Ancient Penguin Discoveries and Evolution Essay

Also, support is gaining that Archaeopteryx was not in fact the first bird, but instead a descendent of an earlier bird ancestor that had developed along a different pathway and actually represents an evolutionary dead end.

The ground on where the subfossils were found at had at least 17 species of extinct lemurs. The oldest radiocarbon-dated bones of extinct lemurs are about 12,000-26,000 years old (pbs.org). Other fossils were discovered that were only about 1000-500 years old. This research indicated that there was in fact giant extinct lemurs. Mireya Mayor is an anthropologist who studies primates and discovered a mouse lemur in the year of 2000. With technology advancement, scientists are now able to extract DNA from subfossil Lemurs. Any discovery of ancient DNA are being analyzed in a laboratory at Northwestern University in Chicago. Subfossil Lemur DNA samples will be tested on the hypotheses of evolutionary relationship that were collected from the analysis of the skeletal morphology of extant and extinct

The African black-footed penguin is unique, as in comparison to its Spheniscus family relatives due to its extensive use of the braying call. These uses developed as a result of behaviors and the lifestyle seen in the African penguin that are not as clearly seen in its Galapagos, Magellanic, and Humboldt relatives. The harsh, loud, sharp, and intense sound of the bray has developed to benefit the penguin. Without it the species would not be successful in reproduction, establishing territory, or locating other members of the

Using clear examples and evidence as well as the evolutionary concepts found in David Quammen's essay it is obvious that the existence and missing links are clear indicators of evolution. Missing links are species which relate major biological categorizations together, these species show the emergence of a novel traits though still retaining their old ones. In the case of Archaeopteryx, it still had many dinosaur-like features but had developed non-dinosaur-like feathers, as a result this species shared similar traits with both dinosaurs and birds. Since birds and the Archaeopteryx share many of the same characteristics it can be argued that birds evolved from Archaeopteryx which is evidence that modern animals are descended from extinct species. However, this is only speculation because many other different species evolved feathers over the eons and any one of those animals could be the predecessor to our modern fowl. Regardless of which animal the modern fowl descended from, be it Archaeopteryx or another feathered dinosaurs, the evidence still stands that feathers were evolved and passed down the evolutionary tree to modern birds which opposes the creationist's theory that all animals were created at the same time and that evolution is not occurring. Apart from the Archaeopteryx there

Virginie Millien used a dataset assembled from the literature to test these assumptions. The fossil record

This month it is our pleasure to introduce Svante Pääbo, most recent recipient of the Genetics Society Medal for outstanding contribution in the field of evolutionary genetics.

Although fossil records are substantial evidence for evolution there are gaps in the fossil records due to the fact of incompletion of the collecting data. As evolution is

This lack of criteria is what causes the exclusion of taxonomic acknowledgment of major evolutionary innovations while inaccurately portraying history. It is also mentioned in Greene’s more recent journal that the Linnean method fails at specifying clades based upon the origin of limbs in tetrapods and shelled egg amniotes. While it also, “obscures the fact that crocodilians are more closely related to birds than they are to turtles, lizards, and snakes,” which does not highlight many dramatic similarities between earlier archosaurs (Ballen, Cissy J., and Harry W. Greene). These two main concerns of omission and obscuration are why the phylogenetic clade-based system is a far more valuable and beneficial methodology for teaching zoology.

According to Simon et al, evidence of evolution is apparent and has been for many decades. Fossils are one way to prove the theory of evolution. They can be found inside sedimentary rocks that are covering dead creatures. Over thousands of years these rocks form layer upon layers. These layers of rocks make up what is called a fossil record. Each layer contains creatures that lived millions of years ago. (Simon, 2015) Sometimes the fossil record does get lost in the translation due to damage. This fact makes the fossil record very intricate, but sometimes hard to

When PhD student Emil Krupandan and Dr. Alejandro Otero visited the Evolutionary Studies Institute (http://www.wits.ac.za/esi/17918/evolutionary_studies_institute.html) to study a collection, they knew they would be sifting through thousands of bones. But the University of Cape Town student and the visiting paleontologist from Argentina could have never guessed that they would uncover a new dinosaur species. But that's exactly what they did

By putting the pictures of fossils in chronological order in the activity Using Fossils to Tell “Deep Time”, we discovered that fossils can be a valuable tool in relative dating. Due to the principle of horizontal originality, we know that layers of sediment are deposited horizontally; because of this, we can extrapolate that fossils of the same species will

It is often debated which species share common ancestors, in particular, how closely related amphibians, mammals and osteichthyes are. The evolution of tetra pods, or four legged animals, from aquatic animals such as fish can be traced back 365 million years ago to the Devonian, 408-360, mya, and evidence shows that this evolution was divergent in nature (Freeman, S. 2011; Myer, A and Zardoya, R. 2004). Divergent evolution, also sometimes termed adaptive radiation, occurs over many geological times and gives rise to a number of new species that all occupy different habitats and show characteristics that assist in survival and reproduction under their natural selection pressures (Kinear, J.F. 2000). Variations in these essential survival

The Emperor penguin and the Great norther diver they are both are from the class Aves (Magnuson, 2007) .In addition, the emperor penguin since is in the class Aves, the penguins used to be able to flight which is an adaptive trait. But, since they are bigger, heavier, and better at swimming the trait was lost over time (Elliott et. al, 2013).In addition, physiologically the common loon looks different very different from the Emperor penguin looks bigger and can’t fly. In the other hand the common loon is small, is able to fly, swim, but can’t walk (Mager et. al, 2017). Both, species have evolve to either loss or gain traits over time to adapt to their environment.

The remains and imprints of organisms found in earlier geological periods are still preserved in sedimentary rocks. These fossil records allow scientists to look through vast periods of time and attest to the fact that some species have transitional traits found in larger groups of organisms. This proves that species evolved from a distant ancestor and were not fixed there by God. Animals such as apes and the Archaeopteryx are evidence of the missing links and the gaps humanity has filled in the fossil records. They are also examples of transitional species that have tied different groups of species together through common traits and skeletal features. Fossil records also prove that single-celled organisms were succeeded by multi-celled organisms which ties back to Charles Darwin

The emperor penguins kingdom is: Animalia, its phylum is: Chordata, its Class is: Aves, Its order is: Sphenisciformes, Is family is: Spheniscidae, It genes is: Aptenodytes, and its species is: A. Forsteri. Its the tallest of all the penguin species being able to be 45 inches tall, and its average lifespan is 20-25 years old.