Reddit reviews Evolutionary Analysis

Brother you aren't going to learn shit from this. As a Biology major, may I suggest two excellent textbooks for you to peruse?

Campbell Biology

Evolutionary Analysis

I don't know what grade you are in, but assuming you are in high school, both of these books should be accessible. The second textbook is a college level book, but if you are at all interested in evolution, you should be able to understand and enjoy it. If you are worried about the hefty price tag, go ahead and buy either an international version or a previous edition... Editions only matter if you are taking tests.

My university uses "Evolutionary Analysis" by Freeman & Herron.
Book

Go to any college textbook on evolution, such as this one, and it will talk about the importance of allopatric speciation. There have been some hypotheses about geographic stability being important but not a lot of explicit studies. Here is one now.

Put the hyperbolic title aside and there is really something new and interesting here. And ALWAYS read the original paper if you have the time. That is how you actually find out about stuff.

I'm glad my response made some sense. There are most likely some inaccuracies, and many concepts are necessarily invoked which is not easy to fit into a readable post - if you are really interested: one standard Evolution 101 textbook is Evolutionary analysis by Freeman&Herron. We did use it in 3rd semester biology and I did really like it.

The same selective pressure does not have to lead to the same traits - even in the same species, and less so in different species. On the other hand, it did just that very often, which is called an analogy or analogous trait. Examples are wings, the shape of the aardvark and anteater, and many more.

>What about monkey-like primates that somewhere along the way of their development would be exposed to conditions that favour human-like features? Would they stop evolving in the monkey ways and start evolving human traits? Is anything of the sort ever seen on Earth, something between the wilder monkeys and humans? Or are chimps, orangutans and the like just that?

I can't really answer that, I actually don't know, if it is possible to answer statisfactorily .

It could be, but then again it takes a long time. So it's not likely to happen in our lifetime (speciation can be quite fast: example of E. coli, example of mosquito). Speciation, because the post-ape (the evolved one) would most likely not be able to mate with present ones.

It is thinkable that humans go extinct and some other apes take the opportunity of free niches, just like many other organisms most likely would. But I don't know if this would lead to human-like behavior or physical traits.

> the majority of mutations that appear good, come from a loss of info, so selection would promote loss of info in that case.

Now that's a bold claim which needs to be backed up thoroughly. As a general claim it is most likely wrong.

>Additionally, selection may "root out" the very bad mutations, but many of the deleterious mutations may not affect survivability at first and can still spread to the entire species.

If they won't affect fitness at first, they still might do so in an altered set of genes. But calling them bad before is wrong. They were neutral at worst, and of course they might spread through the enitre species as such. However if they actually are bad, they won't. They can't.

>In fact I've heard arguements that those spead faster than benefitial mutations simply because there are more of them.

Why would that be the case? This is again wrong.

Generally, you have to remember how genes and mutations spread, through reproduction. This means a gene that is disadvantageous will lead to less offspring, and over generations to a very very low rate within the population.

I give up for now, because it just feels like you don't really want to know. Sure you say you do, but I don't believe it.

In any case I highly recommend these standard biology textbooks, which have everything you could possibly want to know in them.

The campbell

Freeman&Herron

http://www.amazon.com/Evolutionary-Analysis-Scott-Freeman/dp/0132275848

Just finished my course in evolution. This very subject was highlighted to better understand evolution and how complicated it actually is. i.e. what seems evident, but isn't really so or isn't supported using science.