Educational resources for learning about biology and evolution

pitabread

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I thought I'd post an updated list of FREE biology and evolution-related course material I've come across on the 'net for anyone who may be interested:

Evolution 101 - Berkeley evolution web site that provides a high-level overview of the theory of evolution.

General Biology I - University of Massachusetts - Contains audio lectures, lecture notes and other course material. Covers topics including genetics, chemistry, biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, and cancer.

Principles of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior - Yale University - Contains video lectures and written transcripts. Covers a wide variety of topics relating to evolution.

Introduction to Genetics and Evolution - Duke University (via Coursera) - Contains video lectures and transcripts. Covers genetics, population genetics, and other topics related to evolution.

Bioinformatics - University of San Diego (via Coursera) - Seven courses on bioinformatics. Contains video lectures and transcripts. Covers topics such as genetic sequencing, genome comparisons, phylogenetic tree construction, and other related topics.

Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology
Paleontology: Early Vertebrate Evolution
Paleontology: Ancient Marine Reptiles
Paleontology: Theropod Dinosaurs and the Origin of Birds
- all from University of Alberta (via Coursera) - Contains video lectures and transcripts. Covers the above paleontology topics with discussion of evolution of the respective taxa.

If anyone has any additional course material, feel free to post it and I'll add it to the above list.
 
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pitabread

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Occams Barber

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*bump*

There are some new faces on the forum, so here are some free resources for those who are interested in learning more about the biological sciences and evolution in particular.
Thanks @pitabread

This resource comes from the University of California, Berkeley, The individual topics focus on many of the concepts which come up regularly on CF.
OB

Evolution 101
Table of Contents

1. An introduction to evolution
Evolution briefly defined and explained

2. The history of life: looking at the patterns
How does evolution lead to the tree of life?
3. Mechanisms: the processes of evolution
How does evolution work?
4. Microevolution
How does evolution work on a small scale?
5. Speciation
What are species anyway, and how do new ones evolve?
6. Macroevolution
How does evolution work on a grand scale?
7. The big issues
What are some of the big questions that evolutionary biologists are trying to answer?
 
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DaveISBA

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I thought I'd post an updated list of biology and evolution-related course material I've come across on the 'net for anyone who may be interested

I thought I'd post an updated list of biology and evolution-related course material I've come across on the 'net for anyone who may be interested
I was particularly interested in watching the video (Paleontology: Theropod Dinosaurs and the Origin of Birds). The dinosaur deinonychus is highlighted and claimed to have had feathers and is illustrated with feathers even though none were found with the several remains that were discovered? Hummm! could it be because they never had feathers in the first place! The claim is also that deinonychus is extremely similar to archaeopteryx the supposed feathered dinosaur that was proven to be an obvious fraud! But that's all that evolutionists have to present as observable evidence...illustrations with no basis in truth and outright fakes!
 
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pitabread

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But that's all that evolutionists have to present as observable evidence...illustrations with no basis in truth and outright fakes!

If you are really trying to claim that all evidence to support support evidence is deliberate fakery or simply falsehoods, then then that is a completely absurd assertion.

I suggest reading what creationist Todd Wood has to say about evolution and the evidence for it: The truth about evolution

(Also, I'll happily sell you tinfoil hats starting at $10 a pop.)
 
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I was particularly interested in watching the video (Paleontology: Theropod Dinosaurs and the Origin of Birds). The dinosaur deinonychus is highlighted and claimed to have had feathers and is illustrated with feathers even though none were found with the several remains that were discovered? Hummm! could it be because they never had feathers in the first place! The claim is also that deinonychus is extremely similar to archaeopteryx the supposed feathered dinosaur that was proven to be an obvious fraud! But that's all that evolutionists have to present as observable evidence...illustrations with no basis in truth and outright fakes!

I wasn’t aware that Archaeopteryx was “proven to be an obvious fraud”, You may be confusing Archaeopteryx with Archaeoraptor liaoningensis – a known forgery ‘discovered’ in China in 1999 and exposed as a fake made up from fossil parts. It's true that Palaeontology has been subjected to the odd forgery. These attempts at fakery, once subjected to detailed expert analysis, have been easily identified as bogus and are insignificant compared to the huge body of genuine evidence.

Deinonychus’ feathers are hypothesised based on its relationship to other known dinosaurs. Deinonychus is probably best known as an example which helped to shift the concept of dinosaurs from lumbering, cold-blooded ‘lizards’ to warm-blooded, agile hunters. Fortunately, evidence for feathered dinosaurs is not limited to a couple of examples. I’ve added a list of 54 dinosaur fossils, preserved with evidence of feathers, at the bottom of this post.

If your issue is the broader concept of the dinosaur origins of birds, you might also like to take a look at some of the anatomical evidence.

Comparative Anatomy of the Domestic Chicken

OB

List of non-avian dinosaur species preserved with evidence of feathers - Wikipedia
  1. Ostromia crassipes (1970)[2][3]
  2. Avimimus portentosus (inferred 1987: ulnar ridge)[4][5]
  3. Sinosauropteryx prima (1996)[6]
  4. Fulicopus lyellii, an ichnotaxon, possible squatting Dilophosaurus or similar. (1996) [7]
  5. Protarchaeopteryx robusta (1997)[8]
  6. GMV 2124 (1997)[9]
  7. Caudipteryx zoui (1998)[10]
  8. Rahonavis ostromi (inferred 1998: quill knobs; possibly avialan[11])[12]
  9. Shuvuuia deserti (1999)[13]
  10. Beipiaosaurus inexpectus (1999)[14]
  11. Sinornithosaurus millenii (1999)[15]
  12. Caudipteryx dongi (2000)[16]
  13. Caudipteryx sp. (2000)[17]
  14. Microraptor zhaoianus (2000)[18]
  15. Nomingia gobiensis (inferred 2000: pygostyle)[19]
  16. Psittacosaurus sp.? (2002)[20]
  17. Scansoriopteryx heilmanni (2002; possibly avialan)[21]
  18. Yixianosaurus longimanus (2003)[22]
  19. Dilong paradoxus (2004)[23]
  20. Pedopenna daohugouensis (2005; possibly avialan[24])[25]
  21. Jinfengopteryx elegans (2005)[26][27]
  22. Juravenator starki (2006)[28][29]
  23. Sinocalliopteryx gigas (2007)[30]
  24. Velociraptor mongoliensis (inferred 2007: quill knobs)[31]
  25. Epidexipteryx hui (2008; possibly avialan)[32]
  26. Similicaudipteryx yixianensis (inferred 2008: pygostyle; confirmed 2010)[33][34]
  27. Anchiornis huxleyi (2009; possibly avialan)[35]
  28. Tianyulong confuciusi? (2009)[36]
  29. Concavenator corcovatus? (inferred 2010: quill knobs?)[37][38]
  30. Xiaotingia zhengi (2011; possibly avialan)[39]
  31. Yutyrannus huali (2012)[40]
  32. Sciurumimus albersdoerferi (2012)[41]
  33. Ornithomimus edmontonicus (2012)[42]
  34. Ningyuansaurus wangi (2012)[43]
  35. Eosinopteryx brevipenna (2013; possibly avialan)[44]
  36. Jianchangosaurus yixianensis (2013)[45]
  37. Aurornis xui (2013; possibly avialan)[46]
  38. Changyuraptor yangi (2014)[47]
  39. Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus? (2014)[48]
  40. Citipati osmolskae (inferred 2014: pygostyle)[49]
  41. Conchoraptor gracilis (inferred 2014: pygostyle)[49]
  42. Deinocheirus mirificus? (inferred 2014: pygostyle)[50]
  43. Yi qi (2015)[51]
  44. Ornithomimus sp. (2015)[52]
  45. Zhenyuanlong suni (2015)[53]
  46. Dakotaraptor steini (inferred 2015: quill knobs)[54]
  47. Apatoraptor pennatus (inferred 2016: quill knobs)[55]
  48. Jianianhualong tengi (2017)[56][57]
  49. Serikornis sungei (2017)[58]
  50. Caihong juji (2018)[59]
  51. Xingtianosaurus ganqi (2019)[60]
  52. Ambopteryx longibrachium (2019)[61]
  53. Wulong bohaiensis (2020)[62]
  54. Chirostenotes pergracilis? (2020)[63]
 
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DaveISBA

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Absurd? A team of six scientists, including Sir Fred Hoyle, a British astronomer, asserted in a scholarly paper in March that the feather impressions of archaeopteryx at the British Museum of Natural History had been fabricated in a 19th-century hoax.

One of the authors, Dr. Chandra Wickramasinghe, an astrophysicist, was quoted in a British newspaper as saying the purported hoax was carried out by someone who ''made a paste of crushed limestone from the same period, smeared it around a genuine reptile fossil and then imprinted the feathers.
The respected Israeli scientist Lee Spetner observed the material around the fossilized body of the fossil is different than that around the feathers and upon analysis they were different!
Other discrepancies are that bird fossils with feather impression have feathers found underneath the body. With the museum's specimen, strangely, no feathers from the wings or tail are found underneath the body. The feathers even the barbs are suspiciously uniformly aligned and flat as though laid out and pressed between two flat slabs.

Ok! I read what creationist Todd Wood has to say about evolution! He claims "There has really been no failure of evolution as a scientific theory. It works, and it works well." In the next breath he says "It is my own faith choice to reject evolution"? In another post he screams "I AM A CREATIONIST!" I'm sure you've read the reasons he gives!
I have also read what prominent paleontologists and researchers who actually look at the evidence like Douglas Joel Futuyma, Stephen Jay Gould, Niles Eldredge, Jeffrey H Schwartz and a number of others who admit that the observations in the fossil record are in contradiction to Darwin’s TOE!
 
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Ophiolite

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I wasn’t aware that Archaeopteryx was “proven to be an obvious fraud”, You may be confusing Archaeopteryx with Archaeoraptor liaoningensis – a known forgery ‘discovered’ in China in 1999 and exposed as a fake made up from fossil parts. It's true that Palaeontology has been subjected to the odd forgery. These attempts at fakery, once subjected to detailed expert analysis, have been easily identified as bogus and are insignificant compared to the huge body of genuine evidence.

Deinonychus’ feathers are hypothesised based on its relationship to other known dinosaurs. Deinonychus is probably best known as an example which helped to shift the concept of dinosaurs from lumbering, cold-blooded ‘lizards’ to warm-blooded, agile hunters. Fortunately, evidence for feathered dinosaurs is not limited to a couple of examples. I’ve added a list of 54 dinosaur fossils, preserved with evidence of feathers, at the bottom of this post.

If your issue is the broader concept of the dinosaur origins of birds, you might also like to take a look at some of the anatomical evidence.

Comparative Anatomy of the Domestic Chicken

OB

List of non-avian dinosaur species preserved with evidence of feathers - Wikipedia
  1. Ostromia crassipes (1970)[2][3]
  2. Avimimus portentosus (inferred 1987: ulnar ridge)[4][5]
  3. Sinosauropteryx prima (1996)[6]
  4. Fulicopus lyellii, an ichnotaxon, possible squatting Dilophosaurus or similar. (1996) [7]
  5. Protarchaeopteryx robusta (1997)[8]
  6. GMV 2124 (1997)[9]
  7. Caudipteryx zoui (1998)[10]
  8. Rahonavis ostromi (inferred 1998: quill knobs; possibly avialan[11])[12]
  9. Shuvuuia deserti (1999)[13]
  10. Beipiaosaurus inexpectus (1999)[14]
  11. Sinornithosaurus millenii (1999)[15]
  12. Caudipteryx dongi (2000)[16]
  13. Caudipteryx sp. (2000)[17]
  14. Microraptor zhaoianus (2000)[18]
  15. Nomingia gobiensis (inferred 2000: pygostyle)[19]
  16. Psittacosaurus sp.? (2002)[20]
  17. Scansoriopteryx heilmanni (2002; possibly avialan)[21]
  18. Yixianosaurus longimanus (2003)[22]
  19. Dilong paradoxus (2004)[23]
  20. Pedopenna daohugouensis (2005; possibly avialan[24])[25]
  21. Jinfengopteryx elegans (2005)[26][27]
  22. Juravenator starki (2006)[28][29]
  23. Sinocalliopteryx gigas (2007)[30]
  24. Velociraptor mongoliensis (inferred 2007: quill knobs)[31]
  25. Epidexipteryx hui (2008; possibly avialan)[32]
  26. Similicaudipteryx yixianensis (inferred 2008: pygostyle; confirmed 2010)[33][34]
  27. Anchiornis huxleyi (2009; possibly avialan)[35]
  28. Tianyulong confuciusi? (2009)[36]
  29. Concavenator corcovatus? (inferred 2010: quill knobs?)[37][38]
  30. Xiaotingia zhengi (2011; possibly avialan)[39]
  31. Yutyrannus huali (2012)[40]
  32. Sciurumimus albersdoerferi (2012)[41]
  33. Ornithomimus edmontonicus (2012)[42]
  34. Ningyuansaurus wangi (2012)[43]
  35. Eosinopteryx brevipenna (2013; possibly avialan)[44]
  36. Jianchangosaurus yixianensis (2013)[45]
  37. Aurornis xui (2013; possibly avialan)[46]
  38. Changyuraptor yangi (2014)[47]
  39. Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus? (2014)[48]
  40. Citipati osmolskae (inferred 2014: pygostyle)[49]
  41. Conchoraptor gracilis (inferred 2014: pygostyle)[49]
  42. Deinocheirus mirificus? (inferred 2014: pygostyle)[50]
  43. Yi qi (2015)[51]
  44. Ornithomimus sp. (2015)[52]
  45. Zhenyuanlong suni (2015)[53]
  46. Dakotaraptor steini (inferred 2015: quill knobs)[54]
  47. Apatoraptor pennatus (inferred 2016: quill knobs)[55]
  48. Jianianhualong tengi (2017)[56][57]
  49. Serikornis sungei (2017)[58]
  50. Caihong juji (2018)[59]
  51. Xingtianosaurus ganqi (2019)[60]
  52. Ambopteryx longibrachium (2019)[61]
  53. Wulong bohaiensis (2020)[62]
  54. Chirostenotes pergracilis? (2020)[63]
Long time members should be allowed, once a month, to award multiple Winner icons to posts. Since this is not yet a feature of CF you will just have to imagine me bowing to you gracefully in the manner of an Elizabethan courtier. Nice one!

Aside: I've mentioned this before on CF, but much of the time I think of birds as the dinosaurs they are: "It's snowing. I'd better put some seed and fat balls out for the dinosaurs"; "Those dratted dinosaurs have done their business on my car again!" And occasionally, with a measure of guilt, I have a dinosaur curry with a garlic naan.
 
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Occams Barber

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Long time members should be allowed, once a month, to award multiple Winner icons to posts. Since this is not yet a feature of CF you will just have to imagine me bowing to you gracefully in the manner of an Elizabethan courtier. Nice one!

Aside: I've mentioned this before on CF, but much of the time I think of birds as the dinosaurs they are: "It's snowing. I'd better put some seed and fat balls out for the dinosaurs"; "Those dratted dinosaurs have done their business on my car again!" And occasionally, with a measure of guilt, I have a dinosaur curry with a garlic naan.

Ta. :)

(I have a similar problem with dinosaur crap all over my car)

OB
 
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Absurd? A team of six scientists, including Sir Fred Hoyle, a British astronomer, asserted in a scholarly paper in March that the feather impressions of archaeopteryx at the British Museum of Natural History had been fabricated in a 19th-century hoax.

One of the authors, Dr. Chandra Wickramasinghe, an astrophysicist, was quoted in a British newspaper as saying the purported hoax was carried out by someone who ''made a paste of crushed limestone from the same period, smeared it around a genuine reptile fossil and then imprinted the feathers.
The respected Israeli scientist Lee Spetner observed the material around the fossilized body of the fossil is different than that around the feathers and upon analysis they were different!
Other discrepancies are that bird fossils with feather impression have feathers found underneath the body. With the museum's specimen, strangely, no feathers from the wings or tail are found underneath the body. The feathers even the barbs are suspiciously uniformly aligned and flat as though laid out and pressed between two flat slabs.

Ok! I read what creationist Todd Wood has to say about evolution! He claims "There has really been no failure of evolution as a scientific theory. It works, and it works well." In the next breath he says "It is my own faith choice to reject evolution"? In another post he screams "I AM A CREATIONIST!" I'm sure you've read the reasons he gives!
I have also read what prominent paleontologists and researchers who actually look at the evidence like Douglas Joel Futuyma, Stephen Jay Gould, Niles Eldredge, Jeffrey H Schwartz and a number of others who admit that the observations in the fossil record are in contradiction to Darwin’s TOE!

Fred Hoyle was one of the heroes of my youth. Fred never quite recovered when his Steady State Theory of the Universe got knocked of its pedestal by Big Bang. He even gave Big Bang its name. Fred also had a habit of shooting his mouth off on issues well outside of his area of expertise.

Anyway - Fred may well have cast a temporary shadow over the validity of the Archy fossil but his unqualified opinions (Astronomers aren't Palaeontologists) were eventually unpicked by some real science.

No Dave - Archy wasn't a fake.
The day the fossil feathers flew

OB
 
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pitabread

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UYou have got to be gullible to believe in evolution.

Evolution is foundational to modern biology and is a useful science with real world applications. You'd have to more gullible not to accept it.
 
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