Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Aspm And The Evolution Of Cerebral Cortical Size In A Community Of New World Monkeys, Fernando A. Villanea, George H. Perry, Gustavo A. Gutiérrez-Espeleta, Nathaniel J. Dominy

Dartmouth Scholarship

The ASPM (abnormal spindle-like microcephaly associated) gene has been proposed as a major determinant of cerebral cortical size among primates, including humans. Yet the specific functions of ASPM and its connection to human intelligence remain controversial. This debate is limited in part by a taxonomic focus on Old World monkeys and apes. Here we expand the comparative context of ASPM sequence analyses with a study of New World monkeys, a radiation of primates in which enlarged brain size has evolved in parallel in spider monkeys (genus Ateles) and capuchins (genus Cebus). The primate community of Costa Rica is perhaps a …

Scopes, John Thomas, 1900-1970 (Mss 419), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 419. Letters and clippings removed from a scrapbook belonging to John T. Scopes or his wife and relating primarily to the 1925 Scopes trial, his subsequent notoriety, and later publicity and commemorations surrounding the controversy.

From A Rodent To A Rhetorician: An Ideological Analysis Of George Alexander Kennedy's Comparative Rhetoric, James Begley

Masters Theses

George Alexander Kennedy, a professor of classics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has given birth to a new understanding of rhetorical studies: he argues for the evolution of rhetoric from animals to humans. Using Sonja Foss's methodology of "ideological criticism," this thesis examined Kennedy's case as presented in his book, Comparative Rhetoric: an Historical and Cross-Cultural Introduction. This study discovered that the book was heavily influenced by a secular, pro-evolutionary ideology which dually contributed to its selective use of scientific evidences and production of inconsistent arguments. Evaluated on the basis of Biblical principles, this thesis concluded …

Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists And Ecologists: Chrono-Biographical Sketches, Charles H. Smith, Joshua Woleben, Carubie Rodgers

DLPS Faculty Publications

Each name in the following list of naturalists is linked to a corresponding capsule "chrono-biographical" sketch of that individual prepared by the authors. Coverage extends from approximately 1950 backward in time as far as the eighteenth century; figures from all over the world are included (though there is admittedly a decided Anglo-American bias). The target subject here is biogeography, but this being a broad field there are many persons on the list who are better known as climatologists, zoologists, botanists, ecologists, oceanographers, paleontologists, etc.--in other words, who made their main reputations in cognate disciplines.

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Natural Selection: A Concept In Need Of Some Evolution?, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

In some respects natural selection is a quite simple theory, arrived at through the logical integration of three propositions (the presence of variation within natural populations, an absolutely limited resources base, and procreation capacities exceeding mere replacement numbers) whose individual truths can hardly be denied. Its relation to the larger subject of evolution, however, remains problematic. It is suggested here that a scaling-down of the meaning of natural selection to “the elimination of the unfit,” as originally intended by Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), might ultimately prove a more effective means of relating it to larger-scale, longer-term, evolutionary processes.

Intra And Interhost Dynamics Shaping Arbovirus Adaptation And Evolution, Alexander T. Ciota

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses), which are predominately mosquito-borne and almost exclusively RNA viruses, are maintained in nature in complex transmission cycles involving blood sucking invertebrates and vertebrate hosts. Although over 120 arboviruses are human pathogens responsible for causing a significant and expanding global health burden, a detailed understanding of the complex interactions between these pathogens and their hosts, particularly invertebrate hosts, is lacking. Defining these interactions is necessary if we are to understand the selective pressures and, therefore, evolutionary, adaptive, and epidemiological potential of arboviruses. This requires experimental infection and evolution studies, particularly in vivo, with natural hosts. The results presented …