Author: Lori Jia
Check out Pharyngula on the new paper that uses penguin fossils to time the evolution of living bird groups. In October I posted this picture of a reconstruction of the penguin in question, which now has a name: Waimanu. I’d just add to PZ’s run down that this fossil is also important because it is part of the transition from flying ancestors to flightless living penguins. Its wings could still bend at the elbows.
Originally published March 19, 2006. Copyright 2006 Carl Zimmer.
Randy Olson, who sparked a massive discussion here a couple weeks ago in connection to his movie, Flock of Dodos and how to explain evolution, sends an update:
Hello Carl –
Big news here — the official World Premiere of “Flock of Dodos: the evolution-intelligent design circus,” will be at Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Film Festival on the evening of Sunday, April 30 in New York City, followed by three more screenings during the following days. We will have details on our website next week on how to get tickets. Here’s the Tribeca announcement: http://www.indiewire.com/ots/2006/03/tribeca_fest_un.html
The New York Times, March 15, 2006
Pregnancy can be the most wonderful experience life has to offer. But it can also be dangerous. Around the world, an estimated 529,000 women a year die during pregnancy or childbirth. Ten million suffer injuries, infection or disability.
To David Haig, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard, these grim statistics raise a profound puzzle about pregnancy.
“Pregnancy is absolutely central to reproduction, and yet pregnancy doesn’t seem to work very well,” he said. “If you think about the heart or the kidney, they’re wonderful bits of engineering that work day in and day out for years and years. But pregnancy is associated with all sorts of medical problems. What’s the difference?”
Harper has put up a new page on Amazon for the reissued paperback of Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea. It will include an introduction I’ve written that surveys some of the important developments in both the science and politics of evolution in the five years since the book was published. The Amazon page doesn’t show the cover yet, but it’s in the fall catalog–a subset of these lovely eyes. The publication date is scheduled for November (cough…Christmas gifts…cough).
Originally published March 14, 2006. Copyright 2006 Carl Zimmer.