trait among mammals, including innumerable species with no flying ancestry.

Seba’s short-tailed bat has a lateral patagium (connected to the flank of the body) activated by Wnt5a.

Irineu Cunha/iNaturalist, CC BY-NC

A molecular toolkit

Together, these results suggest something profound. Wnt5a’s role in ushering in the skin changes needed for a patagium likely evolved long before the first mammal ever took to the air.

Originally, the gene had nothing to do with flight, instead contributing to the development of seemingly unrelated traits. But because of shared ancestry, most living mammals today inherited this Wnt5a-driven program. When species like gliders and bats started on their separate journeys into the air, they did so with a common “molecular toolkit”.

Not only that, but this same toolkit is likely present in humans and working in ways we don’t fully understand yet.

There are definite limits to our recent work. First, we haven’t made a flying mouse. This may sound like a joke, but demonstrates we still don’t fully understand how a region of dense, thick skin becomes a thin and wide flight membrane. Many more genes with unknown roles are bound to be involved.

Second, while we’ve shown a cause-and-effect relationship between Wnt5a and patagium skin differentiation, we don’t know precisely how Wnt5a does it. Moving forward, we hope to fill in these gaps by broadening the horizons of our cross-species comparisons and by conducting more in-depth molecular studies on patagium formation in sugar gliders.

For now though, our study presents an exciting new view of flight in mammals. We may not be the strongest fliers, but trying is in our DNA.

Mysterious poles make road crossing easier for high flying mammals

Charles Feigin, Postdoctoral Fellow in Genomics and Evolution, The University of Melbourne

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Published by The Conversation.
Open access. (CC BY 4.0)

Copyright: © 2023 The authors.
Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Open access. (CC BY 4.0)

Abstract

Lateral flight membranes, or patagia, have evolved repeatedly in diverse mammalian lineages. While little is known about patagium development, its recurrent evolution may suggest a shared molecular basis. By combining transcriptomics, developmental experiments, and mouse transgenics, we demonstrate that lateral Wnt5a expression in the marsupial sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps) promotes the differentiation of its patagium primordium. We further show that this function of Wnt5a reprises ancestral roles in skin morphogenesis predating mammalian flight and has been convergently used during patagium evolution in eutherian bats. Moreover, we find that many genes involved in limb development have been redeployed during patagium outgrowth in both the sugar glider and bat. Together, our findings reveal that deeply conserved genetic toolkits contribute to the evolutionary transition to flight in mammals.

Feigin, Charles Y.; Moreno, Jorge A.; Ramos, Raul; Mereby, Sarah A.; Alivisatos, Ares; Wang, Wei; van Amerongen, Renée; Camacho, Jasmin; Rasweiler, John J.; Behringer, Richard R.; Ostrow, Bruce; Plikus, Maksim V.; Mallarino, Ricardo
Convergent deployment of ancestral functions during the evolution of mammalian flight membranes
Science Advances 9(12), eade7511. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ade7511

Copyright: © 2023 The authors.
Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)

And another unintelligently designed argument for intelligent design creationism lies in ruins, having failed to fly, leaving Creationists to explain why all mammals. including humans, have the genes that are used to develop the mechanism for flight in several different orders of mammals.