''The Panda's Thumb'' is a

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

on issues of

creationism Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 't ...

and

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

from a mainstream scientific perspective. In 2006, ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'' listed it as one of the top five science blogs, and Mark Pallen has called it "the definitive blog on the evolution versus creationism debate". It is written by multiple contributors, including Wesley R. Elsberry, Joe Felsenstein, Paul R. Gross,

Nick Matzke Nicholas J. Matzke is the former Public Information Project Director at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) and served an instrumental role in NCSE's preparation for the 2005 ''Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District'' trial. One of h ...

, and Mark Perakh, many of whom used to have complementary blogs at

ScienceBlogs ScienceBlogs is an invitation-only blog network and virtual community that operated initially for almost 12 years, from 2006 to 2017. It was created by Seed Media Group to enhance public understanding of science. Each blog had its own theme, spec ...

before it went defunct. The blog takes its name from The Panda's Thumb, the pub of the virtual

University of Ediacara talk.origins (often capitalised to Talk.Origins or abbreviated as t.o.) is a moderated Usenet discussion forum concerning the origins of life, and evolution. It remains a major venue for debate in the creation–evolution controversy, and its o ...

, which is named after the book of the same name by

Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould (; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely read authors of popular science of his generation. Gould sp ...

, which in turn takes its title from the essay "The Panda's Peculiar Thumb",Gould, S. J. (1978)
"The panda's peculiar thumb."
''Natural History'' 87 (Nov.): 20–30. which discusses the Panda's

sesamoid bone In anatomy, a sesamoid bone () is a bone embedded within a tendon or a muscle. Its name is derived from the Arabic word for ' sesame seed', indicating the small size of most sesamoids. Often, these bones form in response to strain, or can be pres ...

, an example of

convergent evolution Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last com ...

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Panda's Thumb Science blogs Evolutionary biology literature Criticism of creationism

See also

References

External links