Evolution doesn’t look how it’s depicted in pop culture. We often picture the famous “March of Progress” illustration where a series of apes stand in line leading to a modern human.
But evolution is not linear. It branches & divides without an intended direction or endpoint through natural selection.
Illustration by @keesey #science #history
Meercat ✅
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Aurochs
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Beverley
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •those who think COVID is over should bear this in mind... Variants won't necessarily go off in the direction of people's hopes and prayers.
#CovidIsNotOver
Enema Cowboy
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Santiago Lema :amiga:
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Misha Van Mollusq 🏳️⚧️ ♀
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Veebs
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •p6
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Jonathan Mesiano-Crookston
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Bill Hooker
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Mike Keesey
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •More on this image here: https://flic.kr/p/vEj6pg
Other diagrams I’ve made on evolution: https://keesey.gumroad.com/l/pocketphylogenies
A paleofiction comic book series about much earlier human ancestors: https://www.keesey-comics.com/kickstarter
What Evolution Looks Like
FlickrRob Carlson
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Alexander Karn
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •le Pétomane Ancien
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Sir David Nielsen
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Brain Pilgrim
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Mike Keesey
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Anyone who enjoys this may enjoy my other accounts:
@phylopic — free silhouettes of organisms, taxonomically searchable
@keeseycomics — comic books set in prehistory
There’s a campaign ending soon to print the latest comic book, PALEOCENE #4! See here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keesey/paleocene-4-comic-book
clay anderson 🇺🇦🇮🇱🔰🥑🌐🚲🗽☢️
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Toni :v_big: :v_ach: :v_mlm: :v_pat:
in reply to clay anderson 🇺🇦🇮🇱🔰🥑🌐🚲🗽☢️ • • •Mike Keesey
in reply to Toni :v_big: :v_ach: :v_mlm: :v_pat: • • •clay anderson 🇺🇦🇮🇱🔰🥑🌐🚲🗽☢️
in reply to Mike Keesey • • •Mike Keesey
in reply to clay anderson 🇺🇦🇮🇱🔰🥑🌐🚲🗽☢️ • • •clay anderson 🇺🇦🇮🇱🔰🥑🌐🚲🗽☢️
in reply to Mike Keesey • • •Mike Keesey
in reply to clay anderson 🇺🇦🇮🇱🔰🥑🌐🚲🗽☢️ • • •clay anderson 🇺🇦🇮🇱🔰🥑🌐🚲🗽☢️
in reply to Mike Keesey • • •clay anderson 🇺🇦🇮🇱🔰🥑🌐🚲🗽☢️
in reply to clay anderson 🇺🇦🇮🇱🔰🥑🌐🚲🗽☢️ • • •Sheril Kirshenbaum
in reply to clay anderson 🇺🇦🇮🇱🔰🥑🌐🚲🗽☢️ • • •S
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •and severe #climate #clima #climat bottlenecks
#climateemergency
Don Cooley
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Tucker Carlson's Nuts
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Marc Moelders
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Second: What do the different directions stand for?
#evolution #sociology
Vivek Gani
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •I learned a lot from listening to this podcast recently, particularly about how early primates had a presence in places like Wyoming breaking the frame and adding complexity to the 'humans came from Africa' story we usually grow up with.
And how in many cases prior cultures didn't disappear. They moved.
https://spore.social/@presandberg/110829092392696676 -> https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-indigenous-paleolithic-of-the-western-hemisphere/id1435420704?i=1000548993116
Medicine for the Resistance: The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere on Apple Podcasts
Apple PodcastsKevin Russell
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Jcoynester
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Another question I have is "Why are evolutionary psychologists so concerned about mating behavior? I get that you have to mate to pass on genes, but is there a lack of other trendy topics?"
Use and Misuse of Evolutionary Psychology in Online Manosphere Communities: The Case of Female Mating Strategies | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core
Cambridge CoreExtinction Studies
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Aviva Gary
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Epistatacadam
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Yer Pal Cuzn Ed (he/him)
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Mike Keesey
in reply to Yer Pal Cuzn Ed (he/him) • • •Sheril Kirshenbaum
in reply to Mike Keesey • • •Mike Keesey
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •pothead
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Decker harrison
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Erhem... and what in this represents 'Extinction events' ?
Actual my apologies, I see the Humans.
🤦🏼♂️🤣🤣
Tofu Golem
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •João Cachada
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Small pet peeve of mine is how the language of "x group evolved towards y" makes it seem Lamarckian - like "they needed it, so they grew it".
Even though we get taught genetic variability & natural selection at school, I have so many acquaintances that default or slip back into Lamarck when they should know better, and I genuinely think a big part of it is the language.
Species don't "evolve X" in any such direct way!
aggualaqisaaq🇦🇶
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •RowinSpeez
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •magnetosphere
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Nazo
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •And even this is rather simplified and severely cropped.
There also isn't really an actual "missing link."
Rodrigo García
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •@ours44 #En Grève
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •naught101
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •the illustration is a great way to make a point.
You could also go one step further and cover the rest of the space in dead bodies..
Only half joking 😅 people seem to shy away from the fact that evolution requires a lot of death to work.
Mike Keesey
in reply to naught101 • • •naught101
in reply to Mike Keesey • • •Mike Keesey
in reply to naught101 • • •Mike Keesey
in reply to Mike Keesey • • •naught101
in reply to Mike Keesey • • •I guess so.
I guess I have a broader problem with western society's aversion to death, and evolution has become so entrenched as a concept I'm our culture (e.g. the misuse of "survival of the fittest" in capitalist economics), that it seems like a good point at which to remind people that death is an important part of life, and not just in the grieving-is-big-feels sense.
Sheril Kirshenbaum
in reply to naught101 • • •@naught101
On that note, Darwin didn’t mean “strongest” or “mightiest” when he wrote about “survival of the fittest.” That’s another misconception perpetuated in pop culture.
I’ll share more about it sometime in a future post.
Joe
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Red_Shirt_no2
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Evolution Kills Shirt
TopatoCoIrishleprechan
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Tom O'Brien
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Matthias Rex 🦣
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Gordon Oliver
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Greg
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •