Well, it's finally happened.
My cat evolved.
He wants me to call him Steve, can you believe that?
Steve is obsessed with vinyl, coffee shops and wants best burrito in the city.
Did I say evolved?
Hello evolved primate animals of the family great ape, Trace
here.
You're watching a science show, so I'm assuming you know what evolution is… slow
change over time by random mutation, right?
It usually takes generations to observe evolution in action.
As Darwin wrote in On the Origin of Species, "Natura non facit saltum" -- nature makes
no leap, but perhaps Darwin was looking in the wrong place, and in cities, "natura
salit" … nature jumps!
Normally, in "natural and non-urban" systems, evolution takes about one million years, but,
in urban systems -- evolution might work completely differently.
From 2000 to 2030, human cities will nearly triple in land area; adding another 1.2 million
square kilometers or about the whole of South Africa.
This will obviously affect the evolution of animals that we share this planet with, and
a new study in the January 2017 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found
just that.
Rapid human urbanization screws with the evolution of species, causing evolution to happen not
in a million years, but in just a few decades…
As humans build cities, we displace and severely alter the natural environment; causing animals
to adapt (slash mutate) or go extinct.
Say we cut down a forest and put up buildings over a few years.
Without the forest, migratory birds have to adapt to be able to stop and rest in this
new environment.
That might seem easy, but birds don't think buildings and trees are similar.
Buildings might not provide the cover from predators birds evolved to seek out!
Buildings don't have tasty bugs living on or near them to eat!
So the birds might just fly on by…
But, birds with mutations enabling them to adapt to these conditions go on to survive,
while others don't.
Evolution by human natural selection.
This is similar to the idea of human harvesting, or human selection.
We take an animal out of the natural order and guide its evolution in a favorable way
to us.
Think farm animals or pets.
And the built environment isn't just about sidewalks and buildings.
Transmission towers for cell phones and radio are often made of zinc-coated steel, because
zinc doesn't rust.
But, zinc can be toxic to some plants, causing necrotic lesions, and chlorosis (reduction
of green color).
Plants with mutations to resist zinc can thrive on or near towers, while others die out.
Evolution by human selection.
Even when we try and help, by building fish ladders to provide a path for spawning species,
like we did in 1966, at a dam in Norway, human activities still affect their natural evolution.
By 2003, the brown trout that were too large or too small to use the ladder had pretty
much died out, leaving only the middle-size mutants behind.
Who cares, amirite?
Well, lots of other species rely on the trout, either to eat, or to BE eaten!
Different trout can change the whole ecosystem.
Just like with the bird and plant examples, we have no idea the ultimate cost or benefit
to these human-selected mutations thanks to our urbanization.
Of course, urbanization has been connected to global warming as well, but we also have
to consider overfishing, overhunting, land use, habitat destruction, and of course -- human
harvesting of animals from an environment.
All of these things have an effect on evolution.
There was a time when a human could stand on a desert plain and know we are but a speck
on a speck, the power of the Earth is the ultimate authority.
That's still true, but now Earth has a middle manager, and we are really changing how things
work around here… maybe not always in the best way.
How does this make you feel?
Let us know down in the comments.
Can evolution reverse?
Can we make it all better?
Watch this video to find out.
And please subscribe so you get more DNews.
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