Neat Animal Information RDF

This thread is an accumulation of the new RDF TV, funded by the Dawkins Foundation for Reasoning and Science.

I'll start with the first video with a non-animal video, and is something ATS should probably watch.


These are the questions discussed in the video, The Baloney Detection Kit.

The 10 Questions:
1. How reliable is the source of the claim?
2.Does the source make similar claims?
3. Have the claims been verified by somebody else?
4. Does this fit with the way the world works?
5. Has anyone tried to disprove the claim?
6. Where does the preponderance of evidence point?
7. Is the claimant playing by the rules of science?
8. Is the claimant providing positive evidence?
9. Does the new theory account for as many phenomena as the old theory?
10. Are personal beliefs driving the claim?




In the above video, Dawkins discusses the differences in 'Domes and Saddles', and why they are vital, or at other times unneccesary.




This one I particularly enjoyed, The Insurance Policy, the animals in this video lay two eggs, and the second chick, always dies, now Dawkins believes that, this is a insurance policy, the younger chick is born five days prior to the first born, now when the second one is born, the first one kills off the younger one, and if the first one, dies after birth, the second one will live.

It's thought that this is because food was scarce, and it was wise to only have one chick.




Discusses diversity.




This one was especially interesting. Discusses Flightless Cormorant.




Volcanoes as Galapagos.




Discusses evolution of Diatoms

Diatoms are single-celled, photosynthetic organisms that float in the plankton. Many species grow beautiful glasslike cell walls, and these can be preserved as fossils. The figure illustrates the fossil record for the diatom Rhizosolenia between 3.3 and 1.6 million years ago. About 3 million years ago, a single ancestral species split into two; and there is a comprehensive fossil record of the change at the time of the split.

The diatoms show that the fossil record can be complete enough to reveal the origin of a new species. Examples as good as this are rare: in other cases, the fossil record is less complete and there are large gaps between successive samples.

In other respects, the fossil record is valuable because it shows that the living world has not always been like it is now. The existence alone of fossils shows that there has been some kind of change, though it does not have to have been change in the sense of descent with modification.

Source



I doubt many will enjoy the above video, Comparisons between the Human and the Chimpanzee.




Here is Dawkins Discussing why there are still chimpanzees, something he didn't have to do, but did for those anyways




Dawkins discusses the Intermediate Fossils in Evolution, quite nicely, would've enjoyed a more Indepth approach though, or variety



The videos are short and range from 1:40- 3:00 minutes, except for the first video which is around 14:00 (That's minutes).

Hope you guys enjoy these, there pretty interesting, if your the interested type.

[edit on 2-11-2009 by Republican08]