What happens to slimy amphibians during a drought? Do they shrivel up and die? [more inside]
posted by Jon_Evil on Dec 11, 2009 - 3 answers

Evolutionary Biology Filter: Why are we symmetrical? [more inside]
posted by ecorrocio on Dec 7, 2009 - 18 answers

What is the name of the effect, in evolutionary biology, whereby acquired behavioral characteristics that lead to reproductive fitness can result in the selection of predispositions toward acquiring these characteristics? [more inside]
posted by moorooka on Dec 7, 2009 - 6 answers

Can anyone recommend a good book about the evolution of sexual reproduction? [more inside]
posted by shakespeherian on Jul 11, 2009 - 9 answers

I'd like to learn about biology. Can you recommend some books to get me started? [more inside]
posted by SamuelBowman on Jun 30, 2009 - 21 answers

Is it possible something awful lives at the bottom of Lake Tahoe? [more inside]
posted by kbanas on Jul 21, 2008 - 19 answers

Help me find a book about evolution by Kirchner. [more inside]
posted by vilcxjo_BLANKA on Mar 19, 2008 - 4 answers

At a cocktail party last weekend, an Anthropologist was telling me about an experiment/study where people were shown videos of various animals preying on one another, and then measured their reactions. The findings, he contends, were that humans were largely more sympathetic to the deaths of animals more similar to themselves (i.e. sharing a more recent common ancestor). What is this study, what is this area of research called, and where can I read more about it? [more inside]
posted by jjjjjjjijjjjjjj on Jan 18, 2008 - 8 answers

What is a good book about modern evolutionary theories? [more inside]
posted by solistrato on Nov 14, 2007 - 15 answers

I need teaching resources about race: the biology of human "races"; why "race" is not biological but social; how racial categories have shifted over time and place; and related questions on teaching about race? This is as a supplement to reading The Mismeasure of Man in a university "Critical Thinking" class. I need more science and verifiable cross-cultural examples to back up my "there are no biological races" claim. [more inside]
posted by LobsterMitten on Nov 5, 2007 - 38 answers

What is the evolutionary relevance of PMS?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur on Jul 2, 2007 - 49 answers

Why are there no freshwater squid?
posted by jonesor on Mar 1, 2007 - 9 answers

"A human is halfway in size between an atom and the known universe"... This is a paraphrased quote I have come across several times. I like it. Who said it first? How true is it in the most literal sense? And, finally, what errors arrive in postulating a universe, or an atom, which can be measured AT ALL from our singular, relativistic, perspective? [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Feb 18, 2007 - 14 answers

Why can't vaccination encourage the evolution of viral potency?
posted by freebird on Oct 5, 2006 - 16 answers

Why do humans and animals(?) urinate from their sex organs? Are these two bodily functions in some way related? Are their examples of animals that pee & have sex with parts of their bodies that are spaced far apart? [more inside]
posted by selton on Jul 22, 2006 - 32 answers

What experiments have been carried out where animals perform better than us at particular cognitive tasks? [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on May 9, 2006 - 13 answers

ToothEvolutionFilter: Why are human teeth so poorly "designed"? [more inside]
posted by beerbajay on Mar 21, 2006 - 29 answers

How do species come to have different numbers of chromosomes? [more inside]
posted by luftmensch on Jan 20, 2006 - 14 answers

Are there any animals that have evolved a use for radioactivity? If so, what ways is it used? If not, why has this not happened? [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Nov 23, 2005 - 32 answers

Selfish penguin theory: I just saw March of the Penguins and observed the chick-stealing behavior. How is this at all adaptive? [more inside]
posted by nev on Oct 24, 2005 - 13 answers

Evolutionary Biologists: A friend and I were walking through the woods, saw a deer and started pondering our ability to survive with primitive tools. We couldn't get within 40 meters of the deer before it took off. I couldn't see myself making a missile weapon to kill it at that range even with years of experience. My friend asserted that evolutionary pressures have produced deer that are quite a bit more skittish than the deer our distant ancestors had to hunt... [more inside]
posted by cadastral on Aug 19, 2005 - 20 answers

Are there really such things as "scars on chromosomes" and "X vs. Y" 'wars' between the male- and female-determining genes? [more inside]
posted by rleamon on May 8, 2005 - 15 answers

Multiregional or Out of Africa?
posted by four panels on Oct 28, 2004 - 13 answers

Is there a limit to scientific advancement? If there is only a certain number of elements to the universe, will there reach a technology plateau? [more inside]
posted by the fire you left me on Jul 17, 2004 - 24 answers

How did we evolve separate genders? I assume it happened pretty early on, since most animals have a male and female, but wouldn't it have had to happen to lots of things at once for it to actually work?
posted by Orange Goblin on Jun 6, 2004 - 7 answers

How do evolutionary changes occur in biology? Is there some sort of "intelligence" that helps a species adapt, or does a species have to wait for a random mutation to occur that just happens to confer an advantage (a mutation that might never even happen)? For instance, how do bacteria become resistant? And are there different theories on evolutionary changes?
posted by Tin Man on Feb 25, 2004 - 22 answers