Why are there flowers? Angiosperms are results of a certain dynamic in evolution. The diversification of interbreeding populations (species) of terrestial plants with flowers increased the opportunities for outcrossing, and this macroevolutionary development has been propagated in a dramatic radiation dynamic that involved more than angiosperms. In involved coevolution with (mostly flying) insects, and later also some vertebrates (especially flying birds and bats, and also rodents). During the early Cretaceous (or earlier), some embryophytes developed showy radial flowers with a closed carpel (the closure limiting the chances of self-fertilization) that attracted insects to pollinate them and increase chances of outcrossing and reproductive success. Some 60 million years later, during the late Cretaceous, multiple clades developed bilateral flowers, that guided insect pollinators on how to enter the flower to reach nectar. This was associated with the radiation of bees. Since bees also continued to visit radial flowers, there were many opportunities for mutations towards bilateral symmetry to be reinforced through natural selection. A very visible example of this bilateral symmetry is Orchidaceae. A third major node in angiosperm evolution was the emergence of seed-related tissues into fleshy nuts and fruits, which additionally supported animal vectors for dispersal. So a major explanatory dynamic of angiosperm evolution is the coevolution with pollinating insects, as well as pollinating and seed-dispersing rodents. This also provides a basis for explaining the emergence and evolutionary success of certain vertebrate clades: among the Euarchontaglires, the rodents are an important example, and we can also surmise that the ancestors of tree shrews and primates benefited from the availability of fleshy fruits and nuts which they consumed while dispersing angiosperm seeds. "Toward a New Synthesis: Major Evolutionary Trends in the Angiosperm Fossil Record" by David Dilcher in Variation and Evolution in Plants and Microorganisms: Toward a New Synthesis 50 Years after Stebbins (2000) National Academy of Sciences http://www.nap.edu/books/0309070996/html/255.html

Expect to find here ideas on my diverse interests. This includes biodiversity, with a somewhat egocentric interest in flowering plants and vertebrates. It includes the intersection of philosophy and computing, including both senses of the term ontology (philosophy and computer science) and topics like the nature of conscious mental states and models of information flow. Postings in Filipino will have the language code [fil], rather than the older [tl].