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Why are there so many more species of insects? Because insects have been here longer
April 04, 2007J. B. S. Haldane once famously quipped that "God is inordinately fond of beetles." Results of a study by Mark A. McPeek of Dartmouth College and Jonathan M. Brown of Grinnell College suggest that this fondness was expressed not by making so many, but rather by allowing them to persist for so long. In a study appearing in the April issue of the American Naturalist, McPeek and Brown show that many insect groups like beetles and butterflies have fantastic numbers of species because these groups are so old. In contrast, less diverse groups, like mammals and birds, are evolutionarily younger. This is a surprisingly simple answer to a fundamental biological puzzle. They accumulated data from molecular phylogenies (which date the evolutionary relationships among species using genetic information) and from the fossil record to ask whether groups with more species today had accumulated species at faster rates. Animals as diverse as mollusks, insects, spiders, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals appear to have accumulated new species at surprisingly similar rates over evolutionary time. Groups with more species were simply those that had survived longer. Their analyses thus identify time as a primary determinant of species diversity patterns across animals. Given the unprecedented extinction rates that the Earth's biota are currently experiencing, these findings are also quite sobering. We are rapidly losing what it has taken nature hundreds of millions of years to construct, and only time can repair it.
University of Chicago Press Journals
Species Current Events and Species News RSS100-meter sprint world record could go as low as 9.48 seconds
2008 was a great summer for sports' fans. World records tumbled at the Beijing Olympics. Usain Bolt shattered both the 100m and 200m world records, knocking tenths of a second off each.
Persistent pollutant may promote obesity
Tributyltin, a ubiquitous pollutant that has a potent effect on gene activity, could be promoting obesity, according to an article in the December issue of BioScience.
Researchers recreate SARS virus, open door for potential defenses against future strains
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Vanderbilt University Medical Center have synthetically reconstructed the bat variant of the SARS coronavirus (CoV) that caused the SARS epidemic of 2003.
Synthetic virus supports a bat origin for SARS
SARS - severe acute respiratory syndrome - alarmed the world five years ago as the first global pandemic of the 21st century. The coronavirus (SARS-CoV) that sickened more than 8,000 people - and killed nearly 800 of them - may have originated in bats, but the actual animal source is not known.
Smithsonian puts tropical Eastern-Pacific shore fishes online
A new bilingual online information system created by D. Ross Robertson, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and Coeus Knowledge Systems makes it possible for conservationists, sport fishers, tourists, researchers, students and resource managers to identify and generate publishable maps for 1,287 tropical eastern Pacific shore fish species.
"Gray's Paradox" Solved: Researchers Discover Secret of Speedy Dolphins
There was something peculiar about dolphins that stumped prolific British zoologist Sir James Gray in 1936.
Researchers identify new leprosy bacterium
A new species of bacterium that causes leprosy has been identified through intensive genetic analysis of a pair of lethal infections, a research team reports in the December issue of the American Journal of Clinical Pathology.
Ocean growing more acidic faster than once thought
University of Chicago scientists have documented that the ocean is growing more acidic faster than previously thought. In addition, they have found that the increasing acidity correlates with increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Researchers Shed Light on Evolution of Gene Regulation
Scientists at Penn State have shed light on some of the processes that regulate genes -- such as the processes that ensure that proteins are produced at the correct time, place, and amount in an organism -- and they also have shed light on the evolution of the DNA regions that regulate genes.
Plants grow bigger and more vigorously through changes in their internal clocks
Hybrid plants, like corn, grow bigger and better than their parents because many of their genes for photosynthesis and starch metabolism are more active during the day, report researchers from The University of Texas at Austin in a new study published in the journal Nature.
More Species Current Events and Species News Articles
 | On the Origin of Species: The Illustrated Edition by Charles Darwin This year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. In his landmark study, Darwin theorized that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. These ideas flew in the face of long-held beliefs, and the book... |
 | The Origin of Species, Revised Edition (Abridged) by Charles Darwin Here is the revised edition of Charles Dawrin's The Origin of Species, introduced and abridged by Philip Appleman, published by W. W. Norton. As much as anyone in the modern era, Charles Darwin changed the course of human thought. The impact on Western civilization of his seminal work has been broad and deep: not only the biological sciences but also... |
 | The Origin Of Species: 150th Anniversary Edition by Charles Darwin The book that shook the world First time from Signet Classic This is the book that revolutionized the natural sciences and every literary, philosophical and religious thinker who followed. Darwin's theory of evolution and the descent of man remains as controversial and influential today as when it was published over a century... |
 | On the Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection (Dover Thrift Editions) by Charles Darwin Published amid a firestorm of controversy in 1859, this is a book that changed the world. Reasoned and well-documented in its arguments, it offers coherent views of natural selection, adaptation, the struggle for existence, survival of the fittest, and other concepts that form the foundation of evolutionary... |
 | Tales of Two Species: Essays on Loving and Living With Dogs by Patricia Mcconnell |
 | On the Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition by Charles Darwin A facsimile of the 1859 first edition of Charles Darwin's classic work, On the Origin of... |
 | X-Men: Endangered Species by Mike Carey, Christopher Yost, Christos Gage With three little words, and entire race was nearly obliterated. Every mutant who dies is one number closer to zero. Endangered Species, a series of 8-page back-ups in the four core X-titles, follows the Beast as he races against the clock to save this once-thriving race. Collects the X-Men: Endangered Species One-Shot, and #1-17 back-up... |
 | When Species Meet (Posthumanities) by Donna J. Haraway “When Species Meet is a breathtaking meditation on the intersection between humankind and dog, philosophy and science, and macro and micro cultures.” —Cameron Woo, Publisher of Bark magazine In 2006, about 69 million U.S. households had pets, giving homes to around 73.9 million dogs, 90.5 million cats, and 16.6 million birds, and spending over $38 billion dollars on companion animals. As... |
 | From So Simple a Beginning: Darwin's Four Great Books (Voyage of the Beagle, The Origin of Species, The Descent of Man, The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals) by Charles Darwin A gorgeous gift and a landmark work that is an essential addition to everyone's personal library.Never before have the four great works of Charles Darwin—Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle (1845), The Origin of Species (1859), The Descent of Man (1871), and The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)—been collected under one cover. Undertaking this challenging endeavor 123 years after... |
| The Cambridge Companion to the 'Origin of Species' (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) by Robert J. Richards The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin is universally recognized as one of the most important science books ever written. Published in 1859, it was here that Darwin argued for both the fact of evolution and the mechanism of natural section. The Origin of Species is also a work of great cultural and religious significance, in that Darwin maintained that all organisms, including humans, are part... |
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