The Greatest Science Papers

A dinosaur has an antorbital fenestra with an open hole hip socket. The definition differs from the term used informally because it helped understand how the dinosaur moved and how they were categorized as species. There are four general characteristics that dinosaurs have as a result of their synapomorphies which are permeated acetabulum, ball-shaped head on proximal femur, the Cnemial crest on the proximial tibia, and an ascending process on astragalus. These four dinosaur synapomorphies are related to vertical limb support.

The origin of modern day whales, a mystery that has puzzled paleontologists for years, may have just been solved with the discovery of an ankle bone. This discovery might sound simple and unimportant, but the bones of these ancient animals hold many unanswered questions and provide solid proof of origin and behavior. The relationship between whales and other animals has proven to be difficult because whales are warm-blooded, like humans, yet they live in the sea. The fact that they are warm-blooded suggests that they are related to some type of land animal. However, the questions of exactly which animal, and how whales evolved from land to water, have remained unanswered until now.

First, the author asserts that being the kind of creature with so much mass, Brachiosaurus needed long legs to support them on land, yet the buoyancy would help share this burden. In the lecture, however, the professor indicates that Brachiosaurus were able to walk on land with the fossil tracks of such creatures

During the middle to late Eocene and into the Oligocene epoch several other members of the equids, with distinct evolutionary changes, existed including the Orohippus, Epihippus, Mesohippus, and Miohippus. The Orohippus developed from the Hyracotherium and shared many of the same traits. One major change was that the first and second toes disappeared. Another significant change occurred in the teeth. The last premolar changed to become like a grinding molar. Also the crests were more defined showing that the Orohippus’s diet had changed to a tougher plant material. During the middle Eocene a descendant of Orohippus appeared. The Epihippus still resembled a dog-like animal. It had four padded toes on the front leg, and three on the back leg. However, the teeth changed more drastically with two of the premolars changing to grinding molars. Now there were five grinding cheek teeth with low crowns. As

All animals with limbs have a common design. If a batwing were to be formed from a person’s hand, make the fingers extremely long; a horse elongates the middle fingers and reduce and lose the outer ones; frogs elongate the bones of the leg and fuse several of them together. All in all, despite radical changes in what limbs do and what they look like, this underlying blueprint is always present.

Marine biologists that have studied cephalopods claim that their subjects even have personalities and “that octopuses engage in play, the deliberate, repeated, outwardly useless activity through which smarter animals explore their world and refine their skills” (Scigliano, 2003). One scientist claims that her octopus even “bubble surfs” by spreading his mantle out and letting the aerator jets from his tank run under his body (Scigliano, 2003). .

Recent evidence suggests that whales may not have always inhabited the oceans. Bones of an ancient ancestor of modern day whales, the Basilosaurus, were discovered in Pakistan that suggest whales evolved from a wolf-like creature. This genus of an early whale lived 34-40 million years ago in the late Eocene. These fossils show many different features in common with both modern day whales and modern day land mammals. Since the discovery of these bones, many other evidences show that whales are a likely descendant of the Basilosaurus through many different ways, such as embryologic comparison and DNA testing. Whales aren’t the only suspected descendants

In marine mammal biology a large portion of the study is dedicated towards the study of adaptations to the marine environment. By comparing the anatomy between marine mammals and terrestrial mammals scientists can better understand evolutionary history of how these two categories of mammals diverged from one another. The purpose of this lab was to study the anatomy of different marine and terrestrial mammals and compare their similarities and differences in homologous traits and how adaptations were made specifically for marine mammals to survive the aquatic environment. To accomplish this bones of different species of animals were studied since these structures serve as the basis for comparison across species as well as an indicator of each animal’s individual morphology and physiology. A standard measurement protocol for bones of particular regions of the skeleton was established with emphasis on length versus width ratio as well as it’s overall size relative to its more complex features, i.e. humerus length versus hand length.

Vertebrates are known to be animals with backbones. Tooth reduction is one of the major evolutionary trends that developed among major vertebrate groups that allowed for the transition from aquatic to terrestrial life. Evolution of limbs and being able to breath air are other evolutionary trends that took placeThese trends include improved respiration and protective and insulating body coverings. More over the transition from water to land also included changing to more efficient reproductive methods like having a placenta for some animals or egg layers for other animals. Lastly, the morphology of organisms evolved such that for land they would have paired, muscular appendages used for crawling and

Accompanied by fossil experts Fred Mullison and Bob Masek, the author discovered a fish with a wrist, and another with a part of a fin, and part of a limb. They worked to relate the structure of the fin/wrist joint with its function for the fish. Titaalik had shoulder, elbow, and wrist shapes composed of the same bones as the upper arm, forearm, and wrist in humans. With pectoral muscle scars and crests, the author could conclude that the fish could do “pushups”. Considering the rest of the animal, with its flat head, top eyes, and ribs, the fish was built to navigate the bottom of streams and ponds, avoiding larger predators in the water. The interesting hypothesis coming from this evidence is that many of the major bones humans use to do different functions such as walk, throw, and grasp came first from other ancient animals. Yet, these bones similar in structure to their ancient counterparts come together to create a unique construction in the present. Characteristic of this construction include our ability to rotate our thumbs relative to the elbow, leading to hand usage, as well as the hind limbs with knees and elbows in opposite directions, leading to bipedal

The Ardipithecus ramidus foot shows key characteristic features of bipedality. Whilst there is evidence to show support for bipedalism it is hypothesised that was an occasional form of locomotion used less commonly than arboreal methods. This can be seen through the

The fossil of Tiktaalik confirmed a major prediction of paleontology in that it showed characteristics of both aquatic animals, such as fish, and land animals, such as reptiles and amphibians. While it had fins and scales, it also had a flexible neck, a flat head, and complex bone structure in its fins that correspond with the structure of the legs of terrestrial animals. Thus, it demonstrates the evolutionary transition between aquatic and terrestrial life.

In Jerry Grillo’s article on “Real Science, Impact,” it talks about how Biotechnology is known for helping people. It involves the development of vaccines, therapeutic devices, and medicines. People can find jobs easily in this field and make good money. It also talks about how the research team is testing out new drugs that help’s with the immune system to help fight tumors. The medication itself is expensive. The company that created the drug had a poor second-quarter financial report. The stock tumbled overnight. The research team has been focused on cancer and finding a cure for it. More than one company is currently working on creating antibiotics, vaccines, and more. Research companies are contributing billions of dollars in tax profits

Martin Wells’ The Dilemma Of The Jet Set is a captivating reflection of the cephalopods evolutionary history and discusses the role of fish within the context of the cephalopods’ history during the Paleozoic period. Wells’ piece is elegantly concise and extremely focused as he educates his readers about the main topic: How the cephalopods adapted from adverse circumstances. Wells diligently produces this piece by developing a structure that provides a brief background and then proceeds to fully submerge us readers into his subject. Analyzing his literary structure enables us to understand what his emphasis is on.

The world of science, as we know it today, is a difficult subject to grasp. So many new ideas are present and these new ideas are not interchangeable. Some parts do work together although as a whole they don’t fully coincide with each other. The three basic ideas that science is now based upon come from Newton, Einstein, and Hawking. I call these ideas/theories “new” based on what I classify the state of the scientific community of today. After looking at what is going on in science, it is clear to me that the scientific world is in a crisis state. According to Kuhn, a crisis state is when science is in the middle of choosing a particular paradigm to work under. For scientists, there is a general theme