Biogeography

I had my stuffed animals and my plastic stethoscope, and I wanted to be a vet, like James Herriot. Maybe a small animal vet, maybe a field vet, but a vet. When I turned nine, I came across David Quammen's Song of the Dodo, a book about island biogeography. I read it because of the dodo on the cover. Since non-fiction is not a genre known for economy of expression, I was prepared for dry prose and a headache. But Quammen wrote in a style both spare and informative, making technical material…

Despite the fact that I am a biology major at LSU, my interests outside of academics are quite varied. I love the complexity and mystery that the scientific field possesses, but my passions tend to fall more along the lines of science fiction as opposed to fact. My brothers and I all have supernatural thrillers, scifi adventures, and comic books about aliens and mutants stacked up on the shelves of our bookcases. That’s why, when I was telling my family about how I needed a topic relating to my…

Introduction – *Infraclass Metatheria includes pouched mammals andwas first proposed by Thomas Henry Huxley (1880) comprising 272 primitive mammals. *Metatherians are an…

everyday people, as well as “extreme environmentalist and sensationalist journalist” who believe that environmental events are all a result of it being mishandled and polluted by people. Holding credibility as a professor and expert on ecology and biogeography, he uses a logical approach to point out facts that contradict the idea of global warming. Being an expert in this area, definitely helps the overall argument in…

Neutral community theory, also known as the unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography was set-forth in literature in 2001 by Stephen Hubbell however it draws largely upon pre-established, and widely accepted, ecological theories of island biogeography (MacArthur and Wilson, 1967). The original model proposed by MacArthur and Wilson was constructed to account for variation in the composition of birds found in different sized areas as well as their relative abundance and…

Evolution is the change in the heritable traits and genetic codes of biological populations over successive generations which can give rise to biological diversity. Generally, evolution also define as the process which modern organisms have descended from ancient ancestors and the process by which different kinds of living organism are believed to have developed from earlier forms during the history of the earth. The genetic differences that are heritable will passed on to their offspring or the…

into two parts, Greek and Latin. Bio is biological, from Greek, means ‘of biology’. Other word diversity is from Latin, means ‘ diverse, different, and unlike’. The total word biodiversity at least include three parts which are biology, ecology, biogeography. As we know, GM crops may change the biodiversity, but why biodiversity…

cannot accept it. One thing I noticed though is he also doesn’t truly compare why the evolutionary timeline and that of creationists follow has any likeness. Instead Coyne states that with such grandiose “facts” like the fossil record, or that of biogeography, embryology, and vestigial structures, and so on and so forth should be far more than enough to convince that someone mentioned that evolution has been proven true. He continues on hinting that each and every day new scientific research…

Not so long ago, wolves roamed nearly all of the United States—red wolves in the South and grey wolves in the North. Wolves have been mostly extricated in all of the United States except for a few small remaining populations. Wolves played a major role in creating a positive affect on the ecosystem by creating biodiversity in certain areas and regions with their mere presence. Without the presence of wolves, many animals and the environment could suffer huge population losses to include…

The name of these islands are Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Gomera, Palma, and Hierro. These islands are home to three different species of lizards called G. atlantica, G. stehlini, and G. galloti (Lab Manual: Lab 6: Island Biogeography and Evolution: Solving A Phylogenetic Puzzle Using Molecular Genetics). The Canary Islands were named the Fortunate Islands by the Romans. An indigenous population resided there called the Guanches. King Juba is thought to have discovering…