Slashdot Mirror
Squirrels Evolving to Suit Global Warming?
Gavinsblog writes "New Scientist is reporting
that using a technique called quantitive genetics, researchers have found that
due to the effects of global warming, female squirrels now give birth on average
18 days earlier in the year than their great-great-grandmothers. Is global warming
also affecting human evolution?
"
"
You're getting cause and effect backward.
Perhaps you should be looking at whether more people order air conditioning in their SUVs than their grandparents did. I remember the days of my youth with 475 AC. (4 windows, 75MpH) I'm not sure how to quantify the AC my grand/great-grandparents used on the California trip in their covered wagon.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
More accurately, New Scientist reports that Red Squirrels in the Yukon are evolving due to local climate change. Which it proceeds to call global warming.
Reminds me of a bumper sticker someone suggested for people who drive SUVs:
"Who cares about Global warming? I've got AC!"
Humans evolving? Maybe not. Evolution depends on stress from the environment (to severely paraphrase the theory). If the environment isn't changing, there's no "pressure" to force evolution.
Thanks to human inginuity, we can bottle ourselves up in nice little climate-controlled houses, eat carefully prepared and nutritionally balanced foods, get regimented exercise, and receive all manner of medical treatment that cancel out pretty much everything that evolution has to work with.
=Smidge=
Species change in relation to their environment for reasons other than evolution. It's a fairly standard survival adaptation, but it can make for changes in species that people often think are best attributed to evoltion.
In general, someone whose parents are both Pygmies but who grows up in Spain is going to end up being average height. Turns out a large portion of the reason why pygmies tend to be so short is their diet.
Man invented evolution to escape God.
There ain't no such thing as human evolution (anymore).
:)
I suspect it's the nature of life to adapt. In the past our technology has changed quicker than we could adapt to it, but in one area, diet, species change continues. Look at average weights of individuals in many "developed" countries. This is not an evolved feature, but if it persists through many generations it might very well change part of the human species. Adaptations that allow longer reproductive span of individuals who consume high calorie diets, such as better elimination of extra calories, or better tolerance of high blood cholesterol, might prevail. Adaptations such as a more dense bone structure or altered musculature (to carry the weight), might also occur.
Unwittingly, or intentionally, in many "developed" countries we now segregate out lower functioning (borderline mentally retarded) individuals who in previous generations might have been able to lead "normal" lives. We put them in special schools/classrooms, we give them medications that change their behavior, and by artificially grouping them into separate social groups we decreased their chances of reproduction. I suspect any evidence to back this up would be anectdotal, but I'd wager if the numbers were there you would see a significant decrease in the number of borderline mentally retarded people who father or give birth to children.
Similarly, although physical prowess is still a strong attractor, I'd be willing to bet that intelligent guys are sexier now than they have ever been. Although we won't live to see the results, you want to bet this subtle eugenics won't have an effect on the species?
Just because we don't have lions hunting us on most golf courses doesn't mean the genome of h. sapiens sapiens won't continue to change.
Get off my virtual lawn, you damned virtual kids!