The Oil Drum

180 comments on DrumBeat: August 13, 2006

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ET on August 13, 2006 - 12:27pm

Diamond discusses the issue of more species at the equator. I forget whether it was in 'Guns Germs & Steel' or 'Collapse' but doesn't posit any root causes. I really am suspicious of this energy calculation though. Energy necessary to form a new species??? How the hell can that be measured? Bacteria can form a new species in a few hours. I don't think this can be either accurate to any degree or useful except in a 'golly, gee whiz' kind of way.

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Robert Rapier on August 13, 2006 - 3:52pm

Energy necessary to form a new species??? How the hell can that be measured? Bacteria can form a new species in a few hours.

Yeah, I thought the same thing. The nylon-digesting bacteria resulted from a frame-shift mutation. That was just a normal division process that got screwed up. All it takes is one division in some cases, as you say, to form a new species.

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ET on August 14, 2006 - 11:10am

Actually, gene-swapping or 'horizontal-gene-transfer' is ubiquitous among bacteria so it doesn't take mutations at all for them to form new 'species' however one defines a species among bacteria. Good evidence exists that HGT occurs somewhat higher up the evolutionary ladder as well.

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Apuleius on August 13, 2006 - 10:09pm

The definition of species is dependent on context. For sexually reproducing organisms 'species' is much more easily defined, and the pace of speciation is worth studying. Speciation in bacteria is a more subjective matter.