40 posts · 26,029 views
I used to tutor biology and opened up this blog to post interesting stuff that I couldn't cover during the lesson time. I decided to keep it open and make random posts (= whatever strikes my fancy, requests by friends/e-mailers), all for the purpose of general education. Most of the posts are meant to introduce fundamental concepts or just describe the basics of a topic.
Marc
40 posts
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- August 3, 2011
- 11:43 PM
- 1,081 views
Neoprotoerozoic Palaeoclimate
by Marc in Teaching Biology
My Rise of Animals post has led to a dozen readers e-mailing me to ask for more details about Neoproterozoic oxygen levels, since I particularly stressed the importance of oxygen for the radiation of animals. This post is a summary of Neoproterozoic palaeoclimate. For easy reference, the Neoproterozoic ranges from 1000 Ma to 542.5 Ma [...]... Read more »
Evans, D. (2000) Stratigraphic, geochronological, and paleomagnetic constraints upon the Neoproterozoic climatic paradox. American Journal of Science, 300(5), 347-433. DOI: 10.2475/ajs.300.5.347
Hoffman, P., & Schrag, D. (2002) The snowball Earth hypothesis: testing the limits of global change. Terra Nova, 14(3), 129-155. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-3121.2002.00408.x
- August 19, 2011
- 06:59 AM
- 1,045 views
The Importance of Taxon Sampling: An Example from the Snout Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Libytheinae)
by Marc in Teaching Biology
Continuing from yesterday’s theme of injecting some personal remarks (and to make it 3 posts in a row on butterflies, for no particular reason), I want to note something about this Wahlberg et al. (2005) tree (opens in a new window/tab!) that I reprinted in each of the posts, specifically to point out a supposedly [...]... Read more »
Wahlberg, N., Braby, M., Brower, A., de Jong, R., Lee, M., Nylin, S., Pierce, N., Sperling, F., Vila, R., Warren, A.... (2005) Synergistic effects of combining morphological and molecular data in resolving the phylogeny of butterflies and skippers. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 272(1572), 1577-1586. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3124
- August 16, 2011
- 07:02 PM
- 1,028 views
Kickass Mutualisms: Lycaenids Ants
by Marc in Teaching Biology
The Lycaenidae (gossamer-winged butterflies) is the second largest family of butterflies, with ~5000 species, including some of the more famous butterflies, such as the Theclinae (hairstreaks), the Polyommatinae (blues) and the Lycaeninae (coppers). They are mostly found in the Old World (de Jong, 2003), where 28 of the 33 lycaenid tribes are endemic. They are [...]... Read more »
Pierce, N., Braby, M., Heath, A., Lohman, D., Mathew, J., Rand, D., & Travassos, M. (2002) The ecology and evolution of ant association in the Lycaenidae (Lepidoptera). Annual Review of Entomology, 47(1), 733-771. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.ento.47.091201.145257
- July 31, 2011
- 09:39 PM
- 1,022 views
The Eckfeld Maar Fossil Locality
by Marc in Teaching Biology
In this post, the second slide has 6 impressive insect fossil localities pictured. They’ve proven quite popular and I’ve received several e-mails asking for details. At some point, maybe I’ll write dedicated posts similar to this one about them. Anyway, one locality that is missing from there is Eckfeld, so I will introduce it here [...]... Read more »
Lutz, H., & Kaulfuß, U. (2006) A dynamic model for the meromictic lake Eckfeld Maar (Middle Eocene, Germany). Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geowissenschaften, 157(3), 433-450. DOI: 10.1127/1860-1804/2006/0157-0433
- September 8, 2011
- 04:22 PM
- 989 views
Chengjiang
by Marc in Teaching Biology
One of the highlighted Konservat-Lagerstätten in my Rise of Animals post is Chengjiang (a.k.a. the Maotianshan Shales). While Burgess has the historical significance, in terms of importance and potential, Chengjiang is arguably more important (see Shu, 2008). Chengjiang fossils are not the easiest to see, although they are admittedly abundant, at 40000+ specimens so far. [...]... Read more »
Zhu, M., Babcock, L., & Steiner, M. (2005) Fossilization modes in the Chengjiang Lagerstätte (Cambrian of China): testing the roles of organic preservation and diagenetic alteration in exceptional preservation. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 220(1-2), 31-46. DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2003.03.001
Steiner, M., Zhu, M., Zhao, Y., & Erdtmann, B. (2005) Lower Cambrian Burgess Shale-type fossil associations of South China. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 220(1-2), 129-152. DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2003.06.001
- April 18, 2011
- 09:47 PM
- 972 views
The complexity of behaviour: an example from C. elegans
by Marc in Teaching Biology
Those who know me know my strong dislike of popular accounts of human neuroethology – you know, those articles that report on some study where college student brains were scanned under different emotions and conclusions are drawn (often made up). Even worse are when the actual studies do this. I’m in no position to say [...]... Read more »
Pradel, E., Zhang, Y., Pujol, N., Matsuyama, T., Bargmann, C., & Ewbank, J. (2007) Detection and avoidance of a natural product from the pathogenic bacterium Serratia marcescens by Caenorhabditis elegans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(7), 2295-2300. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0610281104
- August 20, 2011
- 05:55 AM
- 966 views
Stomatopod Rumblings
by Marc in Teaching Biology
I thought I had covered the basics of every aspect of stomatopod biology in my stomatopod post, as did all the readers (thanks again for the wonderful feedback!). But I missed one part: acoustics and its role in communication and ecology. It’s obvious that the raptorial appendage will make a loud pop when it strikes, [...]... Read more »
Staaterman, E., Clark, C., Gallagher, A., deVries, M., Claverie, T., & Patek, S. (2011) Rumbling in the benthos: acoustic ecology of the California mantis shrimp Hemisquilla californiensis. Aquatic Biology, 13(2), 97-105. DOI: 10.3354/ab00361
- July 20, 2011
- 05:28 PM
- 958 views
Carnivorous Sponges
by Marc in Teaching Biology
This is not an in-depth post, just a very basic introduction to the carnivorous sponges, in response to a reader question. Before anything, yes, carnivorous sponges do exist, but they are taxonomically very limited: only some members of the Poecilosclerida order of demosponges are known to be carnivorous, and there, most belong to the Cladorhizidae [...]... Read more »
Vacelet, J., & Boury-Esnault, N. (1995) Carnivorous sponges. Nature, 373(6512), 333-335. DOI: 10.1038/373333a0
- August 14, 2011
- 05:02 PM
- 955 views
What is a Mass Extinction?
by Marc in Teaching Biology
One of the main background themes in my history of life series was that extinctions will always happen – they’re a natural part of the biosphere’s evolution. But I never really explained what a mass extinction is. For example, the case of mayflies, who emerge as sexually mature adults simultaneously and live between a few [...]... Read more »
Bambach, R. (2006) PHANEROZOIC BIODIVERSITY MASS EXTINCTIONS. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 34(1), 127-155. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.earth.33.092203.122654
- July 21, 2011
- 10:48 PM
- 925 views
Mole Crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae)
by Marc in Teaching Biology
Mole crickets (Gryllotalpidae) are cosmopolitan (except the poles), 3.2 – 3.5 cm (average, they can be larger than 5 cm!) relatives of crickets (suborder Ensifera, superfamily Grylloidea), named after the mole, since they are both animals that are highly-dependent on burrowing, and they kind of resemble each other (see drawing of Gryllotalpa hexadactyle to the [...]... Read more »
PERRICHOT, V., NERAUDEAU, D., AZAR, D., MENIER, J., & NEL, A. (2002) A new genus and species of fossil mole cricket in the Lower Cretaceous amber of Charente-Maritime, SW France (Insecta: Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae). Cretaceous Research, 23(3), 307-314. DOI: 10.1006/cres.2002.1011
Hill, P., Wells, H., & Shadley, J. (2006) Singing from a constructed burrow: why vary the shape of the burrow mouth?. Journal of Orthoptera Research, 15(1), 23-29. DOI: 10.1665/1082-6467(2006)15[23:SFACBW]2.0.CO;2
- July 5, 2011
- 04:11 PM
- 916 views
The Tertiary: Birds, Whales, Humans and Climate Change
by Marc in Teaching Biology
For PDFs of this entire talk series, click here! [17.62MB rar file with 6 PDFs] In this talk, the lack of structure that I mentioned earlier is very apparent, as we go through three not-directly-related topics. First, we will look at two select examples of vertebrates that underwent spectacular changes in the Tertiary. Second, we [...]... Read more »
Uhen, M. (2010) The Origin(s) of Whales. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 38(1), 189-219. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-earth-040809-152453
Thuiller, W., Lavergne, S., Roquet, C., Boulangeat, I., Lafourcade, B., & Araujo, M. (2011) Consequences of climate change on the tree of life in Europe. Nature, 470(7335), 531-534. DOI: 10.1038/nature09705
- June 28, 2011
- 10:20 PM
- 907 views
The Origin of Modern Biodiversity: Coevolution of Flowers and Insects
by Marc in Teaching Biology
For PDFs of this entire talk series, click here! [17.62MB rar file with 6 PDFs] This talk is split into two major parts: the first will look at the general fossil record of insects, and the second will introduce the flowering plants and their interactions with insects. Due to the constructive feedback received in the [...]... Read more »
Compton, S., Ball, A., Collinson, M., Hayes, P., Rasnitsyn, A., & Ross, A. (2010) Ancient fig wasps indicate at least 34 Myr of stasis in their mutualism with fig trees. Biology Letters, 6(6), 838-842. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0389
Rust, J., Singh, H., Rana, R., McCann, T., Singh, L., Anderson, K., Sarkar, N., Nascimbene, P., Stebner, F., Thomas, J.... (2010) Biogeographic and evolutionary implications of a diverse paleobiota in amber from the early Eocene of India. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(43), 18360-18365. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1007407107
Lidgard, S., & Crane, P. (1988) Quantitative analyses of the early angiosperm radiation. Nature, 331(6154), 344-346. DOI: 10.1038/331344a0
Friedhelm Eichmann. (2003) Aus dem Leben im Bernsteinwald. Arbeitskreis Paläontologie Hannover, 31(4), 89-94. info:/
- June 25, 2011
- 04:22 PM
- 895 views
Terrestrialisation
by Marc in Teaching Biology
For PDFs of this entire talk series, click here! [17.62MB rar file with 6 PDFs] Due to the inherent time constraints of having to compress what is usually a semester’s worth of knowledge into 4.5 hours, we will now move away from the oceans permanently and look at the rest of the history of life [...]... Read more »
Bottjer, D., Clapham, M., Fraiser, M., & Powers, C. (2008) Understanding mechanisms for the end-Permian mass extinction and the protracted Early Triassic aftermath and recovery. GSA Today, 18(9), 4. DOI: 10.1130/GSATG8A.1
Grimaldi, D. (2010) 400 million years on six legs: On the origin and early evolution of Hexapoda. Arthropod Structure , 39(2-3), 191-203. DOI: 10.1016/j.asd.2009.10.008
- August 18, 2011
- 02:35 AM
- 850 views
Pieridae (Lepidoptera) as Model Organisms
by Marc in Teaching Biology
The ~1100 species of Pieridae comprise the butterflies known as the sulphurs and the whites. They’re model organisms for numerous fields of biology, and this post introduces their use as such. As background, this post was spurred by a former student demanding I make a post containing my own speculations instead of randomly strung-together facts. [...]... Read more »
Ghiradella, H., Aneshansley, D., Eisner, T., Silberglied, R., & Hinton, H. (1972) Ultraviolet Reflection of a Male Butterfly: Interference Color Caused by Thin-Layer Elaboration of Wing Scales. Science, 178(4066), 1214-1217. DOI: 10.1126/science.178.4066.1214
- June 28, 2011
- 04:49 PM
- 819 views
Mesozoic Vertebrates
by Marc in Teaching Biology
For PDFs of this entire talk series, click here! [17.62MB rar file with 6 PDFs] We will now look at the aftermath of the P-T Extinction on terrestrial vertebrate life, in other words look at what the vertebrates of the Mesozoic were like. The most famous representatives are, of course, the dinosaurs, so we will [...]... Read more »
Luo, Z. (2007) Transformation and diversification in early mammal evolution. Nature, 450(7172), 1011-1019. DOI: 10.1038/nature06277
Sander, P., Christian, A., Clauss, M., Fechner, R., Gee, C., Griebeler, E., Gunga, H., Hummel, J., Mallison, H., Perry, S.... (2011) Biology of the sauropod dinosaurs: the evolution of gigantism. Biological Reviews, 86(1), 117-155. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-185X.2010.00137.x
- July 13, 2011
- 06:27 PM
- 726 views
Mantis Shrimp (Crustacea: Stomatopoda)
by Marc in Teaching Biology
There are ~350 species of mantis shrimp (Stomatopoda). Pictured above is Odontodactylus scyllarus (source: Patek & Caldwell, 2005). They are easily recognisable in the field by their colour and appearance, but more scientifically by their flat carapace that leaves the sides of the thorax exposed and doesn’t even cover the last four thoracic segments. Thoracopods [...]... Read more »
Richter, ., & Scholtz, . (2001) Phylogenetic analysis of the Malacostraca (Crustacea). Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, 39(3), 113-136. DOI: 10.1046/j.1439-0469.2001.00164.x
Patek, S. (2005) Extreme impact and cavitation forces of a biological hammer: strike forces of the peacock mantis shrimp Odontodactylus scyllarus. Journal of Experimental Biology, 208(19), 3655-3664. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.01831
Porter, M., Zhang, Y., Desai, S., Caldwell, R., & Cronin, T. (2010) Evolution of anatomical and physiological specialization in the compound eyes of stomatopod crustaceans. Journal of Experimental Biology, 213(20), 3473-3486. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.046508
- October 17, 2011
- 09:34 AM
- 700 views
Taxonomic Bias in the Fossil Record: Is it really an issue?
by Marc in Teaching Biology
As a palaeontologist, especially one who doesn’t work on vertebrates and shelled invertebrates, the adequacy of the fossil record for phylogenetics and for finding out evolutionary origins of taxa is a topic I often wrestle with – Darwin himself also famously complained about this issue, devoting an entire chapter to it; all of his complaints [...]... Read more »
Benton, M., Wills, M., & Hitchin, R. (2000) Quality of the fossil record through time. Nature, 403(6769), 534-537. DOI: 10.1038/35000558
- September 19, 2011
- 12:32 PM
- 669 views
Onthophagus Horn Dimorphism
by Marc in Teaching Biology
One of my side-projects at the moment is setting up a project to observe the behaviour and life history of male Onthophagus dung beetles (Scarabaeidae). This post will introduce why this is of interest (to me, at least). First, a bit about the study species. As far as is currently known, there is only one [...]... Read more »
Gotoh, H., Cornette, R., Koshikawa, S., Okada, Y., Lavine, L., Emlen, D., & Miura, T. (2011) Juvenile Hormone Regulates Extreme Mandible Growth in Male Stag Beetles. PLoS ONE, 6(6). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021139
Emlen, D., Corley Lavine, L., & Ewen-Campen, B. (2007) Colloquium Papers: On the origin and evolutionary diversification of beetle horns. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(suppl_1), 8661-8668. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0701209104
- October 6, 2011
- 12:42 PM
- 644 views
Myxozoa
by Marc in Teaching Biology
The Myxozoa count as some of the most enigmatic organisms known. There’s around 1350 species of them, all tissue and cellular parasites. The majority infect aquatic and marine fish, while some use platyhelminths, annelids, reptiles, amphibians (e.g. Hartigan et al., 2011) or moles as primary hosts. One freshwater bryozoan parasite whose affinity has been debated [...]... Read more »
Evans, N., Holder, M., Barbeitos, M., Okamura, B., & Cartwright, P. (2010) The Phylogenetic Position of Myxozoa: Exploring Conflicting Signals in Phylogenomic and Ribosomal Data Sets. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 27(12), 2733-2746. DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msq159
- November 19, 2011
- 01:08 PM
- 615 views
Culicoidea (Insecta: Diptera)
by Marc in Teaching Biology
The Culicoidea is a superfamily of nematoceran flies (see crudely-modified phylogeny above, from Grimaldi & Engel, 2005). It includes one the most well-known group of organisms, the mosquitoes (Culicidae), as well as three other families: the Dixidae, the Corethrellidae and Chaoboridae. Their sister group is the Chironomidea (containing the Chironomidae, Ceratopogonidae, Simuliidae and Thaumaleidae), all [...]... Read more »
Saether, O. (2000) Phylogeny of Culicomorpha (Diptera). Systematic Entomology, 25(2), 223-234. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-3113.2000.00101.x
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