Recently in Coevolution Category

Mathematical model helps bridge gap between lab and 'real' world

[Date: 2008-09-12]

Scientists from the UK and the US have created a mathematical model that can predict the outcome of laboratory-based biodiversity studies. Their goal was to find whether the results of biodiversity experiments conducted in miniature, man-made ecosystems can truly be applied to real-world phenomena. 

To find out why some places show greater biodiversity than others, one could spend decades in the field studying one part of a very complex system as it evolves. The more efficient alternative is to create mini-ecosystems in a laboratory in which many generations of bacteria may be observed in a number of situations. 

This simplified approach to studying biodiversity has some inherent problems, one of which is that there is a tenuous relationship between experiments in the laboratory and the broader questions they seek to address. It is hard to tell whether results are specific to one lab, or one particular experiment, or if they are 'true' and can be applied generally. 

As the accusations/counter-accusations fly before the ballot resolution meeting on OpenXML (DIS 29500) I long to be a modern-day Mercutio crying out "A plague o' both your houses."1 But that won't foster co-evolution between OpenXML and OpenDocument Format (OpenDocument herein).
If we had a co-evolutionary environment, one where the proponents of OpenXML and OpenDocument, their respective organizations, national bodies and others interested groups could meet to discuss the future of those proposals, the future revisions of both would likely be quite different.2 Co-evolution means that the standards will evolve based on the influence of each other and their respective user communities.
http://www.durusau.net/publications/co-evolution.pdf

RB
coevolution
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gmU7nainGwT7E3SSbsAxjyKsP0cwD8UPNKNG1
"Butterflies + Plants: Partners in Evolution," offers visitors a chance to get close up and personal with the bright, fluttery creatures and to learn about their relationship with plants over millions of years.
They're not the first living creatures at the museum — there is an insect zoo right next door to the new exhibit — but there's much more opportunity for interaction with the butterflies.
"It's breathtaking and magical," museum associate director Elizabeth Duggal said Wednesday at a preview of the exhibit.
The exhibit's main hall, open to all museum visitors, tells the story of millions of years of co-evolution of butterflies and plants, a 200-million year relationship in which each has influenced changes in the other, said entomologist Ted Schultz.
Butterflies were around in the Jurassic era and have outlived the dinosaurs, he noted. Today there are thousands of species of butterflies and moths around the world.
Within the exhibit is the 1,200 square foot butterfly pavilion, a controlled tropical garden which will have 400 or so butterflies at any given time.


RB
l'évolution co-fécondante. N'en irait-il pas de même aujurd'hui du développement des réseaux, les techniques donnant naissance à des objets nouveaux et réciproquement, les "cyber-angiosperms" supplantant, du mois partiellement, les "gymnosperms" ?

Oregon State University
Research discovers oldest bee, evolutionary link

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered the oldest bee ever known, a 100 million year old specimen preserved in almost lifelike form in amber, and an important link to help explain the rapid expansion of flowering plants during that distant period.

The findings and their evolutionary significance are outlined in an article to be published this week in the journal Science.

The specimen, at least 35-45 million years older than any other known bee fossil, has given rise to a newly-named family called Melittosphecidae – insects that share some of the features of both bees and wasps. It supports the theory that pollen-dependent bees evolved from their meat-eating predecessors, the wasps.

"This is the oldest known bee we've ever been able to identify, and it shares some of the features of wasps," said George Poinar, a professor of zoology at OSU and international expert in the study of life forms preserved in ancient amber. "But overall it's more bee than wasp, and gives us a pretty good idea of when these two types of insects were separating on their evolutionary paths."

www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/osu-rdo102406.php

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RB
Coevolution !
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Symbiotic Fungus Does Not Depend On Fungus-farming Ants For Reproduction
Fungus-farming ants around the world cultivate essentially the same fungus and are not as critical to the reproduction of the fungi as previously believed, biologists at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered.

A leaf-cutting ant queen (Acromyrmex coronatus) is sheltered in a chamber deep inside of her fungus garden, made of leaf fragments and strands of a symbiotic fungus. The garden was grown from a few strands brought by the queen on her mating flight from the maternal garden. After the mating flight, the queen never leaves her garden metropolis. (Photo: Alexander Mikheyev and Barrett Klein)

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