Evolution Commons^™

Evolution In The Deep Sea: Scales And Mechanisms Of Population Divergence, Amanda E. Glazier

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The deep sea is the Earth’s largest ecosystem and harbors a unique and largely endemic fauna. Although most research has focused on the ecological mechanisms that allow coexistence, recent studies have begun to investigate how this remarkable fauna evolved.. My work quantifies geographic patterns of genetic variation and investigates potential mechanisms that shape evolution in the deep ocean.

Bathymetric genetic divergence is common in the deep sea with population structure typically decreasing with depth. The evolutionary mechanisms that underlie these patterns are poorly understood. Geographic patterns of genetic variation indicated that the protobranch bivalve Neilonella salicensis was composed of two …

Reef Society And The Tyranny Of Data, Robert Wintner

Animal Sentience

Modern science now approaches divergent processes in many areas, including health assessments of marine eco-systems and social aspects of marine species. Scientific data have long enjoyed a reputation for objectivity but incidents of science-for-hire, data spinning/skewing and political jading are more frequent than ever. In the field of reef creature sensitivity, technical treatises can “logically” explain away what a person of average education can clearly observe on any given reef. Western medicine discounted anecdotal evidence of any cure outside the 4% margin of error until those cures demanded attention and in some cases application. Modern science must now enter an …

Still Wondering How Flesh Can Feel, Gwen J. Broude

Animal Sentience

Reber believes he has simplified Chalmers’s “hard problem” of consciousness by arguing that subjectivity is an inherent feature of biological forms. His argument rests on the related notions of continuity of mind and gradual accretion of capacities across evolutionary time. These notions need to be defended, not just asserted. Because Reber minimizes the differences in mental faculties among species across evolutionary time, it becomes easier to assert, and perhaps believe, that sentience is already present in early biological forms. The more explicit we are about the differences among these mental faculties and the differences across species, the less persuasive is …

Phylogenetics, Biogeography, And Climate Niche Variation Of South Pacific And Hawaiian Psychotria, Elaine Zhang

Master's Theses

Why do some species have broad geographic distributions, while other species are confined to a narrow distribution? Species age, ecological niche, or dispersal traits may help explain why some insular species are abundant and found on many islands, while others are rare and restricted to one island. In this study, I inferred a robust, time-calibrated phylogeny of the Hawaiian Psychotria, using two nuclear and eight chloroplast loci, sampling 67 individuals. I coupled my phylogenetic hypothesis with climatic data, ecological niche modeling, and morphological dispersal characteristics to explain the variation in number of islands occupied by each species. My inferred phylogeny …

Changes In Male Hunting Returns, Raymond B. Hames

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Research on changes in male hunting among hunter-gatherers addresses two important issues in early human evolution: the nature of the family and trade-offs in mating and parenting effort as well as the development of embodied capital. In the hunter-gatherer literature, there is a debate about the function of male hunting that has implications for understanding the role males play in the evolution of the pair bond. The traditional model argues that male hunting and other economic activities are forms of male provisioning or parenting effort designed to enhance a man’s fitness through his wife’s reproduction and the survivorship of their …

Review Of Northwestern African Buthacus, With Description Of Buthacus Stockmanni Sp. N. From Morocco And Western Sahara (Scorpiones, Buthidae), František Kovařík, Graeme Lowe, František Šťáhlavský

Euscorpius

Northwestern African Buthacus species are revised. Buthacus stockmanni sp. n. from Morocco and Western Sahara is described and fully complemented with color photos of live and preserved specimens, as well as their habitat. The hemispermatophore of B. stockmanni sp. n. is illustrated and described. In addition to morphology and hemi-spermatophores, we also describe the karyotypes of B. stockmanni sp. n. (2n=20). B. stockmanni sp. n. is compared with B. occidentalis Vachon, 1953 and B. ziegleri Lourenço, 2000. Both these species are differentiated from B. stockmanni sp. n. geographically and morphologically. The male of B. stockmanni sp. n. has fingers of …

First Report Of Lissothus Occidentalis Vachon, 1950 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) From Morocco And Western Sahara, With Notes On Ecology And Captive Breeding, Mark Stockmann, Carlos Turiel, Felix Althoff, Graeme Lowe, František Kovařík

Euscorpius

Genus Lissothus Vachon, 1948 represented by L. occidentalis Vachon, 1950 is reported for the first time from four localities in Morocco and the Western Sahara. We provide a revised diagnosis of L. occidentalis, fully complemented with color photos of live and preserved specimens. Hemispermatophore is also illustrated and described in detail. Furthermore, we describe aspects of the ecology of this species, and provide photos of collection sites and habitats. We also report on the reproductive biology of this species based on captive breeding and rearing. and provide the first envenomation report for the species.

Animals Aren’T Persons, But Is It Time For A Neologism?, Helen Steward

Animal Sentience

Mark Rowlands argues that at least some animals are persons, based on the idea that (i) many animals have a property he calls “pre-reflective awareness,” (ii) the capacity for pre-reflective awareness is sufficient to satisfy the traditional Lockean definition of personhood, and (iii) satisfaction of the traditional Lockean definition of personhood is sufficient for being a person. I agree with (i) and can see that there is a persuasive case for (ii), but I think the case against (iii) blocks the conclusion that animals are persons. I suggest that we may need instead to coin a neologism in order to …

Reber’S Caterpillar Offers No Help, Carl Safina

Animal Sentience

Reber’s target article “Caterpillars, consciousness and the origins of mind” seems only to shift but not to address the question of where the mind is and how minds occur.

Evolution In Light Of Mitonuclear Landscapes: An Examination Of Mitochondrial Replacement In Killifish (Fundulus Spp.), Stephen D. Flanagan

Dissertations

The mitochondria are responsible for the bulk of energy production in eukaryotes. They possess their own genome that works in conjunction with the nuclear genome to accomplish the extraordinarily important task of energy conversion. When species hybridize there will be a mismatch in evolutionary histories between these two genomes. The deleterious interactions of these genomes have been studied in great detail (i.e. hybrid breakdown). However, little work has been conducted to understand the population genetic, and morphological consequences of wide-ranging replacement. The Fundulus notatus complex is comprised of 3 species: F. notatus, F. olivaceus, and F. euryzonus. …

Minority Middle And High School Students' Interest In Science: An Exploration Of Teachers' Perceptions, Caroline Makere

Dissertations

A high school teacher conducted a study about minority middle and high school students’ interest in science. The problem was to find out why African American and Hispanic students were showing very little interest in science. The researcher used four middle school science teachers and nine high school science teachers, all from inner city schools in a big city of the Midwest United States except for one middle school teacher from a nearby suburb. The participants answered a survey questionnaire followed with a face-to-face recorded interview. The findings of the study confirmed that students showed little interest in science due …

Fishes As A Template For Reticulate Evolution: A Case Study Involving Catostomus In The Colorado River Basin Of Western North America, Max Russell Bangs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hybridization is neither simplistic nor phylogenetically constrained, and post hoc introgression can have profound evolutionary effects. Most studies have focused on tractable model systems, rather than organisms with complicated phylogenetic histories. Finescale Sucker (genus Catostomus) in western North America is recognized as a paradigm of fish hybridization. Yet, its extent of historic and contemporary introgression is largely unstudied, an aspect that impedes the resolution of its phylogeny as a baseline for conservation. To explore reticulation in this group, I assayed variation of 20 Catostomus species across temporal and geographic scales by analyzing hundreds of samples and employing a combination of …

Sexual Determination From Frontal Sinus Analysis In A Subadult Population Using Archival Radiographic Records, Erica Crosta

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The goal of this study is to use the improved imaging capability of cone-beam computerized tomography (CBCT) to investigate the development and sexual dimorphism of the frontal sinus and surrounding supraorbital region in the subadult population of urban Southern Nevada. CBCT radiographs were obtained from the UNLV School of Dental Medicine archival dental records. Five hundred and fifty six of these radiographs were reviewed for the study. Two hundred and sixteen patients (92 males, 124 females) between the ages of 7 and 20 years were included based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. Samples were categorized into 3 subadult age groups for analysis: …

Behavioral Reactions To Emotional And Physical Infidelity: An Evolutionary Perspective, Mandy Walsh Walsh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examined the effects of sex and type of partner infidelity, including both physical (i.e., sexually involved with another person) and emotional (i.e., emotionally involved with another person) infidelity, on mate abandonment behaviors. Previous research has demonstrated sex differences in emotional responses to infidelity, where men react more negatively to physical infidelity and women react more negatively to emotional infidelity. While various studies have investigated perceived behavioral reactions using imagined scenarios, this study expands current research by utilizing actual retrospective reports. It was hypothesized that males would engage in significantly more mate abandonment behaviors after experiencing a physical infidelity, …

Two New Species Of Euscorpius Thorell, 1876 From Southern Turkey (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae), Gioele Tropea, Ersen Aydın Yağmur

Euscorpius

Two new species of scorpion of the genus Euscorpius Thorell, 1876 are described from southern Turkey based on morphological ratio and trichobothrial data. E. hakani sp. n. from Mt. Eşeler, in Denizli Province in southwestern Turkey and E. aladaglarensis sp. n. from the Aladağlar Mts., in Niğde, Kayseri, and Adana Provinces. With the description of two new taxa, 17 species of Euscorpius are currently recognized in Turkey.

Insect Consciousness: Commitments, Conflicts And Consequences, Colin Klein, Andrew B. Barron

Animal Sentience

Our target article, “Insects have the capacity for subjective experience,” has provoked a diverse range of commentaries. In this response we have collated what we see as the major themes of the discussion. It is clear that we differ from some commentators in our commitments to what subjective experience is and what the midbrain is capable of. Here we clarify where we stand on those points and how our view differs from some other influential perspectives. The commentaries have highlighted the most lively areas of disagreement. We revisit here the debates surrounding whether the cortex is essential for any form …

Problems Of Multi-Species Organisms: Endosymbionts To Holobionts, David C. Queller, Joan E. Strassmann

Biology Faculty Research

The organism is one of the fundamental concepts of biology and has been at the center of many discussions about biological individuality, yet what exactly it is can be confusing. The definition that we find generally useful is that an organism is a unit in which all the subunits have evolved to be highly cooperative, with very little conflict. We focus on how often organisms evolve from two or more formerly independent organisms. Two canonical transitions of this type—replicators clustered in cells and endosymbiotic organelles within host cells—demonstrate the reality of this kind of evolutionary transition and suggest conditions that …

Consciousness And Evolutionary Biology, Yew-Kwang Ng

Animal Sentience

Reber’s axiom: “Any organism with flexible cell walls, a sensitivity to its surrounds and the capacity for locomotion will possess the biological foundations of mind and consciousness” does not seem to be supported by things we know and the logic of evolutionary biology. The latter leads to the conclusion that conscious species are flexible in their behavior (rather than in their cell walls), as argued in Ng (1995, 2016). Locomotion may be completely hard-wired and need not involve consciousness. It is hard enough to explain how consciousness could emerge in a sophisticated brain: Isn’t it a harder problem to show …

The Difference Between Conscious And Unconscious Brain Circuits, Ezequiel Morsella, Zaviera Reyes

Animal Sentience

Theoretical frameworks in which consciousness is an inherent property of the neuron must account for the contrast between conscious and unconscious processes in the brain and address how neural events can ever be unconscious if consciousness is a property of all neurons. Other approaches have sought answers regarding consciousness by contrasting conscious and unconscious processes and through investigating the complex interactions between the two kinds of processes, as occurs most notably in human voluntary action. In voluntary action, consciousness is associated most, not with motor control or low-level perceptual processing, but with the stage of processing known as action selection.

Resolving The Hard Problem And Calling For A Small Miracle, Arthur S. Reber

Animal Sentience

With the exception of the commentary by Key, the commentaries on Reber have a common feature: the commenters feel, with varying levels of enthusiasm, that there is at least some virtue in the core assumption of the Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC) theory that consciousness (or subjectivity or sentience) accompanies the earliest forms of life. The model has two important entailments: (a) it resolves the (in)famous Hard Problem by redirecting the search for the biochemical foundations of sentience away from human consciousness; and (b) it reduces the need for an emergentist miracle to a far simpler scale than is currently …

No Help On The Hard Problem, Derek Ball

Animal Sentience

The hard problem of consciousness is to explain why certain physical states are conscious: why do they feel the way they do, rather than some other way or no way at all? Arthur Reber (2016) claims to solve the hard problem. But he does not: even if we grant that amoebae are conscious, we can ask why such organisms feel the way they do, and Reber’s theory provides no answer. Still, Reber’s theory may be methodologically useful: we do not yet have a satisfactory theory of consciousness, but perhaps the study of simple minds is a way to go about …

Unconscious Higher-Order Thoughts (Hots) As Pre-Reflective Self-Awareness?, Rocco J. Gennaro

Animal Sentience

Rowlands argues that many nonhuman animals are “persons,” contrary to the prevailing orthodoxy which rests on a mistaken conception of the kind of self-awareness relevant to personhood. He argues that self-awareness bifurcates into two importantly different forms — reflective self-awareness and pre-reflective self-awareness — and that many animals can have the latter, which is sufficient for personhood. I agree that there is good reason to think that many animals can have pre-reflective self-awareness, but I think Rowlands is mistaken about its nature. His account runs the risk of leading to an infinite regress objection, and his notion of pre-reflective self-awareness …

The Psychological Concept Of “Person”, Kristin Andrews

Animal Sentience

Reluctance to overextend personhood seems to drive many of the skeptical responses in the first round of commentaries on Rowlands's target article. Despite Rowlands’s straightforward Response that we already accept some nonhumans as persons, there is still hesitation to accept that other nonhuman animals are persons. Rowlands's argument is sound but the skeptics don’t accept the Lockean notion of person. The metaphysical sense of person is a psychological one, however, and psychological properties grant one moral status according to many ethical theories.

Inter- And Intra-Individual Variation In Predator-Related Behavioral Plasticity Expressed By Female Green Swordtails (Xiphophorus Hellerii), Rachael A. Disciullo

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of one genotype to express multiple phenotypes under variable environments. Behavioral plasticity is a type of phenotypic plasticity in which individuals adjust behavior in response to changes in environment. Often, behavioral plasticity is studied at the level of the population, rather than at the level of the individual. Further, few studies have considered the effect of individual traits, such as size and age, on the expression of behavioral plasticity, or, how individual plasticity may be correlated across different contexts. In this study, we used female green swordtails (Xiphophorus hellerii) to test the effects …

A New Species Of Centruroides (Scorpiones: Buthidae) From Quiché, Northwestern Guatemala, Rony E. Trujillo, Luis F. De Armas

Euscorpius

A new species of the genus Centruroides Marx, 1890 is described from Sotzil Village (15.61775°N, -91.09745°W, 1173 m a.s.l.), Chajul Municipality, Quiché Department, Guatemala, on basis of one female and one male. It closely resembles Centruroides caral Armas et Trujillo, 2013 from northeastern Guatemala (240 Km southeast of Chajul), but male differs by having a most globose pedipalp manus, as well as metasoma clearly more attenuate (len-gth/width ratio: segments II–IV = 2.4, 2.7 and 1.4, respectively; 1.7, 2.2 and 2.5 in the holotype of C. caral, the only known specimen of this taxon). Data on its habitat and some …

Bounds On The Expected Size Of The Maximum Agreement Subtree, Colby Long, Daniel Irving Bernstein, Lam Si Tung Ho, Mike Steel, Katherine St. John, Seth Sullivant

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

General Equations For Natural Selection Under Complete Dominance, Kasthuri Kannan, Adriana Heguy

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Evolving Healthy Populations, Nina H. Fefferman

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Scorpions Of The Horn Of Africa (Arachnida: Scorpiones). Part Ix. Lanzatus, Orthochirus, And Somalicharmus (Buthidae), With Description Of Lanzatus Somalilandus Sp. N. And Orthochirus Afar Sp. N., František Kovařík, Graeme Lowe, František Šťáhlavský

Euscorpius

The rare Horn of Africa buthid genera Lanzatus Kovařík, 2001, Orthochirus Karsch, 1891, and Somalicharmus Kovařík, 1998 were newly collected. Lanzatus is reported for the first time from Somaliland, and Orthochirus for the first time from Ethiopia. We describe two new species, Lanzatus somalilandus sp. n. from Somaliland, and Orthochirus afar sp. n. from Ethiopia, both discovered during scorpiological expeditions in 2011–2016. Information is provided for all Horn of Africa species belonging to these three genera: their taxonomy, distribution, and ecology, fully complemented with color photos of live and preserved specimens, as well as their habitat. …

Consciousness And The Unity Of Mind, Mark Rowlands

Animal Sentience

Several types of objection have been raised against the arguments I presented in my target article, “Are animals persons?” Among the objections are the following: (1) the claim that animals are persons is of little significance, (2) my use of the Lockean conception of the person is questionable, (3) whether a creature qualifies as a person is a matter of social construction rather than objective fact, (4) reflective consciousness is more important than I realize, (5) my reliance on implicit self-awareness in the account of personhood is ill-advised, (6) my account entails that too many creatures qualify as persons, and …