Year: 2022

SEXUAL POLYGAMY. “Polygyny is one male with many females (lions) versus polyandry or one female with many males (bees). Many primates and dolphins are promiscuous, with multiple indiscriminate matings.” https://lnkd.in/e3_feD9 View in LinkedIn

“FAST REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES (R STRATEGIES) are used by mice and rabbits to make many offspring quickly. Typically, these organisms are small, live short lives and rapidly come to sexual maturity. Their numerous offspring are swiftly independent, with low survivorship.” https://lnkd.in/e3_feD9 View in LinkedIn

HEMIZYGOSITY. "Meiotic recombination establishes connections between homologous chromosomes to promote segregation. Hemizygous regions of sex chromosomes have no homologous chromosome to recombine with yet must be transmitted through meiosis. An extreme case of hemizygosity exists in the genus Caenorhabditis, where males have a single X chromosome that completely lacks a homologous partner." https://lnkd.in/evK6USz View in LinkedIn

LAST SHOT. "Semelparous organisms have a simple life cycle characterized by immediate death after reproduction." https://lnkd.in/eHQg5U4 View in LinkedIn

SUICIDE AND NATURAL SELECTION. "The idea that self-inflicted organismal death could be adaptive sounds, at face value, absurd. An adaptation is a trait that is suitable (apt) for the current circumstances or environmental challenges, and archetypal examples include traits that promote survival. Natural selection is the mechanism that produces adaptations." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE grapples with two opposing viewpoints of evolution: that life is on a linear march towards increased diversity and complexity, versus the view of evolution as a highly destructive boom and bust pendulum. Explosive biodiversity has been the hallmark of the Cambrian period, while five mass extinctions have endangered the very crucible of life on planet earth. View in LinkedIn

INEXORABLE MARCH. “The cumulative fossil record can give the impression that the diversity of life has increased inexorably through time, although punctuated with occasional mass extinction events.” (PS: See Figure 1). https://lnkd.in/e5XfdvZ View in LinkedIn

WIPEOUT TRAIN. “More than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct.” Would you voluntarily board this train with its reckless driver? https://lnkd.in/efCSXC8 View in LinkedIn

POINTY END OF A CONE. “What we see today is the standing diversity—the net difference between cumulative speciation (births) and extinction (deaths)—which is a minute fraction of all the species that have ever lived.” https://lnkd.in/e5XfdvZ View in LinkedIn

THE RUB. “There has been controversy between more traditional views of increased biodiversity through a cone of diversity with the passing of time and the view that the basic pattern on Earth has been one of annihilation and diversification.” https://lnkd.in/efCSXC8 View in LinkedIn