Evolution - Resource Thread

[neo-x]

Seeing that many people have a twisted often wrong view of evolution, I am dedicating this entire thread on things about evolution, resources, review, sites, excerpts, blogs etc. This thread is not a discussion thread, while you may comment, any debate started should be in a new thread.

Anyone wanting to study evolution will find a lot to sink their teeth into.

EDIT. Read first please

To my readers. guys, this was a thread for links about biological evolution, as the name suggests, a resource hub. But that has not been the case which you will see should you read the topic in full. Long story short, this has been pushed into philosophy section because a mod will not split the topic since he is anti-evolution, a previous mod locked the thread but was gracious enough to unlock it. But now I am tired of begging and requesting, which I actually did on numerous occasions for this thread to be not derailed. It's back in science forums.

My primary aim of the thread was for christians, who like me are interested in evolution and can come to a christian board and talk about science rather than going to atheist boards just to get decent links. However as you read through the thread you will find how unwelcome this topic is. For your convenience, the links to evolution resources are only on the first six pages of this thread, beyond that its all irrelevant to the threads purpose.

[neo-x]

NOT JUST A THEORY

You've been told that "evolution is just a theory", a guess, a hunch, and not a fact, not proven. You've been misled. Keep reading, and in less than two minutes from now you'll know that you've been misinformed. We're not going to try and change your mind about evolution. We just want to point out that "it's just a theory" is not a valid argument.

The Theory of Evolution is a theory, but guess what? When scientists use the word theory, it has a different meaning to normal everyday use.1 That's right, it all comes down to the multiple meanings of the word theory. If you said to a scientist that you didn't believe in evolution because it was "just a theory", they'd probably be a bit puzzled.

In everyday use, theory means a guess or a hunch, something that maybe needs proof. In science, a theory is not a guess, not a hunch. It's a well-substantiated, well-supported, well-documented explanation for our observations.2 It ties together all the facts about something, providing an explanation that fits all the observations and can be used to make predictions. In science, theory is the ultimate goal, the explanation. It's as close to proven as anything in science can be.

Some people think that in science, you have a theory, and once it's proven, it becomes a law. That's not how it works. In science, we collect facts, or observations, we use laws to describe them, and a theory to explain them. You don't promote a theory to a law by proving it. A theory never becomes a law.

This bears repeating. A theory never becomes a law. In fact, if there was a hierarchy of science, theories would be higher than laws. There is nothing higher, or better, than a theory. Laws describe things, theories explain them. An example will help you to understand this. There's a law of gravity, which is the description of gravity. It basically says that if you let go of something it'll fall. It doesn't say why. Then there's the theory of gravity, which is an attempt to explain why. Actually, Newton's Theory of Gravity did a pretty good job, but Einstein's Theory of Relativity does a better job of explaining it. These explanations are called theories, and will always be theories. They can't be changed into laws, because laws are different things. Laws describe, and theories explain.

Just because it's called a theory of gravity, doesn't mean that it's just a guess. It's been tested. All our observations are supported by it, as well as its predictions that we've tested. Also, gravity is real! You can observe it for yourself. Just because it's real doesn't mean that the explanation is a law. The explanation, in scientific terms, is called a theory.

Evolution is the same. There's the fact of evolution. Evolution (genetic change over generations)3 happens, just like gravity does. Don't take my word for it.4 Ask your science teacher, or google it. But that's not the issue we are addressing here. The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection is our best explanation for the fact of evolution. It has been tested and scrutinised for over 150 years, and is supported by all the relevant observations.

Next time someone tries to tell you that evolution is just a theory, as a way of dismissing it, as if it's just something someone guessed at, remember that they're using the non-scientific meaning of the word. If that person is a teacher, or minister, or some other figure of authority, they should know better. In fact, they probably do, and are trying to mislead you.5

Evolution is not just a theory, it's triumphantly a theory!
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Full article with footnotes here

[neo-x]

29+ evidence of MACRO-EVOLUTION.

PART 1: The Unique Universal Phylogenetic Tree

PART 2: Past History

PART 3: Opportunism and Evolutionary Constraint

PART 4: The Molecular Sequence Evidence

PART 5: Change and Mutability

[neo-x]

From Land to Water: the Origin of Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises
Abstract:

Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) are an order of mammals that originated about 50 million years ago in the Eocene epoch. Even though all modern cetaceans are obligate aquatic mammals, early cetaceans were amphibious, and their ancestors were terrestrial artiodactyls, similar to small deer. The transition from land to water is documented by a series of intermediate fossils, many of which are known from India and Pakistan. We review raoellid artiodactyls, as well as the earliest families of cetaceans: pakicetids, ambulocetids, remingtonocetids, protocetids, and basilosaurids. We focus on the evolution of cetacean organ systems, as these document the transition from land to water in detail.

Evolution and Fossil Record
This non-technical introduction to the fossil record and evolution, produced by the American Geological Institute in cooperation with the Paleontological Society, aims to help the general public gain a better understanding of one of the fundamental underlying concepts of modern science.

You can even download the 36 page pdf booklet

Introduction

Tyrannosaurus no longer stalks its prey across North America. There are no pterosaurs sailing majestically overhead. Trilobites no longer crawl on the sea floors of Earth. Today, other predators roam in search of a meal. Birds soar the skies, and crabs scuttle across the ocean bed.
Life on Earth has changed through time. It has evolved. Change through time is a widely accepted meaning of the word evolution. We speak of the evolution of the English language, the evolution of the automobile, or the evolution of politics in the United States. In natural history, biological or organic evolution means change in populations of living organisms on planet Earth through time.

Charles Darwin defined biological evolution as “descent with modification,” that is, change in organisms in succeeding generations. Another way of saying this is, “species of organisms originate as modified descendants of other species” (Hurry, 1993). Biological evolution is the derivation of new species from previously existing ones over time.

Evolution is the central unifying concept of natural history; it is the foundation of all of modern paleontology and biology. This booklet presents a non-technical introduction to the subject of evolution. Here you will find straightforward definitions of important terms as well as discussions of complex ideas.

This brief introduction to the rich and fascinating history of the theory of evolution cannot present in detail the vast body of evidence that has led to the current understanding of evolutionary processes. Our aim is to provide a sense of the history, strength, and power of this important scientific theory. We hope that this booklet will help you sense the wonder and excitement that paleontologists and other students of evolutionary science feel when they contemplate the long and intricate history of life on Earth.

[neo-x]

FAQ: EVOLUTION - The Basics

Abstract:What is evolution? Biological evolution refers to the cumulative changes that occur in a population over time. These changes are produced at the genetic level as organisms' genes mutate and/or recombine in different ways during reproduction and are passed on to future generations. Sometimes, individuals inherit new characteristics that give them a survival and reproductive advantage in their local environments; these characteristics tend to increase in frequency in the population, while those that are disadvantageous decrease in frequency. This process of differential survival and reproduction is known as natural selection. Non-genetic changes that occur during an organism's life span, such as increases in muscle mass due to exercise and diet, cannot be passed on to the next generation and are not examples of evolution.

[neo-x]

You can read Darwin's writings here:

The Voyage of the Beagle

The Origin of Species

The Origin of Species 6th Edition

The Descent of Man

also

The complete works of Charles Darwin.

Darwin Online is the largest and most widely consulted edition of the writings of Darwin ever published. More copies of Darwin's works have been downloaded from Darwin Online than have been printed by all publishers of the past 180 years combined. It is probably the most extensive scholarly website devoted to any historical figure.

This website contains over 100,000 pages of searchable text and 214,000 electronic images, at least one exemplar of all known Darwin publications, reproduced to the highest scholarly standards, both as searchable text and electronic images of the originals. The majority of these have been edited and annotated here for the first time with more than 4,800 original editorial notes.

This website also provides the largest collection of Darwin's private papers and manuscripts ever published: c. 20,000 items across c. 100,000 images, thanks primarily to the kind permission of Cambridge University Library. These numbers break down roughly as follows:

113,070 images of publications
100,140 images of manuscripts

16,770 pages of transcribed Darwin manuscripts (8,330 of these were previously published)
59,600 pages of transcribed Darwin publications
76,400 total pages by Darwin (includes different editions and translations of the same works)
34,000 pages by other authors.

[neo-x]

Understanding Evolution
Use the links on the left of the page to explore further.

Understanding Evolution is a non-commercial, education website, teaching the science and history of evolutionary biology. This site is here to help you understand what evolution is, how it works, how it factors into your life, how research in evolutionary biology is performed, and how ideas in this area have changed over time.

[neo-x]

THE TIMELINE OF HUMAN EVOLUTION

A very nice pictorial timeline view of how primates evolved from earliest ancestors. Its very intresting.

[neo-x]

Explore the Tree of Life - web project

The Tree of Life Web Project (ToL) is a collaborative effort of biologists from around the world. On more than 9000 World Wide Web pages, the project provides information about the diversity of organisms on Earth, their evolutionary history (phylogeny), and characteristics.

[neo-x]

For those who think evolution never happened...

Evolution of antifreeze glycoprotein gene from a trypsinogen gene in Antarctic notothenioid fish

Abstract. Freezing avoidance conferred by different types of antifreeze proteins in various polar and subpolar fishes represents a remarkable example of cold adaptation, but how these unique proteins arose is unknown. We have found that the antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGPs) of the predominant Antarctic fish taxon, the notothenioids, evolved from a pancreatic trypsinogen. We have determined the likely evolutionary process by which this occurred through characterization and analyses of notothenioid AFGP and trypsinogen genes. The primordial AFGP gene apparently arose through recruitment of the 5 and 3 ends of an ancestral trypsinogen gene, which provided the secretory signal and the 3 untranslated region, respectively, plus de novo amplification of a 9-nt Thr-Ala-Ala coding element from the trypsinogen progenitor to create a new protein coding region for the repetitive tripeptide backbone of the antifreeze protein. The small sequence divergence (4-7%) between notothenioid AFGP and trypsinogen genes indicates that the transformation of the proteinase gene into the novel ice-binding protein gene occurred quite recently, about 5-14 million years ago (mya), which is highly consistent with the estimated times of the freezing of the Antarctic Ocean at 10-14 mya, and of the main phyletic divergence of the AFGP-bearing notothenioid families at 7-15 mya. The notothenioid trypsinogen to AFGP conversion is the first clear example of how an old protein gene spawned a new gene for an entirely new protein with a new function. It also represents a rare instance in which protein evolution, organismal adaptation, and environmental conditions can be linked directly.

[neo-x]

The Evolution report hosted by Paul Wilson

The Evolution Report is a series of audio programs on evolutionary topics. It is primarily intended to be supplemental instruction for BIOL 322 Evolutionary Biology. Students say that they don't have enough time to study more than they are already studying, but many spend tons of down-time in their cars and relaxing before bed. Our idea then was to produce an entertaining show that could be listened to during this down-time and that would not consume high-quality time. The goal is to make evolutionary topics more familiar.

[neo-x]

Darwiniana and Evolution

Darwiniana.org is a resource for anyone interested in evolution. It contains information on fossils, genetics, evolutionary theory, botany, zoology, creationism and ID. Extensive links to other reliable sites are provided. It even has a picture of A. R. Wallace. Who was Wallace? Go have a look.

[neo-x]

A single page History of the concept of Evolution

Introduction excerpt:

The word “evolution” in its broadest sense refers to change or growth that occurs in a particular order. Although this broad version of the term would include astronomical evolution and the evolution of computer design, this article focuses on the evolution of biological organisms. That use of the term dates back to the ancient Greeks, but today the word is more often used to refer to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. This theory is sometimes crudely referred to as the theory of “survival of the fittest.” It was proposed by Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species in 1859 and, independently, by Alfred Wallace in 1858—although Wallace, unlike Darwin, said the human soul is not the product of evolution.

Greek and medieval references to “evolution” use it as a descriptive term for a state of nature, in which everything in nature has a certain order or purpose. This is a teleological view of nature. For example, Aristotle classified all living organisms hierarchically in his great scala naturae or Great Chain of Being, with plants at the bottom, moving through lesser animals, and on to humans at the pinnacle of creation, each becoming progressively more perfect in form. It was the medieval philosophers, such as Augustine, who began to incorporate teleological views of nature with religion: God is the designer of all creatures, and everything has a purpose and a place as ordained by Him.

In current times, to some, the terms “evolution” and “God” may look like unlikely bed fellows (see the discussion on teleology). This is due primarily to today’s rejection by biologists of a teleological view of evolution in favor of a more mechanistic one. The process of rejection is commonly considered to have begun with Descartes and to have culminated in Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.

Fundamental to natural selection is the idea of change by common descent. This implies that all living organisms are related to each other; for any two species, if we look back far enough we will find that they are descended from a common ancestor. This is a radically different view than Aristotle’s Great Chain of Being, in which each species is formed individually with its own purpose and place in nature and where no species evolves into a new species. Evolution by natural selection is a purely mechanistic theory of change that does not appeal to any sense of purpose or a designer. There is no foresight or purpose in nature, and there is no implication that one species is more perfect than another. There is only change driven by selection pressures from the environment. Although the modern theory of biological evolution by natural selection is well accepted among professional biologists, there is still controversy about whether natural selection selects for fit genes or fit organisms or fit species.

Evolution by natural selection is a theory about the process of change. Although Darwin’s original theory did not specify that genes account for an organism’s heritable traits, that is now universally accepted among modern evolutionists. In a given population, natural selection occurs when genetically-based traits that promote survival in one’s environment are passed onto future generations and become more frequent in later generations. Organisms develop different survival and reproduction enhancing traits in response to their different environments (with abundance or shortage of food, presence or absence of predators, and so forth) and, given enough time and environmental changes, these small changes can accumulate to form a whole new species. Thus for Darwin there is no sharp distinction between a new variation and a new species. This theory accounts for the diversity of Earth’s organisms better than theological design theories or competing scientific theories such as Lamarck’s theory that an organism can pass on to its offspring characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime.

Evolution by natural selection works on three principles: variation (within a given generation there will be variation in traits, some that aid survival and reproduction and some that don’t, and some that have a genetic basis and some that don’t); competition (there will be limited resources that individuals must compete for, and traits that aid survival and reproduction will help in competition); and heritability (only traits that aid survival and reproduction and have a genetic basis can passed onto future generations).

Read the full article for more.

[neo-x]

Understanding Evolution: History, Theory, Evidence, and Implications

An extensive site with a great breadth of information.
Warning there are a number of very explicit images of deformed foetuses towards the end of the site.

[neo-x]

The original text of the joint paper published Darwin-Wallace Paper from 1858

On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection. By CHARLES DARWIN, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S., & F.G.S., and ALFRED WALLACE, Esq. Communicated by Sir CHARLES LYELL, F.R.S., F.L.S., and J. D. HOOKER, Esq., M.D., V.P.R.S., F.L.S, &c.

This paper was presented without permission from wallace, who had shared his findings with Darwin.