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What would an extraterrestial animal probably look like?
Most aliens we see in popular culture share a lot of similarities
with human beings: despite a few minor modifications, they more or
less walk, talk, eat, perceive and think like humans. Yet physical
characteristics of animals on earth are incredibly diverse, with some
repeated themes like bilateral symmetry, and the prevalence of optical
sense organs.
- Team 1 takes the view that there are good evolutionary reasons why the dominant animals on earth are more or less as they are.
- Team 2 takes an opposing view: if animal life were to evolve elsewhere it would barely be recognisable to us.
Another way to ask the same question: What features of life on Earth are unique
to Earth and what features are shared by all life forms in the Universe? A similar
question: If you could rewind the history of the Earth and start all over again
what features would be similar and what features would be different? Would there
be life? Would there be multicellular life? Would there be sex? Would there
be a division between prokaryotes and eukaryotes? Would there be plants and
animals and fungi? Would there be vertebrates and invertebrates? Would there
be homonoid intelligence? "Independent" evolution of features (like eyes and
wings) is sometimes used as a measure of how likely features are to reappear
in the replaying of the history of life. What do you think?
Resources:
Helpfull links and references- Start Here!
References
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"Biogenesis, Theories of Life's Origin", Noam Lahav, 1999, Oxford University PRess
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"Earth - Evolution of a Habitable World", Johathan I. Lunine, 1999, Cambridge University Press.
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"The Selfish Gene", R. Dawkins, 1976, Oxford Univ. Press.
An influential discussion of how genes, not us, are in control.
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"What is Life", L. Margulis and D. Sagan, Simon and Schuster.
Nicely illustrated discussion of the importance of pre-cambrian life.
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"Five Kingdoms", L. Margulis and K.V. Schwartz, 1982, W.H. Freeman.
Well-illustrated classification of living organism.
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"The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the first complex life",
M.A.S. McMenamin, 1998, Columbia Univ. Press.
Just before the cambrian explosion this is what life looked like.
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"Darwin's Dangerous Idea" D.C. Dennett, 1995, Penguin.
The best discussion of current debates in Darwinism.
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"Sharing the Universe: Perspectives on Extraterrestrial Life",
S. Shostak, 1998, Beverly Hills Books.
Up to date introduction to the subject.
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"The Search for Life in the Universe",
D. Goldsmith and T. Owen, 1992, Addison Wesley, 2nd edition.
A good general introduction to the information needed to talk about the
problem.
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"Life on Other Worlds",
S.J. Dick, 1998, Cambridge Univ. Press.
History and Sociology of the ET debates from the western European and
American point of view.
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"Extraterrestrials: science and alien intelligence"
edt. by E. Regis Jr., 1985, Cambridge Univ. Press.
An excellent collection of articles with spectrum of good but opposing ideas.
Links
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