Now, if we can just get these Italian LOUNGE LIZARDS to adapt to society........
Posted on 04/22/2008 10:07:24 AM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
Italian wall lizards introduced to a tiny island off the coast of Croatia are evolving in ways that would normally take millions of years to play out, new research shows.
In just a few decades the 5-inch-long (13-centimeter-long) lizards have developed a completely new gut structure, larger heads, and a harder bite, researchers say.
In 1971, scientists transplanted five adult pairs of the reptiles from their original island home in Pod Kopiste to the tiny neighboring island of Pod Mrcaru, both in the south Adriatic Sea.
Genetic testing on the Pod Mrcaru lizards confirmed that the modern population of more than 5,000 Italian wall lizards are all descendants of the original ten lizards left behind in the 1970s.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
Evolution? Adaptation. Survival of the fittest..........
The Theory of Evolution is --- well, evolving!
Now, if we can just get these Italian LOUNGE LIZARDS to adapt to society........
But....but... I thought evolution was a dirty atheist lie!!! [/sarc]
In the Chesapeake Bay, crabbers have been forced to use “cull rings” in their traps - small plastic rings that let baby crabs escape and grow up. Wouldn’t you know, smaller adults are escaping too, and are now creating a population of adult crabs that get no larger than about 4 inches across.
Oddly enough, the guy who pointed this out to me also doesn’t believe in evolution.
Italian wall lizards introduced to a tiny island off the coast of Croatia are evolving in ways that would normally take millions of years to play out, new research shows.
Completely unscientific statement. They have no reason to say that it would "normally take millions of years" to adapt in this way. There is absolutely no way of addressing that statement empirically, hence it's just idle speculation. Since it has obviously happened in 37 years, there is no need to pull a "millions of years" explanation out of thin air.
Contemporary theory includes the writings of Stephen Gould. Evolution of large populations is known to be slow, but there is no theory that forbids rapid evolution in founder populations.
Neither do I, and I posted the article! There's a difference between "evolution", which is a philosophy more than anything else, and empirically observed natural selection/adaptation. The latter is observable, the former is just an assumption made that the latter has been happening for extremely long periods of time.
Genetic drift...look into it.
A base population of only 10 individuals helped I’m sure. Had there been thousands there may have been no changes at all.
Contemporary evolutionary theory essentially says that organisms adapt to meet the demands of their environment. It’s very hard to tack down a time frame with it. I personally believe evolution increases as population values decrease, based on evidence I’ve seen. These findings do not shatter contemporary evolutionary beliefs, because a time frame for evolution is not standardized. There are multiple theories on how long evolution takes or what specifically speeds an evolutionary step.
Exactly right.
Put me in a good hotel with free food....like steak and lobster and strawberry shortcake....and I bet I gain ten pounds real quick. I can adapt!!! Free wine every night will lower my cholesteral.
Little bastards are showing up everywhere.
So, I guess 6k years may actually be long enough for all the things that must have taken Millions and Billions of years, then?
{halfway joking}
I’m not an anti-evolutionary, but this article very succinctly points out the largest flaw; that there are simply things we don’t understand. But even saying that puts you in the fundamentalist camp to some.
Not possible.
Accomplished evolutionary biologist Ben Stein said so. /sarcasm
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