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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Bio 013: Writing In The Sciences - Human Origins, Esther Muehlbauer
Bio 013: Writing In The Sciences - Human Origins, Esther Muehlbauer
Open Educational Resources
Bio. 013: Writing in the Sciences - Human Origins is an OER syllabus for a College Writing 2 course that develops student writing for different audiences, following the trajectory of how scientists work: Scientists Writing for themselves (a field journal); Scientists writing for other scientists (a review article); Scientists writing for society (an essay for Natural History Magazine).
Illuminating The Drivers Of Genomic Diversification In Lamprologine Cichlids Of The Lower Congo River, Naoko P. Kurata
Illuminating The Drivers Of Genomic Diversification In Lamprologine Cichlids Of The Lower Congo River, Naoko P. Kurata
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Freshwater fishes are extraordinarily diverse, considering their available habitats represent a tiny proportion of the earth’s surface. Rivers connect heterogeneous habitats in a linear form and provide excellent simplified models to understand how aquatic biodiversity evolves. In particular, the lower Congo River (LCR) in west Central Africa consists of a dynamic hydroscape exhibiting extraordinary aquatic biodiversity, endemicity, and morphological and ecological specialization. This system is thus an excellent natural laboratory for understanding complex speciation and population diversification processes. In my research, I explore various drivers of diversification, and adaptive evolution in rheophilic lamprologine cichlids endemic to the LCR, including Lamprologus …
Oldest Skeleton Of A Plesiadapiform Provides Additional Evidence For An Exclusively Arboreal Radiation Of Stem Primates In The Palaeocene, Stephen B. Chester, Thomas E. Williamson, Jonathan I. Bloch, Mary T. Silcox, Eric J. Sargis
Oldest Skeleton Of A Plesiadapiform Provides Additional Evidence For An Exclusively Arboreal Radiation Of Stem Primates In The Palaeocene, Stephen B. Chester, Thomas E. Williamson, Jonathan I. Bloch, Mary T. Silcox, Eric J. Sargis
Publications and Research
Palaechthonid plesiadapiforms from the Palaeocene of western North America have long been recognized as among the oldest and most primitive euarchontan mammals, a group that includes extant primates, colugos and treeshrews. Despite their relatively sparse fossil record, palaechthonids have played an important role in discussions surrounding adaptive scenarios for primate origins for nearly a half-century. Likewise, palaechthonids have been considered important for understanding relationships among plesiadapiforms, with members of the group proposed as plausible ancestors of Paromomyidae and Microsyopidae. Here, we describe a dentally associated partial skeleton of Torrejonia wilsoni from the early Palaeocene (approx. 62Ma) of New Mexico, which …
Teaching Evolution: Blog As A Liminal Space, Shylaja Akkaraju, Alexander Wolf
Teaching Evolution: Blog As A Liminal Space, Shylaja Akkaraju, Alexander Wolf
Publications and Research
A threshold concept is a challenging concept that acts as a doorway leading to deeper understanding and a dramatic shift in perception. A learner that is in- volved in grasping a threshold concept is said to be undergoing a threshold expe- rience within a liminal space or learning environment. We used the blog as a lim- inal space for our students to engage with the theory of evolution, which is a threshold concept. In order to teach evolution effectively it is necessary to address both understanding and acceptance of evolutionary theory. To explore the latter in an introductory biology course, …
Systematics And Biogeography Of Orthaea Kloztsch (Ericaceae: Vaccinieae), Nelson Salinas
Systematics And Biogeography Of Orthaea Kloztsch (Ericaceae: Vaccinieae), Nelson Salinas
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In the first chapter a study of the distribution patterns of the neotropical Vaccinieae (Ericaceae) is presented. Five areas of endemism were recovered: Central America, northern Chocó, southern Chocó, eastern Ecuador, and Yungas. Divergence times estimations indicate that the Andean clade of Vaccinieae migrated to South America during the Late Oligocene or Early Miocene (28.9-17.84 MA), and most of the subsequent diversification took place during the Tertiary. The Yungas was the first Andean area to be colonized, and several dispersals towards the north expanded their distribution range. Both areas of endemism and dispersal events were influenced by geological processes, such …
Population Genomic Inference Of Ecology, Conservation, Evolution, And Demographic History Of Atlantic Seahorses And Pipefishes (Syngnathidae), Joel Thomas Boehm
Population Genomic Inference Of Ecology, Conservation, Evolution, And Demographic History Of Atlantic Seahorses And Pipefishes (Syngnathidae), Joel Thomas Boehm
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In the Atlantic Ocean powerful directional ocean currents can play a significant role in the formation and persistence of marine species. Syngnathidae fishes have a sparse fossil record, high morphological plasticity, and many of these species are difficult to observe in the wild, therefore they frequently lack life history information and the status of regional lineages and species designations are often obscure. In this dissertation I explore the ecology, evolution, and conservation of primarily Atlantic seahorses (Hippocampus) and pipefish (Syngnathus) in four core chapters, using differing genetic datasets ranging from mitochondrial DNA to genome-wide RAD sequences. Most Synganthids have the …
Measuring Knowledge Of Natural Selection: A Comparison Of The C.I.N.S., An Open-Response Instrument, And An Oral Interview, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld
Measuring Knowledge Of Natural Selection: A Comparison Of The C.I.N.S., An Open-Response Instrument, And An Oral Interview, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld
Publications and Research
Growing recognition of the central importance of fostering an in-depth understanding of natural selection has, surprisingly, failed to stimulate work on the development and rigorous evaluation of instruments that measure knowledge of it. We used three different methodological tools, the Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection (CINS), a modified version of Bishop and Anderson's (Bishop and Anderson [1990] Journal of Research in Science Teaching 27: 415-427) open-response test that we call the Open Response Instrument (ORI), and an oral interview derived from both instruments, to measure biology majors' understanding of and alternative conceptions about natural selection. We explored how these instruments …
Does Increasing Biology Teacher Knowledge Of Evolution And The Nature Of Science Lead To Greater Advocacy For The Teaching Of Evolution In Schools?, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld
Does Increasing Biology Teacher Knowledge Of Evolution And The Nature Of Science Lead To Greater Advocacy For The Teaching Of Evolution In Schools?, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld
Publications and Research
This study investigated whether or not an increase in secondary science teacher knowledge about evolution and the nature of science gained from completing a graduate-level evolution course was associated with greater preference for the teaching of evolution in schools. Forty-four precertified secondary biology teachers participated in a 14-week intervention designed to address documented misconceptions identified by a precourse instrument. The course produced statistically significant gains in teacher knowledge of evolution and the nature of science and a significant decrease in misconceptions about evolution and natural selection. Nevertheless, teachers' postcourse preference positions remained unchanged; the majority of science teachers still preferred …