11. Fahrenheit 006: Evolutionary Developmental Biology

12/31/24 • 37 min

Adapt or Die! The Evolutionary Biology of Pop Culture

Welcome to this brand new episode of Adapt or Die! The evolutionary biology of pop culture hosted by Austin Ashbaugh. The current cultural phenomenon we are discussing this season is Pokémon and todays episode is focused on the fire type. Our evolutionary connection to the ice type is evolutionary developmental biology.
In the Safari Zone, I get into developmental modularity, novelty, and allometry with appropriate fire-type pokémon case-studies. During the pokémon professors rant, I appropriately rant about pokémon eggs. Lastly, we will end todays episode with describing a regional variant of the Torkoal line and results from our latest pokémon spectacular competition. Sit back and relax in a chair older than yourself, open an old dusty tome, and join me as we adapt or die!
Link to Google Slides of Pokémon discussed in this episode
Resources cited for research in this episode:
1. Grant, P. R., Abbott, I., Schluter, D., Curry, R. L., & Abbott, L. K. (1985). Variation in the size and shape of Darwin's finches. _Biological Journal of the Linnean Society_, _25_(1), 1-39.
2. Huxley, J. S. (1950). Relative growth and form transformation. _Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B-Biological Sciences_, _137_(889), 465-469.
3. Lewis, E. B. (1978). A gene complex controlling segmentation in Drosophila. _Nature_, _276_(5688), 565-570.
4. Müller, G. B. (2007). Evo–devo: extending the evolutionary synthesis. _Nature reviews genetics_, _8_(12), 943-949.
5. Peterson, T., & Müller, G. B. (2013). What is evolutionary novelty? Process versus character based definitions. _Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution_, _320_(6), 345-350.
6. https://thelostlambda.github.io/pokestats/#:~:text=The%20fastest%20Pok%C3%A9mon%20type%20is,type%20was%20the%20Rock%20type.
7. https://www.serebii.net/pokemon/type/fire/

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Previous Episode

10. A Song of Ice and More Ice: Ice Ages

Episode Description:
Welcome to this brand new episode of Adapt or Die! The evolutionary biology of pop culture hosted by Austin Ashbaugh. The current cultural phenomenon we are discussing this season is Pokémon and todays episode is focused on the Ice type. Our evolutionary connection to the ice type is ice ages.
In the Safari Zone, I get into What ice ages are, what a glacier is and how they affected the environments we see today and how some pokémon show the impact of glaciation on evolution. During the pokémon professors rant, I appropriately rant about the brittleness of ice type pokémon. Lastly, we will end todays episode with describing a regional variant of the Froakie line and results from our latest pokémon spectacular competition. Sit back and relax in a chair older than yourself, open an old dusty tome, and join me as we adapt or die!
Link to Google Slides of Pokémon discussed in this episode
Resources cited for research in this episode:
1. Mark, B. G., & Fernández, A. (2017). The significance of mountain glaciers as sentinels of climate and environmental change. _Geography Compass_, _11_(6), e12318.
2. Marshall, S. J., James, T. S., & Clarke, G. K. (2002). North American ice sheet reconstructions at the Last Glacial Maximum. _Quaternary Science Reviews_, _21_(1-3), 175-192.
3. Raymo, M. E., & Huybers, P. (2008). Unlocking the mysteries of the ice ages. _Nature_, _451_(7176), 284-285.
4. https://www.serebii.net/pokemon/type/ice/

Next Episode

12. The Tynamo That Harnessed the Lateral Line: Evolutionary Physiology

Welcome to this brand new episode of Adapt or Die! The evolutionary biology of pop culture hosted by Austin Ashbaugh. The current cultural phenomenon we are discussing this season is Pokémon and todays episode is focused on the electric type. Our evolutionary connection to the electric type is evolutionary physiology.
In the Safari Zone, I get into what physiology is, how it evolves, and how some of the systems that we see in real life have been used to generate pokémon lines. During the pokémon professors rant, I appropriately rant about the need for a dowsing machine / pokeradar on water through electroreception. Lastly, we will end todays episode with describing a regional variant of a platypus line and results from our latest pokémon spectacular competition. Sit back and relax in a chair older than yourself, open an old dusty tome, and join me as we adapt or die!
Link to Google Slides of Pokémon discussed in this episode
Resources cited for research in this episode:
1. Garland, T., & Carter, P. A. (1994). Evolutionary physiology. _Annual review of physiology_, _56_(1), 579-621.
2. Greenwood, P. G., & Mariscal, R. N. (1984). The utilization of cnidarian nematocysts by aeolid nudibranchs: nematocyst maintenance and release in Spurilla. _Tissue and Cell_, _16_(5), 719-730.
3. Herring PJ, Munk O. The escal light gland of the deep-sea anglerfish Haplophryne mollis (Pisces: Ceratioidei) with observations on luminescence control. _Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom_. 1994;74(4):747-763. doi:10.1017/S0025315400090020
4. Lissmann, H. W. (1958). On the function and evolution of electric organs in fish. _Journal of experimental biology_, _35_(1), 156-191.
5. Noble, D., Jablonka, E., Joyner, M. J., Müller, G. B., & Omholt, S. W. (2014). Evolution evolves: physiology returns to centre stage. The Journal of physiology, 592(Pt 11), 2237.
6. Wägele, M., & Johnsen, G. (2001). Observations on the histology and photosynthetic performance of “solar-powered” opisthobranchs (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Opisthobranchia) containing symbiotic chloroplasts or zooxanthellae. _Organisms Diversity & Evolution_, _1_(3), 193-210.
7. Wernegreen, J. J. (2012). Endosymbiosis. _Current Biology_, _22_(14), R555-R561.
8. https://www.serebii.net/pokemon/type/electric/