So are California’s native treefrogs more properly placed in the genus Hyla or the genus Pseudacris? Do you prefer Sporozoa or Apicomplexa as phyla names? Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus - best darned blackbird ever? Tautonyms being allowed under the zoological code of nomenclature - aargle bargle or foofaraw? What species concept do you adhere to with the religious fervor of a thousand fanatics? Ophiodon elongatus - best combination of ugly and tasty? How many behavioral ecologists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? What’s your favorite marine snail? What’s the vector of Plasmodium mexicanum in California? Eumeces - overrated or underappreciated ;)?
Here is a link that gives a litttle bit of information about dwarf elephants of the past, and the ecological conditions that probably made them that way:
Apples and Oranges, but I like Linnaean taxonomoy. Got a soft spot for it.
Quick and dirty, I’m studying the differential effects of species interrelatedness against envirionmental variables in lizard mating behaviors.
Other than a host of physiological differences? What specifically are you getting at? Endosymbiotic monerans?
Does the Trivers-Willard effect exist, or has it been disproven?
No. However, sexual reproduction allows for genetic recombination several orders of magnitude above parthenogenetic animals.
Ditmars, Klauber, Collins, Conant.
Good.
[QUOTE]
So are California’s native treefrogs more properly placed in the genus Hyla or the genus Pseudacris? Do you prefer Sporozoa or Apicomplexa as phyla names? Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus - best darned blackbird ever? Tautonyms being allowed under the zoological code of nomenclature - aargle bargle or foofaraw? What species concept do you adhere to with the religious fervor of a thousand fanatics? Ophiodon elongatus - best combination of ugly and tasty? How many behavioral ecologists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? What’s your favorite marine snail? What’s the vector of Plasmodium mexicanum in California? Eumeces - overrated or underappreciated ?[/QOTE]
God, I screwed up the coding. I was in a hurry.
I was confusing tautonyms with junior synonymy. :o It’s been a long time since I’ve drilled on that shit.
Nope, that’d be the oyster.
Two, but how will they fit?
Conus sp.
WGASA?
Eumeces are my raison d’etre. Why the ;)? Do you know me?
As for H. regilla, my professional opinion would be that that is a Pseudacris if there ever was one; someone needs to do a workup on them and whoever named it Hyla needs to be slapped around a little bit. That thing is a freakin’ twin of P. ornata.
Positive reinforcement? Please explain. I’d agree that the male orgasm is important from an evolutionary perspective, but I don’t quite get why the female orgasm has come about.
If it’s not fun for the woman, what reason has she to do it? We aren’t exactly a lekking species, but females have final choice. Thus the need for positive reinforcement.
Basically, women have them for the same reason males do.
Baleen is keratinous, and is more analogous to fingernails and hair than teeth or gills.
My definition of good paying is probably above what most people consider good paying. i make mid-5 figures, and have only been doing this for under 3 years (it is that high partially because it was a condition of my transferring employment to san francisco). How long did it take for you to start making what you considered a good salary, if you don’t mind my asking.
biology stuff seems to get more and more funding, despite cuts in other areas of government study, and more biotech places are forming. I am wary of fly-by-night places, which is why i worry of a repeat of the dotcom bubble burst (which would lead to many more people competing for the same jobs and grad school positions i am)
a lot of the salespeople for our lab have bio degrees and went into sales because it was the fastest way to make a lot of money. since i hate dealing with people, there was no way i’d consider that, so i don’t know how difficult it is.
Tars Tarkas:
I don’t mind you asking at all but with my sieve-like memory take this with a grain of salt. I have been at the same company for over 13 years now, it was my second job out of college. It was a start up, and in the beginning the salaries were barely competitive, but the stock options were quite generous for the early employees like me. It was about 3 to 5 years ago that they really “normalized” the salaries to industry levels, since for various reasons the stock options were no longer as big an incentive.
I recognize your concern about a dotcom like bust in biotech but I am not as worried. I think it is much harder in general to start a biotech than a dotcom, you really need to have a longer timeline and a further horizon in mind, so there is less of a “gold rush” mentality, and consequently less people and resources rushing in (I hope).
BTW I hate dealing with people too. But sales can be extremely lucrative for the people who are cut out for it.
I just wanted to reinforce that I fully agree with your main point, which is (I think) that rising above a certain level in the Biology/Biotech sector more or less requires an advanced degree of some type.
I understand that in science there are hypotheses, theories, and laws (or principles). Are there any labels for ideas inbetween, say, a hypothesis and a theory. Are laws and principles the same? When do the terms change from one to another? Do today’s biologists consider Darwin’s Theory a principle yet?
Reasonable, but since I hate them, not on my list.
Very good :D.
Again, reasonable. Got to love cones. But I’m partial to Lewis’ Moon Snail, myself.
Saurian malaria species that victimizes Sceloporine lizards. The vector was always assumed to be Phlebotimine flys in my day, but was never confirmed. But I am at least a decade or two out of date in terms of recent research.
Nope, I doubt it, just observant :).
Yeah, I’m inclined to come down on the Hedges/Silva side, rather than Cocroft. I liked Hedges’ paper, especially as at the time I was a fan of Brooks and McLennan’s “historical ecology” approach, which I thought he sort of applied to back his electrophoretic analysis ( jeez, I haven’t thought about this stuff in ages ).
I’m reading a biology book and there is a joke I don’t get. Can you help.
The chaper is about binomial nomenclature and what funny folk biologists can be. For example, moquito epithets include: punctor, tormentor, vexans, horrida, abominator, excrucians, etc. A group of bugs include Polychisme, Peggichisme, Dolichisme, and Ochisme. A wasp named Lalapa lusa. A beetle named Ytu brutus, and the one I don’t ‘get’ a horsefly called Tabanus balazaphyre. Do you know what the joke is?
Insect taxonomists name so many species they end up going a little nuts.
My favorite (though a spider not an insect) is Mastigophora dizzydeani, named by a colleague of mine. It’s a bolas spider, which catches flying insects by hurling a ball of sticky silk at them (still attached by a strand to the spider) and then reeling them in. The name honors the Hall-of-Fame Cardinals pitcher.
