Species full movie puerto rico4/6/2023 ![]() ![]() Menno Schilthuizen: This is work that’s been done by Jason Munshi-South of Fordham University. What’s genetically different about these populations, and what was the pressure to diverge in that way? And then there’s the case of the white-footed mice in New York City, who live in isolated populations in various parks. ![]() ![]() Yale Environment 360: You write about some fascinating examples of how species have rapidly changed in an urban environment, including American cliff swallows, whose wings have become shorter so they can take off faster vertically in the face of oncoming cars. “ as someone who is inspired by biodiversity, to me it would be a tragedy to lose those species that need untouched areas to survive.” “You can appreciate what’s going on in evolution in very artificial human-constructed environments like cities,” he says. Schilthuizen also discusses some theories that challenge current conservation orthodoxy, noting, for example, that corridors that enable isolated wildlife populations to connect may not always be advantageous in an urban setting in which “local adaptation to deal with the very specific local conditions is something that’s important for these animals.” Still, says Schilthuizen, the ability of some species to adapt to city life in no way lessens the urgency to preserve the earth’s remaining natural areas. Caribbean lizards are undergoing genetically driven physical changes so they can better maneuver along urban surfaces that are far smoother than the rough bark of trees. White-footed mice in Central Park are evolving to better deal with the fatty foods that New Yorkers serendipitously drop their way. Urban populations of some birds, adjusting to traffic noise, are becoming hard-wired to sing at a higher pitch than their country cousins. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Schilthuizen, a researcher at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands and a professor at Leiden University, describes how, through fast-paced natural selection, creatures in cities and suburbs are genetically evolving to deal with the omnipresence of humans. Now, in his latest book, Darwin Comes To Town, evolutionary biologist Menno Schilthuizen explores how that influence is rapidly reaching down into the genes of plants and animals. The unprecedented influence that humans are exerting on the natural world is a given in this epoch of the Anthropocene. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |