Re: News: Insect Evolution Shakes Things Up.

On Apr 15, 7:20 am, Ron O <rokim...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On Apr 15, 6:05 am, Ye Old One <use...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:



Insect Evolution Shakes Things Up

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1340640/insect_evolution_shakes_...

Posted on: Monday, 14 April 2008, 10:45 CDT

Scientists find that insects use fast-acting ion channels to smell
odors, a major break with the ideology of the field -- and evolution

Darwin's tree of life represents the path and estimates the time
evolution took to get to the current diversity of life. Now, new
findings suggest that this tree, an icon of evolution, may need to be
redrawn. In research to be published in the April 13 advance online
issue of Nature, researchers at Rockefeller University and the
University of Tokyo have joined forces to reveal that insects have
adopted a strategy to detect odors that is radically different from
those of other organisms -- an unexpected and controversial finding
that may dissolve a dominant ideology in the field.

Since 1991, researchers assumed that all vertebrates and invertebrates
smell odors by using a complicated biological apparatus much like a
Rube Goldberg device. For instance, someone pushing a doorbell would
set off a series of elaborate, somewhat wacky, steps that culminate in
the rather simple task of opening the door.

In the case of an insect's ability to smell, researchers believed that
when molecules wafting in the air travel up the insect's nose, they

snip

Do insects have noses? Are they talking about spiracles? As far as I
know there are no olfactory receptors in an insect's respiratory
system. Those receptors are on the legs, as Ron said, or (mainly) the
antennae.

Chris



Gee, no mention about why the tree of life has to be rewritten or
changed in any great detail. Insects are still arthropods and their
closest living relatives are still arthropods. Authors like this
shouldn't start with unsupported hype. It turns off people that might
be interested in the actual findings of the scientists.

It sounds like insects have an interesting means of detecting foreign
molecules. Insects do other strange things like "smell" with their
feet and legs. That never changed their position in the tree of life
either.

Ron Okimoto

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Christof Koch
    ... Simpler Origin for Life" from earlier this year by Prof. Robert Shapiro, ... Life began with the appearance of the first RNA molecule. ... before proteins and DNA in the evolution of life. ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: Christof Koch
    ... Simpler Origin for Life" from earlier this year by Prof. Robert Shapiro, ... Life began with the appearance of the first RNA molecule. ... before proteins and DNA in the evolution of life. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: Christof Koch
    ... Simpler Origin for Life" from earlier this year by Prof. Robert Shapiro, ... Life began with the appearance of the first RNA molecule. ... before proteins and DNA in the evolution of life. ...
    (talk.atheism)
  • Christof Koch
    ... Simpler Origin for Life" from earlier this year by Prof. Robert Shapiro, ... Life began with the appearance of the first RNA molecule. ... before proteins and DNA in the evolution of life. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Atheists are the biggest fools on Earth
    ... We're talking about evolution, which is orthogonal. ... Science has shown that this is not the case. ... >>>to all life and explains everything. ... >>eukaryotes are related through a single common ancestor. ...
    (talk.origins)