A study that would make Darwin proud.

Discussion in 'Biology & Genetics' started by Saturnine Pariah, Sep 1, 2014.

  1. Saturnine Pariah Hell is other people Valued Senior Member

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    http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/6ede1a6561dcae63b529a554ba5f704c.htm

    The video posted above, is a quick summary. However, for those individuals interested in these remarkable findings, but don't want to watch the video ( I recommend that you do though), the whole enchilada is also presented in written form, so you can learn about, and share this knowledge with others.


    Researchers at McGill University published in the journal Nature, turned to a living fish, called Polypterus, to help show what might have happened when fish first attempted to walk out of the water. Polypterus is an African fish that can breathe air, 'walk' on land, and looks much like those ancient fishes that evolved into tetrapods. The team of researchers raised juvenile Polypterus on land for nearly a year, with an aim to revealing how these 'terrestrialized' fish looked and moved differently.
    "Stressful environmental conditions can often reveal otherwise cryptic anatomical and behavioural variation, a form of developmental plasticity," says Emily Standen, a former McGill post-doctoral student who led the project, now at the University of Ottawa. "We wanted to use this mechanism to see what new anatomies and behaviours we could trigger in these fish and see if they match what we know of the fossil record."

    Remarkable anatomical changes The fish showed significant anatomical and behavioural changes. The terrestrialized fish walked more effectively by placing their fins closer to their bodies, lifted their heads higher, and kept their fins from slipping as much as fish that were raised in water. "Anatomically, their pectoral skeleton changed to became more elongate with stronger attachments across their chest, possibly to increase support during walking, and a reduced contact with the skull to potentially allow greater head/neck motion," says Trina Du, a McGill Ph.D. student and study collaborator.

    "Because many of the anatomical changes mirror the fossil record, we can hypothesize that the behavioural changes we see also reflect what may have occurred when fossil fish first walked with their fins on land," says Hans Larsson, Canada Research Chair in Macroevolution at McGill and an Associate Professor at the Redpath Museum.
    Unique experiment The terrestrialized Polypterus experiment is unique and provides new ideas for how fossil fishes may have used their fins in a terrestrial environment and what evolutionary processes were at play.

    Larsson adds, "This is the first example we know of that demonstrates developmental plasticity may have facilitated a large-scale evolutionary transition, by first accessing new anatomies and behaviours that could later be genetically fixed by natural selection."
    The study was conducted by Emily Standen, University of Ottawa, and Hans Larsson, Trina Du at McGill University.
    This study was supported by the Canada Research Chairs Program, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Tomlinson Post-doctoral fellowship.

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    Story Source:
    The above story is based on materials provided by McGill University.

    Journal Reference:
    Emily M. Standen, Trina Y. Du, Hans C. E. Larsson. Developmental plasticity and the origin of tetrapods. Nature, 2014; DOI:10.1038/nature13708

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140827131547.htm
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  3. wellwisher Banned Banned

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    What this study also shows, is consciousness, via behavior, is able to extrapolate the limits of the genetics, pushing the DNA in a new direction. In other words, the DNA is analogous to a set of tools. Consciousness is what figures out how to use these same tools in new ways, not yet in the manual of the DNA. With consciousness being one step ahead; development, the DNA has a potential to follow.

    For example, the computer is very new in terms of the human history and human behavior. To use a computer, you will use the same basic tools of hands and eyes that a monkey uses, but in a new way that is not in the manual of instinct. In only a few generations, now children can do this behavior, at a younger and younger age as though the DNA has added this new behavior into its manual of tool use. There was not a mutation in one child and slow process of change, but this innate ability occurs everywhere at the same time due to consciousness leading the DNA with similar relative potentials everywhere.

    How would you explain the ability of the youth, in general, being good with tech at a young age, using only a natural selection argument? There are no new genetic based tools required since hands and eyes are already there. What is needed is a new sequence in the personality firmware that uses the same tools in new ways. Maybe over long periods of time, some will evolve thicker finger tips for typing and larger eyes to see the fine print; natural selection.

    The fish discussed can breath air. It has all the tools needed to stay in water or land. At first its manual for tool use, did not include staying on the land just because it could breath air. Consciousness had to first write that chapter for the DNA hard drive. Some people use duct tape for all types of things, yet it is only thing and does not need any major change for even more new uses. The inventor never saw half the uses people use it for.
     
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  5. zgmc Registered Senior Member

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    You probably would have learned to use a computer at a young age as well if the tech was available. I think you are taking this consciousness idea a step too far.
     
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  7. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

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    He's also approaching the "problem" (young kids picking up computer skills more easily [sup]1[/sup] than adults) from the wrong direction entirely.
    But Wellwisher has a habit of posting unsupported (and incorrect) speculation as if it were indisputable fact.

    1 That's a gross generalisation anyway...
     
  8. wellwisher Banned Banned

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    Computers have been around since WWII, but were too large and complicated for any child to use. It would be like expecting a child to just pick up the ballet moves of the NutCracker, because they had the tools of legs and arms that are needed. What had to happen was the computer designers had to simplify the steps of the computer dance. The software and GUI became easier to use and no longer required everyone be a programmer. The genetics of the child did not have to evolve, but rather consciousness built an easier bridge for using the same genetic tool set, the earlier children also had.

    Computer selection is about eye candy and ease of use, which is the trend in other behavior. The first fish to walk on land is like the big WWII computer that not all can copy, even though they have the tools. But as the motion begins to simplify, more and more are able to play with walking until it is so easy even a baby can do it.
     
  9. Aqueous Id flat Earth skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    and wrapping it up in weird rant, like he's writing sci-fi, only sci-fi no one would ever bother reading since it's way too incoherent.
     

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