We are indeed still evolving, though it can be hard to tell because it happens over generations and often involves things you can’t see, such as what foods different people are able to digest.
We’ve been figuring out that evolution can move fast, given pressure. I often point to African male elephants shortening or losing their tusks due to humans poaching the super tuskers.
I’ve heard several arguments that boil down to, “That’s not evolution.” But it is! The environment ramped up a selection pressure, the animals adjusted. Same as Atlantic fish (trout I think?) attaining maturity faster and smaller. We’ve been keeping the big ones for decades.
Take the “humans did that” out of the equation and imagine another factor, evolution still happened quickly.
tl;dr: Animals can evolve quite quickly, but such events are hard to observe as they were rare and weird, outside of human influence or history.
I feel like that’s more evidence that humans have some control over evolution not just among ourselves, but other animals also. The elephants with smaller tusks are just able to keep breeding since they aren’t being poached (or poached as much).
Dogs, cats, birds, even plants are all affected by human behaviour.
I spent the last ten minutes trying to fund an article I read years ago. It was about a tiny freshwater fish that, in the period of something like 50 years, doubled its armor scales coverage and density in response to a new predator. It was amazing, looking at the pictures over time. Basically evolution in real time.
We’ve been figuring out that evolution can move fast, given pressure. I often point to African male elephants shortening or losing their tusks due to humans poaching the super tuskers.
I’ve heard several arguments that boil down to, “That’s not evolution.” But it is! The environment ramped up a selection pressure, the animals adjusted. Same as Atlantic fish (trout I think?) attaining maturity faster and smaller. We’ve been keeping the big ones for decades.
Take the “humans did that” out of the equation and imagine another factor, evolution still happened quickly.
tl;dr: Animals can evolve quite quickly, but such events are hard to observe as they were rare and weird, outside of human influence or history.
I feel like that’s more evidence that humans have some control over evolution not just among ourselves, but other animals also. The elephants with smaller tusks are just able to keep breeding since they aren’t being poached (or poached as much).
Dogs, cats, birds, even plants are all affected by human behaviour.
I spent the last ten minutes trying to fund an article I read years ago. It was about a tiny freshwater fish that, in the period of something like 50 years, doubled its armor scales coverage and density in response to a new predator. It was amazing, looking at the pictures over time. Basically evolution in real time.