Size Doesn't Matter: Towards a More Inclusive Philosophy of Biology

notes: As the primary author, O’Malley drafted the paper, and gathered and analysed data (scientific papers and talks). Conceptual analysis was conducted by both authors.publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticlePhilosophers of biology, along with everyone else, generally perceive life to fall into two broad categories, the microbes and macrobes, and then pay most of their attention to the latter. ‘Macrobe’ is the word we propose for larger life forms, and we use it as part of an argument for microbial equality. We suggest that taking more notice of microbes – the dominant life form on the planet, both now and throughout evolutionary history – will transform some of the philosophy of biology’s standard ideas on ontology, evolution, taxonomy and biodiversity. We set out a number of recent developments in microbiology – including biofilm formation, chemotaxis, quorum sensing and gene transfer – that highlight microbial capacities for cooperation and communication and break down conventional thinking that microbes are solely or primarily single-celled organisms. These insights also bring new perspectives to the levels of selection debate, as well as to discussions of the evolution and nature of multicellularity, and to neo-Darwinian understandings of evolutionary mechanisms. We show how these revisions lead to further complications for microbial classification and the philosophies of systematics and biodiversity. Incorporating microbial insights into the philosophy of biology will challenge many of its assumptions, but also give greater scope and depth to its investigations

Répteis em fragmentos de Cerrado e Mata Atlântica no Campo das Vertentes, Estado de Minas Gerais, Sudeste do Brasil

Os dados sobre a fauna reptiliana em Minas Gerais são pontuais e revelam carência de informações sobre esse grupo, principalmente em regiões de transição entre a Mata Atlântica e o Cerrado. A área do estudo está situada no município de Ritápolis (21° 01' 37.07" S e 44° 19' 11.84" O), microrregião Campo das Vertentes, Estado de Minas Gerais, Sudeste do Brasil. Pretendeu-se com a presente pesquisa conhecer a composição da fauna de répteis local. As observações, capturas e coletas foram realizadas quinzenalmente, durante dois dias consecutivos, de agosto de 2005 a julho de 2006. As capturas foram realizadas por meio de armadilhas de interceptação e queda, distribuídas em oito sítios, sendo quatro em área de mata de galeria e quatro em área aberta, perfazendo um esforço amostral de 6.912 horas-balde. Foi também realizada procura ativa e encontros ocasionais com registros fotográficos dos espécimes, e, no caso de serpentes, alguns exemplares foram entregues por terceiros quando encontradas mortos. Registrou-se a presença de 31 espécies de répteis, sendo duas espécies de cágados, nove de lagartos, duas de anfisbenas e 18 de serpentes. Apenas os lagartos Cercosaura ocellata, Enyalius bilineatus e Tupinambis merianae e as serpentes Leptodeira annulata e Apostolepis assimilis foram capturados nas armadilhas de queda. Os lagartos mais comuns foram Ameiva ameiva e Mabuya frenata, e as serpentes mais abundantes foram Oxyrhophus guibei e Sibynomorphus mikanii. Os lagartos estão bem representados na área, com espécies típicas de mata, como Enyalius bilineatus, e de áreas aberta de cerrado, como Ameiva ameiva e Mabuya frenata. A fauna de serpentes possui representantes típicos de áreas abertas do Cerrado, como O. guibei e Micrurus frontalis, e de regiões florestadas, como Liophis poecilogyrus e Philodryas olfersii. A diversidade de espécies de répteis e o registro prévio de Amphisbaena dubia e Hydromedusa tectifera para o Estado de Minas Gerais indicam a grande potencialidade do Campo das Vertentes em revelar a ocorrência de espécies novas ou a ampliação na distribuição de outras

Geologic map of the Phantom Lake quadrangle, Carbon County, Wyoming

The Phantom Lake 7.5-minute quadrangle is in southeastern Carbon County near the western flank of Medicine Bow Mountains. Precambrian (Neoarchean–Paleoproterozoic) intrusive, metasedimentary, and metavolcanic units are exposed in the northern and south-central portions of the quadrangle, but are obscured by glacial tills and other Quaternary deposits elsewhere on the map. The map area is adjacent to the Cheyenne belt, a 1.7 billion year-old suture zone that influenced much of the mineralization within the Medicine Bows and many of the structural features on the Phantom Lake quadrangle. Whole-rock geochemistry, along with detrital and magmatic zircon geochronology analysis results are reported for the Browns Park Formation and many of the Precambrian formations. </p

Changes in spectral properties of ageing and senescing maize and sunflower leaves

The objective of this study was to determine the differences between maize (Zea mays L.) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) in the pattern of leaf chlorophyll content and spectral properties occurring with leaf ageing and senescence. Chlorophyll accumulation and leaf spectral properties were determined in growing and senescing leaves of field-grown maize and sunflower hybrids. Measurements were taken at intervals of 3–4 days during the rapid stem elongation phase on leaf 11 for maize and leaf 17 for sunflower. Reflectance (R) and transmittance (T) spectra of adaxial surfaces of attached leaves were measured using a LI-COR 1800 hand-held spectroradiometer with an external integrating sphere, over the wavelength range from 400 to 100 nm. Absorptance (A) was computed as: A = 100-(R + T). In the growing leaf, chlorophyll content increased until full leaf expansion, while no changes in A and T were recorded. After full leaf expansion was reached, chlorophyll dropped from 514.3 to 328.0 μmol m−2 in maize and from 527.2 to 164.1 μmol m−2 in sunflower. Absorptance in the PAR region declined about 5% in maize and about 11% in sunflower and T increased about 1% in maize and 7% in sunflower. Within the PAR region, variations in A and T were recorded only in the green band (520–600 nm) for maize and in the green and red (630–690 nm) bands for sunflower. There were differences between maize and sunflower in the relative timing of the decrease in chlorophyll content and A in senescing leaves: maize retained chlorophyll longer than sunflower and A declined more slowly in maize as a result of the different length of leaf maturity and senescing stages