Evolution Commons^™

The Importance Of Soil Carbon In Large-Scale Shrub Removal Practices In The Chihuahuan Desert, Kathleen Schaeffer

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Shrub encroachment is a worldwide phenomenon that affects multiple biomes at different ecological and anthropogenic levels. In dryland ecosystems, shrub encroachment is a noted concern amongst land managers, as it can lead to a loss of soil resources and biodiversity. To mitigate the negative effects of shrub encroachment in Drylands, land managers can implement large-scale shrub removal practices. These land restoration practices can shift landscapes to novel ecosystems, where resulting plant communities can vary following treatments. Grass recovery or increasing herbaceous cover is often a primary goal of these treatments, however predicting which sites may show higher grass responses to …

А Review Of Heterometrus In Thailand (Scorpiones: Scorpionidae), Kazusa Kawai, Thornthan Unnahachote, Yossaphon Suttisatid, Victoria Tang

Euscorpius

Five species of the genus Heterometrus Ehrenberg, 1828 are currently confirmed from Thailand and revised, with their respective distribution range in this country updated. Heterometrus laevigatus (Thorell, 1876) is considered a nomen dubium, while its two previous junior synonyms, H. cimrmani Kovařík, 2004, stat. rev. and H. minotaurus Plíšková et al., 2016, stat. rev. are revalidated and redescribed based on the examination of topotypes. Females of H. minotaurus Plíšková et. al., 2016, stat. rev. were also collected and examined, and their characters are herein described with a special attention to sexual dimorphism. Furthermore, some populations previously regarded as H. …

First Report Of Regeneration In The Genus Mesobuthus (Scorpiones: Buthidae), Rıdvan Kurt, Ersen A. Yağmur, Gülhanım Çelik

Euscorpius

A new example of scorpion leg regeneration is reported in an adult male Mesobuthus mesopotamicus (Penther, 1912). A claw (pretarsus) was observed to regenerate at the distal end of the tibia of the left leg II. The regeneration case is described and illustrated.

Statistical And Biological Analyses Of Acoustic Signals In Estrildid Finches, Moises Rivera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Acoustic communication is a process that involves auditory perception and signal processing. Discrimination and recognition further require cognitive processes and supporting mechanisms in order to successfully identify and appropriately respond to signal senders. Although acoustic communication is common across birds, classical research has largely disregarded the perceptual abilities of perinatal altricial taxa. Chapter 1 reviews the literature of perinatal acoustic stimulation in birds, highlighting the disproportionate focus on precocial birds (e.g., chickens, ducks, quails). The long-held belief that altricial birds were incapable of acoustic perception in ovo was only recently overturned, as researchers began to find behavioral and physiological evidence …

Androctonus Kunti Sp. N. From Iğdır Province, Turkey (Scorpiones: Buthidae), Ersen A. Yağmur

Euscorpius

A new species Androctonus kunti sp. n. is described and illustrated from Iğdır Province of Turkey. This population was first recorded by Birula (1896) as A. crassicauda (Olivier, 1807). A. kunti sp. n. is compared with A. crassicauda as well as A. turkiyensis Yağmur, 2021, which was recently described from Turkey

Associative Learning: Unmet Criterion For Plant Sentience, Luigi Baciadonna, Catherine Macri, Martin Giurfa

Animal Sentience

In a thought-provoking target article, Segundo-Ortin & Calvo (S&C) discuss the possibility that plants are sentient, focusing on a series of capacities normally attributed only to human and nonhuman animals. S&C propose learning as a marker for sentience. We review studies reporting associative learning in plants and find that they either lack essential controls or fail to produce replicable results. The capacity to learn has not yet been demonstrated in plants, so it cannot be used to support the hypothesis that plants are sentient. Further studies are needed. But agnosticism about sentience should not deter us from investigating unexpected new …

Disentangling Sentience From Developmental Plasticity, Jonathan Birch

Animal Sentience

Plants, like animals, display remarkable developmental plasticity, inviting the metaphorical use of terms like “decision” and “choice”. In the animal case, this is not taken to be evidence of sentience, because sentience is a complex product of development, not something that guides it. We should apply the same standards when evaluating the evidence in plants. It is hard to overstate the contrast with the case of invertebrates such as octopuses, where pain markers that were originally developed for use in mammals have been clearly demonstrated and plausible neural substrates for sentience have been identified.

Complex Floral Behavior Of An Angiosperm Family, Tilo Henning, Moritz Mittelbach

Animal Sentience

Segundo-Ortin & Calvo provide a comprehensive overview of the many aspects of plant behavior examined to date. In our view, multiple lines of evidence make it difficult to deny plant sentience. We add further evidence to support the conclusion that plants are sentient organisms. As in animals, the behavior of plants can be seen and studied as an evolutionary trait, subject to and a consequence of increasing complexity in the interactions of plants with their environment. Our example is the evolution of floral behavior in Loasaceae, where complex patterns of stamen movement have co-evolved in interaction with specialized pollinators.

Pde Model For Protocell Evolution And The Origin Of Chromosomes Via Multilevel Selection, Daniel B. Cooney, Fernando W. Rossine, Dylan H. Morris, Simon A. Levin

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Reaction-Diffusion System On Irregular Boundaries Reproduces Multiple Generations Of Petal Spot Patterns In Monkeyflower Hybrids, Emily Simmons

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Mutual Aid: The Other Law Of The Jungle. Gauthier Chapelle And Pablo Servigne. Cambridge, Polity Press. 2022. 310 Pp, Tom P. Flower Dr

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

In 1902, the anarchist Peter Kropotkin published Mutual Aid in which he promoted a radical perspective on evolution in which cooperation, as well as selfishness, drive the form, diversification and organization of life on earth. Despite initial recognition, Kropotkin’s contributions have been largely forgotten, even as modern evolutionary theory has recognized the central role of cooperation. In Mutual Aid: the other law of the jungle, Pablo Servigne and Gauthier Chappelle restore Kropotkin’s insights to their rightful place as foundational for our understanding of evolution. They further seek to overturn the pernicious misconception of the 20^th century, that nature is …

How Phylogeny And Arboreality Affect Pelvic Girdle Anatomy Of Chameleons, Dakota J. John

Honors Thesis

Morphological adaptations have allowed animals to inhabit different landscapes such as mountains, forests, plains, etc. These adaptations have increase in prevalence through natural selection processes in all species which allow favorable traits to be passed to offspring. Chameleons have evolved a plethora of adaptations that have allowed them to persist in different niches. One anatomical feature of chameleons that has not been well studied is the pelvic girdle. The pelvic girdle bridges the axial and appendicular skeletons in animals, so the size, shape, and orientation of the girdle is important to how the animal functions in its environment. The pelvic …

Vibroacoustic Response Of The Tympanic Membrane To Hyoid-Borne Sound Generated During Echolocation In Bats, Chelsie Snipes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The hyoid apparatus in laryngeally echolocating bats forms a mechanical connection between the larynx and auditory bullae and has been hypothesized to transfer the outgoing echolocation call to the middle ear during echolocation call emission. We used µCT data to build models of the hyoid apparatus and middle ear from six species of bats and used finite element modeling (FEM) to measure the vibroacoustic response of the tympanic membrane due to hyoid-borne sound generated during echolocation. We found that hyoid-borne sound in all six species stimulated the eardrum within a range likely heard by bats. Although there were minor differences …

The Scaling Method: Body Mass Reconstruction Of East African Hominins, Julianna Rose

Anthropology Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis details a series of novel methods developed to estimate body masses of hominin fossils using 3-D point cloud registration software. All analyses were conducted through 3-D modeling software that supported the remote study of five fossil femora from East Africa. The fossil computer models were repeatedly aligned with anatomically modern human femora to determine their scaling relationship with the objective of using the scaling factor of the human references to estimate the body mass of the fossils, on the basis of the femoral head breadth. Body mass estimates obtained through this technique were compared to estimates using more …

Sensing Is A Far Cry From Sentience, Antonio Damasio, Hanna Damasio

Animal Sentience

The hypothesis that plants might be sentient confuses the notion of sentience (or consciousness) with that of sensing. Sentience/consciousness implies feeling, experience, and subjectivity. Sensing does not. Plants can sense/detect and even respond appropriately in the absence of any sentience/consciousness.

Plant Sentience: The Burden Of Proof, Jon Mallatt, David G. Robinson, Michael R. Blatt, Andreas Draguhn, Lincoln Taiz

Animal Sentience

Segundo-Ortin & Calvo’s (2023) target article takes a less speculative and more evidence-based approach to plant sentience than did previous works promoting that idea. However, it retains many of the idea’s longstanding difficulties such as starting from a false dichotomy (plants must be either hardwired or sentient), not accepting the full burden of proof for an extraordinary claim, confusingly redefining accepted cognitive terms, implying cell consciousness, not adopting the most parsimonious explanations for plant behaviors, and downplaying all the counterevidence. We advise rectifying these problems before plant sentience can become a full-fledged scientific domain.

Notes On Lung Development In South African Ghost Frogs (Anura: Heleophrynidae), Jackson R. Phillips, Jens Reissig, Gary Kyle Nicolau

Biology Student Research

Lungs are a prototypical trait of most tetrapods, but some amphibians have become secondarily lungless over evolutionary time. Anuran (frog) tadpoles offer an opportunity to examine lung loss from an evolutionary perspective, because there are many independent instances where lungs are not inflated until adulthood, and so are functionally lost. Lung loss is typically associated with living in fast-flowing streams, and so we examined larval lung development in the stream specialist family Heleophrynidae. We find that one genus, Hadromophryne Van Dijk, 2008, has large lungs as tadpole, while the other genus, Heleophryne Sclater, 1898, has much smaller, stunted lung buds. …

Plant Sentience: "Feeling" Or Biological Automatism?, Andrea Mastinu

Animal Sentience

Sentience refers to the ability of an organism to have subjective experiences such as sensations, emotions and awareness. Whereas some animals, including humans, are widely recognized as sentient, the question of whether plants are sentient is still debated among scientists, philosophers, and ethicists. Over the past 20 years, many scientists such as Trewavas, Baluška, Mancuso, Gagliano, and Calvo have reported interesting discussions about memory, behavior, communication, and intelligence in plants. However, the reported conclusions have not convinced the entire scientific community. In this commentary, I would like to focus on two critical aspects related to sentience: cognition and emotion

Plant Sentience: A Hypothesis Based On Shaky Premises, Carel Ten Cate

Animal Sentience

Plants may produce fascinating behavioural phenomena for which the label ‘cognitive process’ may be applicable, at least by some definitions. Segundo-Ortin & Calvo (2023) base their hypothesis that plants might be sentient on the premise of demonstrated presence of cognitive complexity. However, the way phenomena are ascribed, and how the term ‘cognitive’ is used by Segundo-Ortin & Calvo, deviates from the common practice in studies of animal cognition, implying greater complexity than seems justified. It thus provides a questionable basis for attributing sentience to plants.

"In The Beginning, God Created Atoms", Samiya L. Henry

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

Genesis 1:1 states “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” This is the defining statement in the Bible and acts as the foundation of creation and God’s power in the Christian faith. On the other hand, many scientists believe the Big Bang Theory and the discoveries made in other fields of science solely define the creation of the universe and explain life as we know it, also disproving the Christian creation story and the overall existence of God. However, the exact opposite is true; God is science.

Alone, neither of these concepts (faith and science) fully solve …