Seems that the title of the article has it backwards. From the original paper [1]:
"mitochondrial divergence values between H. diadema samples from the Solomon Islands and New Guinea were greater than any observed divergence values between H. diadema and H. dinops samples from within the Solomon Islands"
The paper describes an example of parallel evolution. There is one species of smaller bats (H.dinops) and then on different islands larger ones evolved from it independently. The bigger bats have all been called H. diadema as they look very similar. So the situation is more like "same size, different species" than what the title suggests.
Overall-size heterogeneity could be partially epigenetically-driven right? I should try to read the paper, but I'm not a biologist. I've been listening to Michael Levin quite a bit though, and from what he says it seems like there's some very interesting ideas around how genes set up or affect 'vmem' (this intercellular voltage-pattern 'memory' of what-to-grow-into, that cells retain in a non-DNA-based way after the initial setup).. I think it is interesting to ponder what might be able to get through the gamete-gates and still affect the vmem pattern by going around the side (ie via cytoplasm/membranes or even encoded into the cytoskeleton?! Rather than just the information that goes via the nucleus).
metadat 9 days ago [-]
I had never heard of a Thylacine, best described as a wolf-tiger hybrid:
Remarkable to see a dog face with a tiger striped posterior.
jajko 9 days ago [-]
Wait, you never heard of tragedy of Tasmanian tiger? At one point in early 2000s IIRC its story was everywhere I looked, as prime and visible example how people can easily kill of animal species that will never ever walk the face of earth.
Granted I never heard the term "Thylacine" neither, but Tasmanian tiger is quite famous term.
bmitc 9 days ago [-]
I haven't either. But it appears that the thylacine is a marsupial and thus quite unrelated to dogs and cats. Looks like the numbat has similar stripes.
9 days ago [-]
danwills 9 days ago [-]
Overall-size heterogeneity could be partially epigenetically-driven right? I should try to read the paper, but I'm not an academic biologist. I've been listening to Michael Levin quite a bit though, and from what he says it seems like there's some very interesting ideas around how genes participate (or don't!) in setting up or affecting 'vmem' (that's what they call this intercellular voltage-pattern 'memory' of what-to-grow-into, that cells apparently retain in a non-DNA-based way after the initial setup).. I think it is interesting to ponder what might be able to get through the gamete-gates and still affect the vmem pattern (ie the morphological-target, which would usually probably include 'how large to make it' right?) by going around the side (ie via cytoplasm/membranes or even encoded into the cytoskeleton?! Rather than just what goes into the next generation via the sequence in the DNA in the nucleus).
Rendered at 15:08:45 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
"mitochondrial divergence values between H. diadema samples from the Solomon Islands and New Guinea were greater than any observed divergence values between H. diadema and H. dinops samples from within the Solomon Islands"
The paper describes an example of parallel evolution. There is one species of smaller bats (H.dinops) and then on different islands larger ones evolved from it independently. The bigger bats have all been called H. diadema as they look very similar. So the situation is more like "same size, different species" than what the title suggests.
[1] [Parallel evolution in an island archipelago ...](https://academic.oup.com/evolut/advance-article/doi/10.1093/...)
Overall-size heterogeneity could be partially epigenetically-driven right? I should try to read the paper, but I'm not a biologist. I've been listening to Michael Levin quite a bit though, and from what he says it seems like there's some very interesting ideas around how genes set up or affect 'vmem' (this intercellular voltage-pattern 'memory' of what-to-grow-into, that cells retain in a non-DNA-based way after the initial setup).. I think it is interesting to ponder what might be able to get through the gamete-gates and still affect the vmem pattern by going around the side (ie via cytoplasm/membranes or even encoded into the cytoskeleton?! Rather than just the information that goes via the nucleus).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacine
Remarkable to see a dog face with a tiger striped posterior.
Granted I never heard the term "Thylacine" neither, but Tasmanian tiger is quite famous term.