Se o design é mera ilusão na natureza, por que a engenharia aeroespacial se inspira em ossos de pterossauros?

Harnessing 3D microarchitecture of pterosaur bone using multi-scale X-ray CT for aerospace material design

Nathan Pili, Tristan J. Lowe, Lee Margetts, Kevin Pickup, William I. Sellers, Emma L. Nicholls, Philip J. Withers & Phillip L. Manning 

Scientific Reports volume 15, Article number: 5719 (2025) 

Image/Imagem: Nathan Pili, The University of Manchester.

Abstract

Pterosaurs were the largest animals to have achieved powered flight in the history of life on Earth, possessing wingspans akin to some modern light aircraft. Vertebrate fossils have shown their potential to retain information on the chemical, physical, and mechanical properties of precursor bone. However, the fossil record is not a traditional source of inspiration for engineers to create palaeo-bioinspired designs. To explore its potential, this study has imaged the three-dimensional porosity of pterosaur bone intending to inspire and improve the mechanical properties of aerospace materials. Historically, two-dimensional histological analysis has resolved fine-scale structures in fossilised bone, which damages the sample. By applying advanced X-ray imaging techniques in this study (using Image Quality Indicators) we show it is possible to non-destructively resolve/verify the microarchitecture of pterosaur bone not previously seen in three dimensions. Pterosaur bone porosity has helped map the macroscopic stresses of this biomaterial but ultimately presents an opportunity to inspire advanced manufactured materials. This microarchitecture of bone offers a unique geometry where self-healing materials with internal monitoring systems can be developed. The iterative process of Darwinian natural selection has evolved multiple engineering solutions that can be reverse engineered to solve challenges facing industry in the 21st Century.

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Darwin, nós não temos mais problema algum, pois a evolução se tornou muito boa em evoluir a si mesma.

Evolution takes multiple paths to evolvability when facing environmental change

Bhaskar Kumawat, Alexander Lalejini, Monica M. Acosta, and Luis Zaman 

Authors Info & Affiliations

Edited by Paul Turner, Yale University, New Haven, CT; received July 14, 2024; accepted November 27, 2024

December 31, 2024

122 (1) e2413930121

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2413930121 

Image/Imagem

Significance

That all the diversity of life constitutes what Erasmus Darwin called “a single living filament”—an unbroken chain of descent from the last universal common ancestor—is evidence of life’s fundamental adaptability. However, the evolutionary processes that shape this ability to adapt (evolvability) remain elusive because of the required resolution and timespan of observations. Using evolving, self-replicating computer programs, we find that multiple pathways to increased evolvability emerge concurrently and distinctly aid adaptation. One pathway (evolved mutational landscapes) allows rapid adaptation to previously seen environments, while the other (higher mutation rates) allows rapid adaptation to entirely new environments. This multifaceted picture of evolvability helps us understand how organisms deal with ever-changing conditions and relentlessly explore nature’s opportunities for innovation.

Abstract

Life at all scales is surprisingly effective at exploiting new opportunities, as demonstrated by the rapid emergence of antimicrobial resistance and novel pathogens. How populations acquire this level of evolvability and the various ways it aids survival are major open questions with direct implications for human health. Here, we use digital evolution to show that changing environments facilitate the simultaneous evolution of high mutation rates and a distribution of mutational effects skewed toward beneficial phenotypes. The evolved mutational neighborhoods allow rapid adaptation to previously encountered environments, whereas higher mutation rates aid adaptation to completely new environmental conditions. By precisely tracking evolving lineages and the phenotypes of their mutants, we show that evolving populations localize on phenotypic boundaries between distinct regions of genotype space. Our results demonstrate how evolution shapes multiple determinants of evolvability concurrently, fine-tuning a population’s adaptive responses to unpredictable or recurrent environmental shifts.

FREE PDF GRATIS: PNAS

Darwin, nós temos um problema muito sério: não existe uma história verdadeira da vida - discordância de dados

Biology’s Einstein Moment: Specifying Lineal Frames of Reference and Rejecting Absolute Biological History

Thematic Issue Article

Open access Published: 03 February 2025

Matthew H. Haber

This is the only figure in On the Origin of Species (Darwin 1859). Darwin refers to it numerous times and for different levels of lineage. His presentation introduces a new units question, namely, what are the units of divergence and diversification in an evolutionary system

 

Abstract

We are currently in the midst of what I call biology’s Einstein moment. This is the rejection of absolute biological history, the idea that there is an invariant, privileged biological history against which other histories are measured or deviate from. Instead, biologists must specify theoretically and empirically motivated frames of lineal reference. This is already informing and advancing biological practice, theory, methods, and more, and is a significant and important feature of contemporary biology. Here I argue that it is worth identifying and naming this shift, and encouraging a deeper and broader embrace of it.

FREE PDF GRATIS: Biological Theory

Excerpt:

"Genealogical discordance like that described above is an important reason that phylogeneticists are moving away from the idea of an absolute phylogeny.”

WOW! Moving away from the idea of an absolute phylogeny? What is the true history of life? 

Evidências de colágeno endógeno em osso fóssil de Edmontosaurus, hein?

Evidence for Endogenous Collagen in Edmontosaurus Fossil Bone
 

Lucien Tuinstra, Brian Thomas, Steven Robinson, Krzysztof Pawlak, Gazmend Elezi, Kym Francis Faull, Stephen Taylor*

 

Abstract

Reports of proteins in fossilized bones have been a subject of controversy in the scientific literature because it is assumed that fossilization results in the destruction of all organic components. In this paper, a novel combination of analytical techniques is used to address this question for an exceptionally well-preserved Edmontosaurus sacrum excavated from the Upper Cretaceous strata of the South Dakota Hell Creek Formation. Cross-polarized light microscopy (XPol) shows birefringence consistent with collagen presence. Tandem LC-MS unambiguously identified, and for the first time quantified, hydroxyproline, a unique collagen-indicator amino acid, in acid-digested samples from the Edmontosaurus. LC-MS/MS bottom-up proteomics shows identical collagen peptide sequences previously identified and reported for another hadrosaur and a T. rex sample.

FREE PDF GRATIS: Analytical Chemistry Sup. Info.