Pharyngula
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The Mason's Apprentice
Our closest single-celled relatives reveal the origins of the stuff that holds us together.
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Wing of Bat, and Mouse's Leg
Deciphering how a paw becomes a wing confirms some of eco-devo's basic hypotheses.
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Random Acts of Evolution
The idea of humankind as a paragon of design is called into question by the puffer fish genome - the smallest, tidiest vertebrate genome of all.
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Abstract Sculptures of Evolution
Genes provide only the basic blueprints for our teeth. Shapes and sizes arise from the predictable interaction of molecules that live in the jaw itself.
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Eyeing the Evolutionary Past
As we survey nature, the eyes of various creatures reveal the underlying means by which a single attribute can express itself over millions of years.
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Algorithmic Inelegance
Complexity in living things is a product of the lack of direction in evolutionary processes, of the accumulation of fortuitous accidents, rather than the product of design.
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A Profound Sense of Time
PZ Myers on the process that prompts the growth of all vertebrates from embryos to unspecialized segments to multicellular animals.
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Prime Vertebrae
PZ Myers discusses the critical difference between having six or seven cervical vertebrae.
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On Extravagant Proportions
PZ Myers on scarab beetles and the influence of genes on the predictability of proportion.
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Variant Genes-In-Waiting
PZ Myers on how the garden-variety caterpillar is revealing surprising information about the circumstances under which genetic traits actually put themselves forward.
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PZ Myers on How the Cavefish Lost Its Eyes
The Mexican blind cavefish raises the challenging evolutionary question: Does disuse lead to degeneration or disappearance of a feature? Here, an answer Darwin would have loved.