: Paleontology and Paleoenvironments . Brian J. Skinner.

Late Devonian paleontology and paleoenvironments at Red Hill and other fossil sites in the Catskill Formation of north-central Pennsylvania

The stratifi ed red beds of the Catskill Formation are conspicuous in road cut exposures on the Allegheny Plateau of north-central Pennsylvania. During this fi eld trip we will visit and explore several fossil localities within the Catskill Formation. These sites have been central to recent investigations into the nature of Late Devonian continental ecosystems. By the Late Devonian, forests wer...

Response to Kreuter and Skinner.

I want to commend Matt Kreuter and Celette appropriately labeled ‘targeted’ interventions. Unfortunately, although we would now never call Skinner for their Editorial entitled ‘Tailoring: Clear Horizons a tailored program, in the evolution what’s in a name?’ (Kreuter and Skinner, 2000). of terminology, the titles of our papers stand. I could not agree more with their argument that I commend the...

Mathematical toy model inspired by the problem of the adaptive origins of the sexual orientation continuum Brian Skinner

Same-sex sexual behaviour is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom, but its adaptive origins remain a prominent puzzle. Here, I suggest the possibility that same-sex sexual behaviour arises as a consequence of the competition between an evolutionary drive for a wide diversity in traits, which improves the adaptability of a population, and a drive for sexual dichotomization of traits, which promotes ...

Genetics, Paleontology, and Macroevolution

Skinner v. Oklahoma (1942)

In 1942, the United States Supreme Court Case of Skinner v. Oklahoma ruled that states could not legally sterilize those inmates of prisons deemed habitual criminals. Skinner v. Oklahoma was about the case of Jack Skinner, an inmate of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma, who was subject to sterilization [3] under the Oklahoma Habitual Criminal Sterilization Act of 1935. The ...