Lmst

Dark-eyed juncos living in urbanized Los Angeles have shorter bills than juncos in nearby natural areas— but while UCLA was closed for COVID-19 safety, campus juncos evolved longer bills again

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2520996122

#evolution #NaturalSelection #UrbanEvolution #bird

Screenshot of Fig 2A from the linked paper, plotting mean ±SE of residual bill length by tarsus length for UCLA juncos by their hatch year in comparison to the same measure for nearby natural-area juncos; before and after the COVID anthropause the UCLA juncos have bills much shorter than the natural-areas juncos, but during 2020 and 2021 the UCLA junco bill lengths spike upwards to be comparable to the natural-areas juncos

The downfall of #democracy will be caused by which of the following:

#AI #Billionaires #Poll #NaturalSelection

In 1859 on #ThisDayInHistory, #CharlesDarwin published the first edition of #TheOriginOfSpecies. Its foundation was his 1831-1836 trip as #naturalist on #TheBeagle, with much later research to follow. The #NaturalSelection model shown in it remains a cornerstone of #evolution.

The Surprising Truth About 4 Billion Years of Evolution - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX7PdJIGiCw
#Veritasium #Science #Evolution #PoopSmellsBad #NaturalSelection

The Evolutionary Political Fitness Hypothesis: Extending Natural Selection to Human Societies #evolution #genetics #naturalselection #replicators #darwinian #politics #governance #democracy #authoritarianism #evolutionarypolitics #kinselection #biologicalevolution #errtlings #bookcafe

Introduction
The evolutionary process, as described by Darwinian natural selection, involves competition for resources and propagation opportunities among replicators (genes) that encode beneficial traits (Dawkins, 1976). This paper extends this logic to human societies, proposing that political institutions and behaviors are not separate from evolution but rather its inevitable extension. We argue that political systems function as complex survival machines that address the same fundamental problem: ensuring genetic continuity.

Theoretical Framework
Core Principles
Our hypothesis builds on several key evolutionary concepts:

Genetic Indirect Fitness (Hamilton, 1964): Political actions that appear altruistic actually serve genetic interests by protecting kin or strengthening group structures that sustain gene propagation.

Political Replicators: Politicians function as "survival machines" similar to how animals serve as vessels for genes, but with significantly greater cognitive capabilities allowing for strategic manipulation of social systems.

Cultural Natural Selection (Friedman & Wilson, 2005): Political ideologies and institutional frameworks evolve through a process analogous to biological natural selection, where certain political strategies become more prevalent based on their success in acquiring resources, maintaining power, and ensuring genetic continuity.

Kin Political Alliance: Political cooperation often favors relatives (kin selection), as seen in family-bas

Mathematical Formulation
We propose that the fitness (F) of a political strategy can be modeled as:

F = r × b - c

Where:

r = genetic relatedness between actors
b = benefit to recipient
c = cost to actor
This formula extends Hamilton's rule from biological kin selection to political contexts (Hamilton, 1964).

Empirical Support
Existing phenomena align remarkably with our hypothesis:

Hereditary Political Dynasties: Families like the British royal family or Indian Congress party have maintained political power across generations, demonstrating how genetic continuity can shape political institutions.

Voting Patterns: Studies show stronger support for candidates related by blood (Grrall & Pons, 2019), supporting the idea of genetic interests influencing political preferences.

Authoritarian Tendencies: Historical preference for authoritarian systems during resource scarcity periods mirrors how environmental pressures shape evolutionary strategies (Friedman & Wilson, 2005).

Political rhetoric emphasizing group identity and genetic continuity
Criticisms and Limitations
While our framework offers novel insights, it faces several limitations:

Reductionism: Reducing complex political decisions to genetic imperatives oversimplifies human agency and environmental factors.

Time Scale Mismatch: Political changes occur too rapidly for genetic evolution to explain, suggesting cultural evolution may play a more significant role.

Cultural Variability: Different societies develop dist

How Did #Hands #Evolve? Look to Your Anus, a New Study Suggests.
The evolutionary blueprint for hands was borrowed in part from a much older genetic plan for our nether regions, a new study suggests.
It turns out that hands and #feet were not the products of new #genes doing new things. Rather, through #naturalselection, pieces of old genetic recipes for ancient body parts were cobbled together into new combinations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/science/evolution-crispr-hands.html
https://archive.ph/jgEjV

@ai6yr #NaturalSelection

#Crosses #NaturalSelection

#AI #Darwin Awards proudly continue this noble tradition by honouring #visionaries who looked at artificial #intelligence—a technology capable of reshaping civilisation—and thought.

You know what this needs? Less #safety testing and more venture capital!

These brave pioneers remind us #NaturalSelection isn’t just for #biology anymore

Why stop at individual acts of spectacular stupidity when you can scale up to global proportions?

https://aidarwinawards.org/

An icon:

On a yellow, road sign type of caution sign with the image of a typical square headed, rather dimwitted looking robot.

Good morning. 🦌🦌🦌

5 September 2025

When You Look Into the Face of Another Animal

When you look into the face of another animal, what do you see?

And by another animal, I mean one other than yourself. Humans are part of the animal world, you know—just another species, all dressed up. Putting clothes on an animal doesn’t make it not so, does it?

Sure, we’re smarter. Top of the food chain, allegedly. But it doesn’t take a high level of geniosity to look at other mammals and see that we’re simply a variation in design. You can use your beliefs to explain the differences if you like. But the similarities? They’re plain to see.

I stick with the scientific explanations—natural selection and all that. But I’m getting off track.

When you look into the face of another animal, do you see a thinking, living, feeling creature? Because if you really take the time to notice, that’s what you’ll see.

A couple of days ago, while mowing my lawn, I stopped cold. There—on a trail that cuts through the forest—stood a huge, regal-looking buck. Right in the middle of the path. Staring at me.

We both held still for a few seconds. I reached to turn off the mower, and when I looked up, he was gone.

Of course, those moments always happen when I don’t have my camera

“We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals… In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained.” — Henry Beston, The Outermost House

#morning #deer #animals #naturalselection #belief

A single deer stands motionless on a narrow grassy path, framed by dense green foliage that arches inward like a living corridor. The deer is centered in the composition, facing forward, its gaze locked with the viewer’s as if caught mid-thought. Its ears are alert, symmetrical, and slightly tilted outward—tuned to the hush of the forest. The sunlight spills generously across the path, illuminating the deer’s tawny coat and casting soft shadows beneath its slender legs. The foliage on either side is lush and layered, with leaves in varying shades of green—some deep and shadowed, others lit from behind like stained glass. Above, the sky is a clear, unbroken blue, offering a quiet contrast to the textured undergrowth. There’s no visible motion, yet the scene feels suspended—like a held breath in the middle of a story. The photograph is signed “© Swede’s Photographs” in the bottom left corner, subtly anchoring the image in authorship without distracting from its stillness.

The overall mood is serene but charged with presence. The deer is not startled, not fleeing—just there, as if it had been waiting for someone to notice." - Copilot

How Humans Changed Fruit Forever

Explore the truth about your favorite fruits! How human intervention has led to the unnatural evolution of fruits like bananas, making them sweeter and easier to eat.

Follow @biohackingpathway for more⁣

#FruitEvolution #BananaHistory #FoodScience #HumanIntervention #SupermarketScience #PodcastInterview #FoodFacts #NaturalSelection #wellnessblog #wellnesswins #wellnessmatters #holisticwellbeing #wellnessmama #wellnesscoaches #SweetFruits #UnexpectedScience

Darwin and Wallace's original papers to the Linnean Society (published 1858) are fascinating reads, showing how they each developed the concept of natural selection. The foreword by Lyell and Hooker makes clear that Darwin was very reluctant to publish!

Both mention artificial selection, but Wallace uses the tendency of domesticated animals to "return to type" in the wild - seen at the time as some sort of stabilising force against change - to bolster the idea of natural selection.

On the tendency of species to form varieties; and on the perpetuation of varieties and species by natural means of selection. Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Zoology. 3:45-62, 1858-9
https://archive.org/details/darwin-wallace-1858-journalofproceed-00linn/mode/1up?view=theater

#NaturalSelection #OriginOfSpecies #CharlesDarwin #AlfredRusselWallace #LinneanSociety #EvolutionaryBiology #TheoryOfEvolution

"Here, I argue that a substantive and testable Gaia hypothesis must invoke an entity that is planetary in scale, habitability-promoting, and life-specific. This necessitates a resolution to Gaia’s perennial 'Darwinization problem’: there is no a priori reason to expect natural selection within biological populations to favour genotypes conducive to global geochemical/climatic habitability. Three potential routes are outlined for such a resolution, differing in terms of whether the Gaia hypothesis is perceived as: (i) probably incorrect and therefore without need of Darwinization; (ii) potentially correct but associated with some life-induced habitability-promoting influence unconnected to natural selection; and (iii) potentially correct but incomplete without a natural-selection-focused description of habitability. Option (i) downplays the relevance of planetary scale properties to both terrestrial habitability and extra-terrestrial life detection, whereas (ii) sidesteps the Darwinization problem by unacceptably reducing Gaia’s life-specificity, making (iii) preferable because it uniquely preserves Gaia’s core properties. However, this requires that Doolittle’s recent 'It’s-the-song-not-the-singers’ theory be supplemented with a biogeochemical/climatic description of Darwinian fitness that leads to unique predictions."

#gaia
#NaturalSelection

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2024.0087?af=R

Mutation is random; natural selection is the very opposite of random.

Richard Dawkins

#RichardDawkins #Evolution #Mutation #NaturalSelection #JunkyardTornado

Denmark Zoo’s New Diet Plan: Donate Pets for Predator Dinner Parties

#PetDonationDepot #NaturalSelection #ZooLife #FoodChainUpgrade #FurReal By: TheJestPress.com In a move sure to ruffle feathers, wag tails, and send hamsters into existential crisis, the Denmark Smørrebrød Zoo announced a bold new conservation initiative: Accepting unwanted pets to feed their hungry predators and “replicate the natural food chain.” Zoo spokesperson Lars Bæredygtig explained, “We…

http://thejestpress.com/2025/08/05/denmark-zoos-new-diet-plan-donate-pets-for-predator-dinner-parties/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

#lichensubscribe #lichen
#GodOnlyKnows what species

Found on
Icelandic hillside

#ecology #symbiosis #fungi #cyanobacteria #evolution #coevolution #naturalSelection #naturephotography

Adapt or Freeze: How Harsh Winters Are Reshaping Bluebirds’ Survival

Summary & Analysis by Baltazar González Chávez of “Natural Selection after Severe Winter Favors Larger and Duller Bluebirds” by Rolland et al.
Read now!
https://www.amnat.org/an/newpapers/Dec-2024-Rolland.html

#winter #bluebirds #naturalSelection

Published ahead of print with open access: "Natural Selection of Synthetic Gene Drives for Population Suppression Can Favor an Intermediate Strength of Drive" by Beaghton and Burt

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/736727

#NaturalSelection #EEB #Gene

on Darwin and a theory — for much deliberation…

Charles Darwin’s theory on #evolution by natural selection presents the varied links connecting biological facts, and demonstrates the results of these connections, but the theory is a generally misunderstood one in some circles, and in particular amongst fundamentalist believers in the creation story... #charlesdarwin #biology #naturalselection #opinion ... continue reading at write.as:

https://formuchdeliberation.wordpress.com/2025/07/10/on-darwin-and-a-theory-for-much-deliberation-3/

Yesterday I watched a sparrow slide through the chicken wire on my garden fruit enclosure and thus revealing why my berries were disappearing. Per an internet search several weeks ago they are 100% not supposed to be able to do that. As an evolutionary biologist this is absolutely fascinating but as a gardener I am so depressed. #NaturalSelection #sparrows #berries #garden #birds #gardening #fruit #evolution

#naturalselection

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