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This is the first egg-laying amphibian found to feed its babies ‘milk’ (www.sciencenews.org)

submitted 9 months ago by ZeroCool@slrpnk.net to c/biodiversity@mander.xyz

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[-] OpenStars@startrek.website 3 points 9 months ago

In bacteria iirc these concepts still exist - mostly - though there is definitely a Ship of Theseus argument that could be made there.

For viruses though, woah! Literal chimeras exist with like the head from one source, the body from another, and perhaps the tail from still another. After all, why not? They are just functional nanoparticles, and on an evolutionary timescale of billions of years, pretty much anything that can be done will have been tried, multiple times.

These concepts are still practically useful though - well, as much as any concept is, given how the entire field of biology exists in a more or less fluid state. Literally the only law there is Virchow's stating that all cells come from previously-existing cells (by division), and that one even entirely on its face has to be false b/c what about "the first cell"?

Likewise the central dogma that information flows from DNA through RNA to protein has been proven false so many times it is ridiculous. Nowadays we know that it sometimes goes backwards, or skips steps, or both - e.g. proteins straight-up manufacture DNA from scratch (telomerases), or like proteins can make other proteins (not just prion conversion!).

Biology is... weird. It is definitely not just physics, or even chemistry, enacted on a larger scale - it's on a WHOLE. NOTHER. LEVEL!:-P

this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2024

256 points (98.9% liked)

Biodiversity

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Biodiversity is a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth. It can be used more specifically to refer to all of the species in one region or ecosystem. Biodiversity refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified and described so far, most of which are insects. This means that millions of other organisms remain a complete mystery.

Over generations, all of the species that are currently alive today have evolved unique traits that make them distinct from other species. These differences are what scientists use to tell one species from another. Organisms that have evolved to be so different from one another that they can no longer reproduce with each other are considered different species. All organisms that can reproduce with each other fall into one species. Read more...

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