High Speed Evolution

Taco Cowboy writes: Normally, the term "evolution" implicitly refers to super-long time frames. However, in the case of lizards on Florida islands, evolution seems to have shifted into a higher gear. Researchers have documented noticeable changes in a native species over a period of just 15 years, after an invading species altered their behavior (abstract). "After contact with the invasive species, the native lizards began perching higher in trees, and, generation after generation, their feet evolved to become better at gripping the thinner, smoother branches found higher up. The change occurred at an astonishing pace: Within a few months, native lizards had begun shifting to higher perches, and over the course of 15 years and 20 generations, their toe pads had become larger, with more sticky scales on their feet.

'We did predict that we'd see a change, but the degree and quickness with which they evolved was surprising,' said Yoel Stuart, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Integrative Biology at The University of Texas at Austin and lead author of the study... 'To put this shift in perspective, if human height were evolving as fast as these lizards' toes, the height of an average American man would increase from about 5 foot 9 inches today to about 6 foot 4 inches within 20 generations — an increase that would make the average U.S. male the height of an NBA shooting guard,' said Stuart."

Comments

Re:Is that unreasonable?

[SampleFish]

Yes, that degree of incest is unreasonable. You could repopulate the Earth with really tall, ugly retards with your plan for the future.

Re:Is that unreasonable?

[ArcadeMan]

According to this recent study, for example, European men have gained approximately 4 inches in height in 100 years, i.e., about 4 or 5 generations.

That's natural selection at work. If you can see further ahead in the traffic, you'll arrive home earlier and score with the women before the short men who are still stuck in traffic.

Re:Falsifiability

[itzly]

However, none of that is evidence that it is not designed.

Indeed. All we can say is that the theory doesn't need a designer. It doesn't need a painter or hair stylist either. Would you prefer if we rewrote the theory of evolution so that there was a hair stylist fixing the hair of the woolly mammoths ?

Re:Is that unreasonable?

[Jeremi]

Yes, that degree of incest is unreasonable. You could repopulate the Earth with really tall, ugly retards with your plan for the future.

Some theorize that that has already happened.

Personally, I don't buy it -- most people are not that tall.