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Evolution can occur within 10 years
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During this, the Year of Darwin, scientists from University of California Riverside have found that evolutionary adaptation can happen in less than 30 generations, at least in the case of guppies.
Natural selection induces a great pressure on animals that are menaced by predators. In most cases, animals under peril will produce a high number of offspring, hopefully ensuring an increased chance of survival. As a tradeoff, these offspring are often small and not the most physically fit members of their species. But remove the threat of a predator, offspring become less numerous and considerably more competitive.
Researchers studied adaptation rate by placing guppies naturally found in the Yarra River in Trinidad into the nearby Damier River. Some guppies colonized an area that had no natural predators, while another faction chose a home that did have predators. Eight years later (meaning less than 30 generations of guppies), scientists returned to Trinidad to find that “the guppies in the low-predation environment …had adapted to their new environment by producing larger and fewer offspring with each reproductive cycle. No such adaptation was seen in the guppies that colonized the high-predation environment.” [EurekAlert]
To prove that adaptation had truly occurred, scientists introduced another pair of guppy groups from the Yarra River, one from a high-predator region and another from a low-predator region. The experiment showed that even those guppies that were under threat of predators in the Yarra River did less well in the new environment of the Damier River. Over the four week period, “locally adapted guppies were significantly more likely to survive…than the guppies from the two sites on the Yarra River. This was especially true for juveniles. The adapted population of juveniles showed a 54-59 percent increase in survival rate compared to their counterparts from the newly introduced group.” [EurekAlert]
Putting a time-table on evolution may help scientists understand why some creatures are better at adapting to a new situation. While guppies are capable of doing so within eight years, it does not mean that humans are so adept. If human generations can be considered to be about 20 years apart, then it would take 600 years for humans to make the same adaptation. But there is no guarantee that humans would take a full 30 generations to make the same changes—or if it would take even longer.
Regardless, it is an interesting study. Published in The American Naturalist, the data is a good first look at speedy evolution.
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