
Why the Earth Has Fewer Species Than We Think - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/issue/63/horizons/why-the-earth-has-fewer-species-than-we-think
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onychomys
A counterpoint that suggests that his nautilus example is bunk:

[https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2018/08/26/epigenet...](https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2018/08/26/epigenetics-
the-return-of-lamarck-not-so-fast/)

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lugg
Similar to the dinosaur situation [1].

I wonder what kind of error rate we have?

[1]
[https://www.ted.com/talks/jack_horner_shape_shifting_dinosau...](https://www.ted.com/talks/jack_horner_shape_shifting_dinosaurs/)

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andrewflnr
It's news to me that methylation is "usually unwelcome". I had gotten the idea
that it was just another built in general regulation mechanism. Would it be
beneficial to somehow strip off all methylation?

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amelius
I'm not a biologist but this link [1] seems to say that folate intake
increases methylation, which then reduces risk of certain conditions.

[1]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16251634](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16251634)

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kjeetgill
If anyone head always found the whole species terminology to be a little vague
and lacking: check out this video by brainscoop[0].

Most explanations really fail to bridge the gap between terms like species,
breeds, races, subspecies etc.

The fact that a number of different "species concepts" exist was a big eye
opener.

0: [https://youtu.be/9fOfFlMe6ek](https://youtu.be/9fOfFlMe6ek)

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ggm
I don't read as much biosciences as I used to but neo-lamarckism used to be a
term of abuse. He's writing it non ironically as a recognised label!

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Nomentatus
Right. I remember writing with such epigenetic-ish ideas about inheritable DNA
modifications to Jacques Monod, decades ago. He didn't even deign to reply;
such nonsense did not even merit politeness.

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ajeet_dhaliwal
Interesting, surprising and unsurprising all at once. We can all probably
think of a bunch of animals that morphologically or phenotypically appear
different but are the same species. An alien observer may at first glance may
even think this of humans, when looking at a growth stunted person very
short/skinny person (perhaps due to malnutrition or other reasons) and a
morbidly obese person.

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ummonk
Or just different skin tones, hair colors and textures, facial features such
as skin around the eyes, body shapes, etc. If alien biologists were trying to
discover a bunch of new species (as human biologists do), they would be
classifying humans as a bunch of different species.

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fouc
Super fascinating. It seems like there's hardly any need for DNA/gene hacking
when we can probably do most of it from tinkering with epigenetics.

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Tloewald
More like he’s extrapolating from differing bumps on two populations of
nautilus that evolution is less important than individual variation.

