共查询到20条相似文献,搜索用时 31 毫秒
1.
T. Ryan Gregory 《Evolution》2008,1(2):121-137
Charles Darwin sketched his first evolutionary tree in 1837, and trees have remained a central metaphor in evolutionary biology
up to the present. Today, phylogenetics—the science of constructing and evaluating hypotheses about historical patterns of
descent in the form of evolutionary trees—has become pervasive within and increasingly outside evolutionary biology. Fostering
skills in “tree thinking” is therefore a critical component of biological education. Conversely, misconceptions about evolutionary
trees can be very detrimental to one’s understanding of the patterns and processes that have occurred in the history of life.
This paper provides a basic introduction to evolutionary trees, including some guidelines for how and how not to read them.
Ten of the most common misconceptions about evolutionary trees and their implications for understanding evolution are addressed.
相似文献
T. Ryan GregoryEmail: |
2.
Peter Godfrey-Smith 《Biology & philosophy》2007,22(3):429-437
Jablonka and Lamb's claim that evolutionary biology is undergoing a ‘revolution’ is queried. But the very concept of revolutionary
change has uncertain application to a field organized in the manner of contemporary biology. The explanatory primacy of sequence
properties is also discussed.
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Peter Godfrey-SmithEmail: |
3.
Roger Sansom 《Biology & philosophy》2009,24(4):441-459
One current version of the internalism/externalism debate in evolutionary theory focuses on the relative importance of developmental
constraints in evolutionary explanation. The received view of developmental constraints sees them as an internalist concept
that tend to be shared across related species as opposed to selective pressures that are not. Thus, to the extent that constraints
can explain anything, they can better explain similarity across species, while natural selection is better able to explain
their differences. I challenge both of these aspects of the received view and propose a hierarchical view of constraints.
相似文献
Roger SansomEmail: |
4.
Paul Laris 《Human ecology: an interdisciplinary journal》2008,36(6):789-805
A major challenge for ecologists has long been to develop a model to explain the coexistence of grasses and trees in the savanna.
The recent shift in emphasis to non-equilibrium-based theories has resulted in a rethinking of this problem. As resource allocation
models have been replaced by demographic ones, the focus has shifted to plant life histories. The tree/grass ratio is now
conceptualized as a function of disturbance history. Empirical studies demonstrate that repeat fires trap tree sprouts in
perpetual juvenile states. Ecologists suggest natural pathways for juveniles to escape, reach maturity, and maintain tree/grass
ratios. This study documents how long-fallow agriculture serves as an anthropogenic pathway. The study compares tree cover
on long-fallow and unfarmed savanna plots in southern Mali where burning is annual. Tree height, girth, and species were recorded
for 29 quadrats. The results demonstrate a significant difference in the size, number, and species of trees; those on fallow
plots were taller, more numerous, and more diverse.
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Paul LarisEmail: |
5.
Patrick Forber 《Biology & philosophy》2009,24(2):247-266
Evolutionary biology, indeed any science that attempts to reconstruct prehistory, faces practical limitations on available
data. These limitations create the problem of contrast failure: specific observations may fail to discriminate between rival evolutionary hypotheses. Assessing the risk of contrast failure
provides a way to evaluate testing protocols in evolutionary science. Here I will argue that part of the methodological critique
in the Spandrels paper involves diagnosing contrast failure problems. I then distinguish the problem of contrast failure from the more familiar
philosophical problem of underdetermination, and demonstrate how contrast failure arises in scientific practice with an investigation
into Lewontin and White’s (Evolution 14:116–129, 1960) estimation of an adaptive landscape.
相似文献
Patrick ForberEmail: |
6.
Creationist Teaching in School Science: A UK Perspective 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
James David Williams 《Evolution》2008,1(1):87-95
The creation/evolution controversy in UK schools made headlines in the national press, on TV, and radio in 2002. Claims were
made that creationism was being taught in schools. This article looks at the impact this controversy had on the UK government
and how creationism is trying to gain ground in UK state schools by introducing students to Intelligent Design through promotional
DVDs. Student attitude surveys eliciting views toward science and religion are examined. Concern is also expressed at how
the teaching of evolution through standard textbooks may not deliver a persuasive case for evolutionary theory. The article
concludes with a number of implications for researchers, teachers, and schools.
相似文献
James David WilliamsEmail: |
7.
In Greece, since 2000, the teaching of evolutionary theory is restricted solely to lower (junior) high school and specifically
to ninth grade. Even though the theory of evolution is included to the 12th grade biology textbook, it is not taught in Greek
upper (senior) high schools. This study presents research conducted on the conceptions of Greek students regarding issues
set out in the theory of evolution after the formal completion of the teaching of the theory. The sample comprised 411 10th
grade students from 12 different schools. The research results show that the students appear to have a positive view of the
idea of evolution, the evolution of man, and the common origin of organisms. However, they have retained many alternative
views, or else they are completely in ignorance of basic issues in evolutionary theory regarding: what is considered evolution
in biology, the main mechanism of evolutionary changes in what is considered natural selection, what the theory of evolution
actually explains, and what the word theory means in science. At least in Greece, these views still prevail because the theory
of evolution is marginalized in the teaching of biology in Greek schools, and biology education does not help students formulate
overall conceptual structures to enable them to understand the question of biological change.
相似文献
Lucia PrinouEmail: |
8.
This paper focuses on evolution as a unifying theme in biology education. Our aim is to argue that the different topics taught
in secondary school biology classes should be enriched with and linked together by means of accounts of the history of life.
We named this approach a “natural history perspective” on biology education. An essential aspect of the natural history perspective
is the claim that evolutionary history forms the context for the development of an understanding of evolutionary processes.
While there are some indications that a natural history perspective can function as a context for understanding micro-evolutionary
processes, more research is called for.
相似文献
Esther M. van DijkEmail: |
9.
Anya Plutynski 《Biology & philosophy》2008,23(5):605-623
The discussion of the adaptive landscape in the philosophical literature appears to be divided along the following lines.
On the one hand, some claim that the adaptive landscape is either “uninterpretable” or incoherent. On the other hand, some
argue that the adaptive landscape has been an important heuristic, or tool in the service of explaining, as well as proposing
and testing hypotheses about evolutionary change. This paper attempts to reconcile these two views.
相似文献
Anya PlutynskiEmail: |
10.
Stavros Ioannidis 《Biology & philosophy》2008,23(4):567-578
Evolutionary developmental biology (Evo-Devo) is a new and rapidly developing field of biology which focuses on questions
in the intersection of evolution and development and has been seen by many as a potential synthesis of these two fields. This
synthesis is the topic of the books reviewed here. Integrating Evolution and Development (edited by Roger Sansom and Robert
Brandon), is a collection of papers on conceptual issues in Evo-Devo, while From Embryology to Evo-Devo (edited by Manfred
Laubichler and Jane Maienschein) is a history of the problem of the relations between ontogeny and phylogeny.
相似文献
Stavros IoannidisEmail: |
11.
Michael Weisberg 《Biology & philosophy》2006,21(5):623-645
This paper is an interpretation and defense of Richard Levins’ “The Strategy of Model Building in Population Biology,” which
has been extremely influential among biologists since its publication 40 years ago. In this article, Levins confronted some
of the deepest philosophical issues surrounding modeling and theory construction. By way of interpretation, I discuss each
of Levins’ major philosophical themes: the problem of complexity, the brute-force approach, the existence and consequence
of tradeoffs, and robustness analysis. I argue that Levins’ article is concerned, at its core, with justifying the use of
multiple, idealized models in population biology.
相似文献
Michael WeisbergEmail: |
12.
T. Ryan Gregory 《Evolution》2008,1(3):259-273
The occurrence, generality, and causes of large-scale evolutionary trends—directional changes over long periods of time—have
been the subject of intensive study and debate in evolutionary science. Large-scale patterns in the history of life have also
been of considerable interest to nonspecialists, although misinterpretations and misunderstandings of this important issue
are common and can have significant implications for an overall understanding of evolution. This paper provides an overview
of how trends are identified, categorized, and explained in evolutionary biology. Rather than reviewing any particular trend
in detail, the intent is to provide a framework for understanding large-scale evolutionary patterns in general and to highlight
the fact that both the patterns and their underlying causes are usually quite complex.
相似文献
T. Ryan GregoryEmail: |
13.
Tim Lewens 《Biology & philosophy》2009,24(2):161-182
Godfrey-Smith (2001) has distinguished three types of adaptationism. This article builds on his analysis, and revises it in places, by distinguishing
seven varieties of adaptationism. This taxonomy allows us to clarify what is at stake in debates over adaptationism, and it
also helps to cement the importance of Gould and Lewontin’s ‘Spandrels’ essay. Some adaptationists have suggested that their
essay does not offer any coherent alternative to the adaptationist programme: it consists only in an exhortation to test adaptationist
hypotheses more thoroughly than was usual in the 1970s. Here it is argued that the ‘Spandrels’ paper points towards a genuinely
non-adaptationist methodology implicit in much evolutionary developmental biology. This conclusion helps to expose the links
between older debates over adaptationism and more recent questions about the property of evolvability.
相似文献
Tim LewensEmail: Email: |
14.
Debates over adaptationism can be clarified and partially resolved by careful consideration of the ‘grain’ at which evolutionary
processes are described. The framework of ‘adaptive landscapes’ can be used to illustrate and facilitate this investigation.
We argue that natural selection may have special status at an intermediate grain of analysis of evolutionary processes. The
cases of sickle-cell disease and genomic imprinting are used as case studies.
相似文献
Peter Godfrey-SmithEmail: |
15.
Chris Haufe 《Biology & philosophy》2008,23(1):115-128
The importance of mate choice and sexual selection has been emphasized by the majority of evolutionary psychologists. This
paper assesses three cases of work on mate choice and sexual selection in evolutionary psychology: David Buss on cross-cultural
human mate preferences, Randy Thornhill and Steve Gangestad on the link between mate preferences and fluctuating asymmetry,
and Geoffrey Miller on the role of Fisher’s runaway process in human evolution. A mixture of conceptual and empirical problems
in each case highlights the general weakness of work in evolutionary psychology on these issues.
相似文献
Chris HaufeEmail: |
16.
17.
Summary The tree species Berlinia korupensis Mackinder & Burgt is described as new. The species is endemic to the southern part of
Korup National Park in Cameroon. Seventeen trees have been found so far, the largest being 42 m high and having a trunk diam.
of 88 cm. The new species is assessed as Critically Endangered (CR D) under the criteria of IUCN. Two distribution maps are
included; one map indicating the single locality in Cameroon near the Nigerian border where the new species was found and
another map of the permanent plot where 14 of the 17 trees were recorded. A line drawing is also included, along with colour
photographs of the flowers and the trunk.
相似文献
Barbara A. MackinderEmail: |
18.
Applied research that supplies requisite, albeit incomplete, scientific knowledge is necessary if we are to address the legal,
regulatory, and social/ethical issues regarding the use of transgenic trees. The technology for creating these trees has gotten
far ahead of research on the ecological and population genetics impacts that may emerge. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive,
interdisciplinary scientific approach that combines experimental results with model projections. We believe that much of this
work must be completed before social issues can be clarified and resolved. Broad-based failure by those in the forestry-minded
scientific community to carry out this interdisciplinary research could lead either to the establishment of transgenic trees
with unintended consequences, or to an inability to realize the numerous advantages that this technology may offer.
相似文献
Richard MeilanEmail: |
19.
Georgy S. Levit 《Theorie in den Biowissenschaften》2007,126(4):131-148
This paper raises the general question of whether there are any national peculiarities that characterize the scientific and
philosophical roots of Russian-language evolutionary developmental biology. The researchers and theories are surveyed which,
with hindsight, have been crucial for the Russian tradition when it comes to general methodological principles and constituting
concepts. Based on published works and archival documents the main concepts of the “founding fathers” of the Russian tradition
with their “Western analogues” are compared. The focus is on A. O. Kowalevsky (1840–1901), I. I. Metschnikov (1945–1916),
A. N. Sewertzoff (1866–1936), I. I. Schmalhausen (1884–1963) and the parallelisms between them and E. Haeckel (1834–1919),
V. Franz (1883–1950), and C. H. Waddington (1905–1977). In addition, the problem of specific influences constituting the Russian-language
context of the Modern Synthesis is addressed. The major thesis of this paper is that the very character of the Russian developmental
biology and its intellectual environment predisposed a strong bias towards environmentalist interpretations and thus anticipated
what we now call “ecological developmental biology”.
This paper is an extended version of my talk delivered to the First and founding meeting of the European Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology (EDD), 16–19 August (Prague, Czech Republic). I thank Scott Gilbert for inviting me to this meeting
相似文献
Georgy S. LevitEmail: |
20.