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EXAPTATION. "Recent analyses have demonstrated that neofunctionalization of paralogs from ancient polyploidy have driven a chemical arms race between plants of the Brassicales and their pierid butterfly herbivores." https://lnkd.in/e5Q_ate View in LinkedIn

VESTIGIAL STRUCTURES OF THE FOOT. "In numerous mammalian taxa one or more toes have become vestigial. In numerous others, one or more toes are lost and the associated metatarsals are reduced to a vestigial state. Locomotor changes may have provided the selective pressure that drove the evolution of vestigiality in many mammalian skeletal structures." https://lnkd.in/eMd4h72 View in LinkedIn

PIECEMEAL ASSEMBLY. "The anatomical features seen in modern human feet seem to appear in a piecemeal fashion, and it has recently been proposed that there are different types of mosaic morphologies in the feet of several fossil hominin taxa, and potentially at different lineages with different types of bipedalism." https://lnkd.in/e8qSKap View in LinkedIn

NOT ELEGANTLY SIMPLE. "The foot is a complex mechanical structure. It consists of 26 bones (not including the sesamoid and accessory bones), over 30 joints, about 100 ligaments and additional elements (fascia, skin, fat pads). Thirty one muscles are active in the foot, of which 12 are extrinsic and 19 intrinsic." A structure built by a committee? https://lnkd.in/e3bN-6u View in LinkedIn

TALUS UPON THE CALCANEUS. "Schaeffer (1941) rightly stressed that the therapsid foot was converted into a mammalian one by superposition of the talus upon the calcaneus, correlated with a loss of weight-bearing contact between fibula and calcaneus; but little is known about how the complex articular surfaces and ligamentous apparatus of the mammalian foot came into being." https://lnkd.in/er98r8i View in LinkedIn

NOT DESIGNED FROM SCRATCH. "The origin of our feet dates back to lobe-finned fishes, and has evolved into five-rayed, weight supporting structures since." https://lnkd.in/esuQhhw View in LinkedIn

ORGANISMS AT THE EDGE OF LIFE is a favorite topic of mine, because they challenge our assumptions. These include the definitions of life itself, and of the species. If we are exploring the universe for other life forms, it seems that we must revise some quaint thinking on both topics. I also call this theme the Grey Zone. This is especially exemplified by viruses and mobile genetic elements. View in LinkedIn

ORGANISMS AS COMPLEXES. "It is evident that organisms are anatomically, physiologically, developmentally, genetically, and immunologically multigenomic and multispecies complexes." https://lnkd.in/ddVyNR5 View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this fragment on biological individuality. It is clear that an increasing number of life scientists believe that individuality is a mirage. We are already painfully aware that a scorched-earth policy with antibiotics is a failed concept, and that calling a large and diverse group of microorganisms 'germs' is becoming, slowly, a thing of the past. Already, the microbiome project is illuminating new drugs, not made of molecules, but of living things. We are embarking on a new age. View in LinkedIn

PLANT PATHOGEN IMMUNITY. "In plants, endophytes, the diverse and widespread fungi that live out most of their life cycle in plant tissue, provide enhanced pathogen immunity to their host; they can also ward off herbivores, among other benefits. Thus, immune systems are created, in part, by microbial symbionts." https://lnkd.in/ddVyNR5 View in LinkedIn