DailyDirt: Nature Doesn't Play By Our Rules...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, Jan 28th 2016 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Biology does whatever it can do, and it's usually pretty messy about it. Just when people think they've figured out a nice hierarchical system for classifying plants and animals and microscopic organisms, we find out that there's more going on and some things aren't as clear cut as we thought. We could divide up life into several kingdoms and/or three domains, but taxonomy isn't getting simpler with time. Life is a continuous spectrum that can't be separated easily, and classifications could become even more complicated in the future. If you thought a platypus was weird, check out a few of these creatures.

The tardigrade (aka water bear) is a strange eight-legged critter that is so resilient that it can survive in space -- and it can inherit genes from its environment. Horizontal gene transfer from bacteria, fungi and Archaea has contributed to about 17.5% of the tardigrade's genome, making it the record holder for an animal. For reference, the human genome has 5-8% of its DNA from foreign sources like retroviruses. [url]
Solar-powered sacoclossans are herbivorous sea slugs that can absorb chloroplasts from their food and use these disembodied algae parts as both a form of camouflage (from the green color of the chloroplasts) and as a source of energy. These chloroplasts don't get passed down to offspring, but young sacoclossans eat algae and obtain chloroplasts just like their parents did. [url]
A new species of 'coywolf' is emerging in eastern North America from interspecies breeding, resulting in an animal with wolf, coyote and dog DNA. Millions of these animals populate a vast geographic area including rural and urban environments. These adapted coywolves can eat a variety of things -- from discarded human foods to rodents and small mammals like cats -- and hopefully these animals aren't related to Michael Corvin. [url]

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Filed Under: algae, biology, chloroplast, coywolf, dna, evolution, genome, life, nature, sacoclossan, tardigrade, taxonomy

8 Comments

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Pixelation, 28 Jan 2016 @ 5:49pm

" and hopefully these animals aren't related to Michael Corvin"

Hmmm, Werecoywolfpire...
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JoeCool (profile), 28 Jan 2016 @ 6:03pm

On the contrary
Life is a continuous spectrum that can't be separated easily, and classifications could become even more complicated in the future.

It's EASY to separate life into classes: plants, animals, and "other"... where "other" is virtually always microscopic and of no interest to anyone other than scientists who are happy when you yell "NEEEERRRRRRDDDDDDD!" at them.
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Mr Big Content, 28 Jan 2016 @ 6:28pm

These Creatures Are The Delusional Figments Of Evolutionist Conspiratorians
This is what happens when you start believing in Evolution: you get tormented by inconceivable nightmare monsters like these. Better to stick with simpler, more plausible Intelligent Design. Then Biology actually makes logical Sence. Such creatures never existed in teh Bible! And thats where they should stay!
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Pixelation, 28 Jan 2016 @ 10:28pm

Tardigrade, hmmm... sounds like a time lord.
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musterion (profile), 29 Jan 2016 @ 7:53am

So, what is a species?
If dog, wolf, and coyote can interbreed and produce fertile offspring how are they different species, and not simply variants of the same species? A wolf, a coyote, and a German Shepard look a whole lot more like similar animals that a German Shepard and a Dachshund.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2016 @ 9:47am

Re: So, what is a species?
Not sure about coyotes, but there's no distinction between dogs and wolves. Dogs are wolves, the product of millennia of selective breeding to make them a bit cuter and less vicious. Even poodles, one of the smallest, cutest, and least "wolf-like" of dog breeds, have been successfully interbred with normal wolves.
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MondoGordo (profile), 29 Jan 2016 @ 11:42am

Ummm yeah
Biologically speaking, a species is the major subdivision of a genus or subgenus, regarded as the basic category of biological classification, composed of related individuals that resemble one another, are able to breed among themselves, but are not able to breed with members of another species.

"Breeding" implies producing fertile offspring.

Therefore by definition if these "coywolves" are fertile, then they wolves and coyotes are not separate species .

It would seem the taxonomists labeling coyotes "canus latrans" rather than "canis lupus" was biologically speaking at least, incorrect.
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Michael Ho (profile), 29 Jan 2016 @ 4:11pm

Re: Ummm yeah
The term 'species' is actually not well defined by biologists....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_problem
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