MinuteEarth

Try Squarespace for free: http://squarespace.com/MinuteEarth
And subscribe to MinuteEarth! http://goo.gl/EpIDGd

As we try to figure out the evolutionary trees for languages and species, we sometimes get led astray by similar but unrelated words and traits.

Thanks to our Patreon patrons https://www.patreon.com/MinuteEarth and our YouTube sponsors.

___________________________________________

To learn more, start your googling with these keywords:
Cladistics: A method of recreating evolutionary trees based on evidence about relationships.
Etymology: The study of the origin of words and how they have changed throughout history.
Convergent Evolution: A process whereby different species evolve similar traits in order to adapt to similar environments.
Polyphyly: A group containing members with multiple ancestral sources.
Homoplasy: A trait shared by a group of species that is not shared in their common ancestor.
False Cognates: Pairs of words with similar sounds and meanings but unrelated etymologies.
___________________________________________

If you liked this week’s video, you might also like:
A photographer who has taken amazing photos of unrelated people who look alike: http://mentalfloss.com/article/53774/photos-unrelated-people-who-look-exactly-alike
_________________________________________

Support us on Patreon: https://goo.gl/ZVgLQZ
And visit our website: https://www.minuteearth.com/

Say hello on Facebook: http://goo.gl/FpAvo6
And Twitter: http://goo.gl/Y1aWVC
And download our videos on itunes: https://goo.gl/sfwS6n
___________________________________________

Credits (and Twitter handles):
Script Writer: David Goldenberg (@dgoldenberg)
Script Editor: Emily Elert (@eelert)
Video Illustrator: Jessika Raisor
Video Director: David Goldenberg, Emily Elert
Video Narrator: Emily Elert
With Contributions From: Henry Reich, Alex Reich, Kate Yoshida, Ever Salazar, Peter Reich
Music by: Nathaniel Schroeder: http://www.soundcloud.com/drschroeder

Image Credits:

Lappet-faced Vulture (Old World) - Steve Garvie
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Torgos_tracheliotos_-Masai_Mara_National_Reserve,_Kenya-8.jpg

Turkey vulture (New World) - Flickr User minicooper93402
https://www.flickr.com/photos/minicooper93402/5440526260

Crested Porcupine (Old World) - Flickr user 57777529@N02
https://www.flickr.com/photos/57777529@N02/5398915634

North American Porcupine (New World) - iStock.com/GlobalP
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/north-american-porcupine-or-canadian-porcupine-or-common-porcupine-walking-gm515605852-88578399

Chinchilla lanigera - Nicolas Guérin
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinchilla_lanigera_(Wroclaw_zoo)-2.JPG

Naked Mole Rat - Roman Klementschitz
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nacktmull.jpg

Ganges river dolphin - Zahangir Alom, NOAA (Public Domain)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Platanista_gangetica_noaa.jpg

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin - Flickr user 53344659@N05
https://www.flickr.com/photos/53344659@N05/4978423771/

Orcinus orcas - Robert Pittman, NOAA (Public Domain)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Killerwhales_jumping.jpg

Euphorbia obesa - Frank Vincentz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:E_obesa_symmetrica_ies.jpg

Astrophytum asterias - David Midgley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Astrophytum_asterias1.jpg

Sweet William Dwarf - Nicholas M. Bashour
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spring_Flowers.JPG
___________________________________________

References:

Atkinson, Q. and Gray, R. (2005). Darimont, C., Fox, C., Bryan, H., and Reimchen, C. (2015). Curious Parallels and Curious Connections — Phylogenetic Thinking in Biology and Historical Linguistics. Systematic Biology. 54:5 (513-526). Retrieved from: https://academic.oup.com/sysbio/article/54/4/513/2842862

Atkinson, Quentin. (2018). Personal Communication. Department of Evolution and Human Behavior at the University of Auckland.

Bennu, D. (2004). The Evolution of Birds: An Overview of the Avian Tree of Life. Lab Animal. 33 (42-28)). Retrieved from: https://www.nature.com/articles/laban0504-42

De La Fuente, J.(2010). Urban legends: Turkish kayık ‘boat’ and “Eskimo” qayaq ‘kayak’. Studia Linguistica. 127 (7-24). Retrieved from: http://www.ejournals.eu/Studia-Linguistica/2010/2010/art/180/

Direct download: The_Similarity_Trap.mp4
Category:general -- posted at: 8:50am EDT

Try Dashlane for free: http://bit.ly/minutedash. Use promo code "minuteearth" for 10% off Dashlane Premium.
To see song lyrics, click "CC" on the video or, for an annotated version, click here: https://genius.com/14774391

Thanks to humans, old school apex predators are struggling to hold onto their perch at the top of the food chain. And now a new class of adaptable mesopredators are remaking the ecosystems they take over.

Thanks also to our Patreon patrons https://www.patreon.com/MinuteEarth and our YouTube sponsors.

___________________________________________

To learn more, start your googling with these keywords:
Food Web: The feeding relationships between animals that determine how energy and nutrients are spread throughout an ecosystem.
Trophic Level: A hierarchical level in an ecosystem made up of organisms that share the same function in the food web.
Apex predator: The animals at the top trophic level that feed on animals and organisms below them.
Mesopredator: A member of a mid-ranking trophic level that preys on animals and organisms in lower trophic levels and occasionally gets eat by apex predators.
Mesopredator Release: An ecological phenomenon in which mesopredators rapidly grow in population once apex predators are removed from an ecosystem.
Trophic Cascade: A series of dramatic changes in an ecosystem often triggered by mesopredator release.
___________________________________________

If you liked this week’s video, you might also like:
ScienceWithTom goes deep on the science in this video with ecologist Alex McInturff: https://youtu.be/TJcgtqjj-yo
_________________________________________

Subscribe to MinuteEarth on YouTube: http://goo.gl/EpIDGd
Support us on Patreon: https://goo.gl/ZVgLQZ
And visit our website: https://www.minuteearth.com/

Say hello on Facebook: http://goo.gl/FpAvo6
And Twitter: http://goo.gl/Y1aWVC

And download our videos on itunes: https://goo.gl/sfwS6n
___________________________________________

Credits:
Script Writer: Tom McFadden
Script Editor: David Goldenberg
Video Illustrator: Qingyang Chen
Video Director: David Goldenberg, Emily Elert
Video Narrator: Emily Elert, Tom McFadden
With Contributions From: Henry Reich, Alex Reich, Kate Yoshida, Ever Salazar, Emily Elert, Peter Reich
Music by: Nathaniel Schroeder: http://www.soundcloud.com/drschroeder


___________________________________________

References:

Darimont, C., Fox, C., Bryan, H., and Reimchen, C. (2015). The Unique Ecology of Human Predators. Science. 349: 6250 (858-860). Retrieved from: http://science.sciencemag.org/content...

Prugh, L., Stoner, C., Epps, C., Bean, W., Ripple, W., Laliberte, A. and Brashares, J. (2009). The Rise of the Mesopredator. BioScience. 59:9 (779-791). Retrieved from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/...

Baum, J. and Worm, B. (2009). Cascading Top-down Effects of Changing Oceanic Predator Abundances (2009). Journal of Animal Ecology. 78: 699-714. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...

McInturff, Alex. (2018). Personal Communication. Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at University of California, Berkeley.

Direct download: Rise_Of_The_Mesopredator_ft._ScienceWithTom.mp4
Category:general -- posted at: 9:36am EDT

1