Carnival of Evolution #73: World Cup Edition

The 73rd Carnival of Evolution has been hosted by Pleiotropy, in a tour de force “World Cup Edition” of the Carnival.  The good news: we were a top-seeded team, tied for second place, based on the all-around evolutionary excellence of our nominated post, Katie Piechel’s “Add It Up: The Genetic Basis of Ecological Speciation”.  Go check out the Carnival to see how we did.

In honor of the World Cup, we have two additional items for your delectation:

The evolution of World Cup soccer balls through time.  Interesting, no?  I didn't realize the truncated icosahedron shape was such a modern thing.  Photo credit: Jens Heilmann.

And this is, of course, from Jerry Coyne’s website; I hope he doesn’t mind us propagating this meme, for it is a high-fitness meme indeed.