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Asked by holliewilkinson to Betul, Bridget, Ceri-Wyn, Laurel, Maria on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
Question: can you see evolution happening today?
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Laurel Fogarty answered on 18 Jun 2010:
That is a good question. Evolution is happening but it happens so slowly that it s very hard to see. A slightly faster version of evolution is not evolution by natural selection but evolution by artificial selection..we can see that in the many dog breeds that we have chosen for different characteristics- all from an ancestral wolf!
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Betul Arslan answered on 18 Jun 2010:
yes of course. antibiotic resistance is the number one consequence of evolution in our daily lives. remember when your doctor tells you to finish all your antibiotics -even though- you feel better? that is to avoid some little amount of harmful bacteria alive in your body, if you do so, that bacteria ‘evolves’ and develops a resistance to the particular antibiotic you are taking, so next time, when you are sick, the drug that used to help you before no longer does. that is adaptation to survive, evolution baby!
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Bridget Waller answered on 21 Jun 2010:
Yes! Dog breeding shows us ‘artificial selection’ which mimics natural selection. Also, in the lab we can see generations of short-lived animals (e.g. flies) change in response to changes we impose on them. And sometimes evolution happens when we don’t want it to…bacteria develop resistance to our anti-biotics! Bascially, the bacteria that produce mutations to resist the anti-biotics are more successful than those that are killed by it, so the next generation is stronger and more likley to survive the anti-biotics. It is a evolutionary arms race between bacteria and scientist!
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Ceri-Wyn Thomas answered on 21 Jun 2010:
Yes you can! Cichlid fish in the African Lakes are great examples of this because they seem to undergo speciation so quickly and in such a small area! As long as you have changing environments then evolution will always be occurring.
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Maria Pawlowska answered on 22 Jun 2010:
All the time! A really good example is the evolution of the flu virus – that’s why you need a new jab each year.
Comments
danielburton commented on :
I think the Collared Dove is a creature that has evolved very recently. In the 20th century I think.