Fossils of possible new human species found in China

[chickened]

A polar bears hair is hollow which helps it appear white and aids in buoyancy also. It turns yellowish over time when the animal is dead and stuffed.

A good portion of the arctic is actually a desert.

Animals living where there is a lot of snow and ice, with sun's rays bouncing off the surface, have several ways of protecting themselves from the light radiation -- one, is to have melanin to absorb the radiation and keep it from getting deeper into the body; another is to have thick, inpenetrable fur, and a third is to have a reflective surface that can bounce away the rays (white, reflective fur such as polar bears').

Eskimos/Inuit may be dark for a couple of reasons. One, because in the Arctic, during the summer the sun is shining 24/7 even late at night. Two, because snow and ice reflect sun rays and intensify exposure. It's not the visible light itself, but the ultraviolet rays (UVA and UVB) that affect the skin.

Interesting about polar bears: they have white fur, but dark skin. I suspect that the fur likely evolved gradually long after the dark skin, as those with the mutation toward increasingly white fur had an advantage in a snowy landscape, concealing themselves from their prey.

 

[GardenerGal]

Nature says: Waste not, want not. If certain organs and functions are not being used by an organism, when it moves from its original habitat to a new one, then those organs and functions gradually disappear and the energy goes toward a function that is more pragmatic for the environment int which it is now living.

This is not by design, but by gradual attrition. If members of a fully-sighted species of fish from an "outside world" pond environment, somehow end up in a underground cave lake, eyesight will have no purpose, while sense of touch, taste/smell will be more important. So, if any genetic mutation that enhances taste, smell and touch will be beneficial, and likely contribute to the fish species survival, while mutations that diminish vision will not hurt the fishes' survival at all. And, if the body no longer has to dedicate energy to developing and maintaining the optic nerves, eyes and the part of the brain that processes visual data, then the organism can use that energy for other things that add to the survivability of its genes and species.

That is very interesting because in the animal kingdom creatures without light (cave dwellers) actually lighten over time and some have no eyes or if they do they are small and not used like a mole. Blond hair and blue eyes are a trait of Scandinavians but Eskimos kind of distort that theory.

 

[AquaEyes]

That is very interesting because in the animal kingdom creatures without light (cave dwellers) actually lighten over time and some have no eyes or if they do they are small and not used like a mole. Blond hair and blue eyes are a trait of Scandinavians but Eskimos kind of distort that theory.

There is a slight error here -- the creatures themselves don't lighten and lose their eyes, but if individuals are born with mutations that lead to them being paler and blind, they may have a reproductive advantage. Individuals don't evolve -- populations do.

Eyes are unnecessary in total darkness, and also potentially dangerous -- if an individual can't see where it's going, it could easily injure an eye. Those individuals born without eyes can just as easily navigate through total darkness, but have the advantage of losing that source of potential injury and life-threatening infection.

Additionally, in a competitive environment, any individual that can save energy and resources by not producing something that isn't required for survival will have an advantage. In the cave animal example, pigment is produced from melanocytes (a type of cell). Mutations that prevent these cells from forming, or that prevent the production of melanin, would be unfavorable in a non-cave environment, and those individuals would be less likely to survive and reproduce as a result. In a cave, however, there is no such hindrance associated with loss of pigment, and there may be a benefit. Whenever something unnecessary is no longer produced by an individual, that individual becomes slightly more efficient at utilizing available food resources than others.

For example, flight muscles and wings require energy to develop. In an environment where flight isn't necessary, individuals with reduced development of flight muscles and wings because of mutations will have a slightly decreased energy and protein requirement, and can thus "get by" on a little less than the rest. If more of these individuals survive and reproduce than those with developed wings, over time the number of individuals with decreased flight muscle and wing development will become more common in the population as a whole. That's what I mean by "individuals don't evolve -- populations do."

 

[luv dem chicks]

This goes a bit off of your original post AquaEyes, but here is a link you may find interesting. Not about animal life but a species of giant trees rediscovered in 1995 in Australia by a hiker (not that long ago). I remember reading the article in the newspaper when the discovery was made. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1016/is_n3-4_v101/ai_16763537/


This link has pics, and in addition, I see they are successfully propagating the trees.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wollemia


I guess you just never know what's out there.

 

[chickened]

http://www.adn.com/2011/11/14/2170431/ancient-bronze-artifact-unique.html

Read this a while back and thought it to be interesting.

 

[GardenerGal]

Yup. Hair is keratin -- a protein -- and the hollow shafts of polar bear hairs are layers of cellophanelike, shiny stuff that reflects light. It's not really white; it has no pigment.
A lot of mutations that are highly successful toward genetic survival, are so because they confer multiple benefits to the organism. So, polar bears are camoflauged on the icepack where they live, bouyant in the water, and can reflect UV rays.

A polar bears hair is hollow which helps it appear white and aids in buoyancy also. It turns yellowish over time when the animal is dead and stuffed.

A good portion of the arctic is actually a desert.

 

[chickened]

A buddy of mine works on an oil drilling site in the Arctic ocean and he told me they drill through burnt and unburnt tropical vegetation and wood all the time at about 200' to 400'.

 

[chickened]

I also noticed thier claws are unique they are shaped like a fish hook unlike grizzly or black bears.

Yup. Hair is keratin -- a protein -- and the hollow shafts of polar bear hairs are layers of cellophanelike, shiny stuff that reflects light. It's not really white; it has no pigment.
A lot of mutations that are highly successful toward genetic survival, are so because they confer multiple benefits to the organism. So, polar bears are camoflauged on the icepack where they live, bouyant in the water, and can reflect UV rays.

 

[AquaEyes]

Nature says: Waste not, want not. If certain organs and functions are not being used by an organism, when it moves from its original habitat to a new one, then those organs and functions gradually disappear and the energy goes toward a function that is more pragmatic for the environment int which it is now living.

This is not by design, but by gradual attrition. If members of a fully-sighted species of fish from an "outside world" pond environment, somehow end up in a underground cave lake, eyesight will have no purpose, while sense of touch, taste/smell will be more important. So, if any genetic mutation that enhances taste, smell and touch will be beneficial, and likely contribute to the fish species survival, while mutations that diminish vision will not hurt the fishes' survival at all. And, if the body no longer has to dedicate energy to developing and maintaining the optic nerves, eyes and the part of the brain that processes visual data, then the organism can use that energy for other things that add to the survivability of its genes and species.

Ah, yes, and the classic example of this is with the Mexican tetra (a fish). It was once believed to be a species unto itself, but now it is recognized as merely a "form" of an above-ground fish. Only a few genetic differences result in the sighted, pigmented fish becoming blind and de-pigmented. The fish can interbreed, and there are multiple populations of the blind form that are unconnected. What may have happened is that the mutations leading to the blind form occurred in one cave population, and gene flow allowed for the mutations to be carried in the above-ground form, possibly as "splits." If a few above-ground forms colonized a new cave, the few founders would end up inbreeding among themselves, and any recessive "blind-form" genes present in the parents would result in some blind offspring. In the cave environment, the "blind form" has an advantage, and so it becomes the predominant form in the population over time. But in the above-ground environment, the sighted form has an advantage, and so it becomes the predominant form.

There is no "direction" in evolution -- it's merely the accumulation of changes within a population over generations as a result of some individuals having a higher reproductive output than others, and any genetic advantage leading to that increased output being passed down to offspring. If being blind in a cave is an advantage, the first blind individuals (occurring by random mutation...and eyeless mutations are known in many species) will do better than the non-blind. Until that mutation occurs, the individuals don't "know" that is the way they should be -- they simply do their best to survive and reproduce in their environment, and some do it better than others.

 

[AquaEyes]

This goes a bit off of your original post AquaEyes, but here is a link you may find interesting. Not about animal life but a species of giant trees rediscovered in 1995 in Australia by a hiker (not that long ago). I remember reading the article in the newspaper when the discovery was made. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1016/is_n3-4_v101/ai_16763537/


This link has pics, and in addition, I see they are successfully propagating the trees.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wollemia


I you just never know what's out there.

That is really cool! Thanks for sharing!