The Fuel of Evolution

Darwinian evolution is the process by which natural selection promotes genetic changes in traits that favor survival and reproduction of individuals. How fast evolution happens depends crucially on the abundance of its "fuel": how much genetic difference there is in the ability to survive and reproduce. 

New research by an international research team with participation of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) has now discovered that the raw material for evolution is much more abundant in wild animals than previously believed. The findings were published in Science.

Darwin thought of the process of evolution as something slow, visible only over geological ages. However, researchers have since discovered many examples of evolution occurring in just a few years. 

One such example is that of British populations of the peppered moth, where the abundance of two color morphs changed dramatically in only a few decades, as the result of evolution by natural selection favoring different morphs depending on the level of air pollution. It was unclear however how fast animals with longer lifespans such as birds and mammals can evolve and adapt to environmental change.

Led by Dr. Timothée Bonnet from the Australian National University, a team of 40 researchers from 27 institutions addressed this question and measured how much of the "fuel of evolution" exists overall in wild populations of birds and mammals. 

The answer: many populations of birds and mammals can evolve surprisingly fast—their amount of genetic difference in the ability to survive and reproduce being two to four times higher than previously thought.  READ MORE...