Does anybody know for sure? (And don't answer with the moths of England, they are an example of adaptivity not evolution.)
2007-06-21 14:59:30 · 7 answers · asked by John H 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
OK adaptivity is a trait that can be found in every speices. I adapted to the cold weather in North Dakatoa after a few winters, but I did not evolve by doiing so. Austronauts adapt to living in space, but do not evolve into a new type of human being doing so.
I am asking when was the lastest example of evolution occuring, when did a species evolve into a new species?
2007-06-21 15:24:07 · update #1
Evolution (change in the frequency of inheritable traits within the population) is observed by biologists nearly every day. But you want the latest speciation event?
Well speciation in fruit flies has been directly observed several times... the latest that I know of was in 1988.
There have been a lot of plant speciations observed but I'm really up on them.
Multicellular bacteria were produced from unicellular bacteria by natural selection (predation) in 1994... but not sure if they ever showed it was a new species...
Oh yeah, more recently, a new species of mosquito evolved in the london underground but I can't find the ref.
There's a few of the top of my head for you anyway.
2007-06-22 06:42:04 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You're going to have to explain the differance between adaptivity and evolution. I googled it and didn't see it. Only after we're on the same page could I answer your question.
==edit==
on wikipedia the only use of adaptivity in biology was in relation to evolution through natural selection. So, again, I'm not sure what you mean by the distinction.
==edit 2==
That having been settled, I would point to the the dog. Admittedly this is evolution through human intervention, but the mechanism and process are the same. We just introduce artificial selection instead of natural selection. The results are animals so differant that if you found them side by side in nature you would never assume they were so closely related they could still mate and produce fertile offspring. In a couple hundred more years you could probably produce two breeds that could not interbreed, thereby creating two seperate species. We're halfway there already.
2007-06-21 15:04:57 · answer #2 · answered by Chance20_m 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Me. It takes very little change for a species to evolve. When I was 7 a couple of older kids belonging to Late-Model Humanity tried to bully me.
I carbonized their skulls from the inside, and telekinetically buried them in a quarry. But I regret that. If I had been older I would have handled the situation differently. Because now I have more power and range, lolol!
By the way, ELVEN LIED is the most vicious, violent and wonderful Japanese animation ever, also about a new version of humanity.
2007-06-21 15:06:00 · answer #3 · answered by PIERRE S 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Adaptation is evolution. Its the many adaptations that eventually lead to a whole new species.
2007-06-21 15:06:40 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
kdude said it !!! But, to add a tad. The birds on a small island were starving, due to a drought and the fact that the nuts they had to eat were thicker and harder. The NEXT generation of birds (some, not all) had longer beaks and could eat !!! Voila. The brilliance of God.
Note: in the South Pacific and circa 1990
2007-06-21 15:52:28 · answer #5 · answered by Bill S 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well they did this experiment with flies, where they were fed only urine, like 2 out of 10 survived, and now there is a species of fly that can survive on urine
i guess this would be an adaption
2007-06-21 15:06:36 · answer #6 · answered by (insert creative name here) 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Americans are shorter than they were 40 years ago.
Adaptation is evolution. It is an evolutionary process.
2007-06-21 15:03:22 · answer #7 · answered by Shawn B 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋