Do you remember the term evolution? Something that we think completely related with history. But we are wrong. Evolution still continues day and it is happening regularly. Due to the great change of the earth, environmental pressures are being created all over the world and as a result, we humans and other animals are trying to adapt that just to survive our life. This adaptation is turning into an evolution. If you really think this article talking about something serious, read out this article and you will come to know about some present day animals which are the production of evolution.
Each and every day we humans or better say the whole mankind is getting up into nature and trying to destroy everything just for our survival. But like us, nature also try to adapt them to the rapidly changing situation. Come have a look how it’s happening.
Native Green Lizard
Have you heard about this lizard which is mainly found in Florida? Yes, they are one of the victims of evolution. They mainly lived in the lower branches of the trees and when their cousin brown lizard moved in their territory, the green lizard decided to make a move. They started living on the tree tops for less competition and easy survival, but this led to a great change in the physical structure. Their toe pads grew bigger and their scales got stickier just to move through the smooth branches. All this happened in a period of just 15 years.
Owl
Nowadays, there are a number of owl species we found but This time we will be talking about the very common tawny owl of Finland as they were forced to change the color due to climate change.The tawny owl was mainly found in two colors one is brown and the other is pale gray. These pale great owls had a great advantage as it was easier for them to hide from the predators blending their color with the snow color. But sadly, over the last fifty years, winter has become mild and it was noticed that gray owls are also on a declining rate giving the brown owls a population thrives as the brown owls can blend themselves in the brown branches. But as more brown owls survive, more brown genes are getting passed in next generations.
Pink Salmon
Due to the rise of the water temperature, the pink salmon fish is migrating earlier. But how it’s happening? It’s not a new behavior, it is due to the genetic changes. Actually, the pink salmon used to migrate from the ocean to rivers because of the rise of the water temperature but now they are doing it two weeks earlier than they did 40 years ago. This change took place within two or three generations. And it says that the water temperature is rising earlier due to global warming.
Elephants
Have you recently noticed the tusks of elephants? Yes, they are smaller than it was some decades ago. Do you know the reason behind that? Actually, before the international ban on Ivory Agreement act in 1989, large numbers of tusks were cut off from the elephants due to poaching and that resulted in this evolution. Nowadays elephants are born with small tusks or even no tusks in some cases. A study shows that in 2005 nearly 5-10 percent of Asian elephants are born without tusks and the percentage is larger in the case of African elephants.
Capuchin Monkey
In Rio De Janeiro, capuchin monkeys are now found sneaking at people’s home just for food. According to the primatologists, the capuchin monkeys now associate humans with foods. But why so? Actually, some humans found this monkey harmless and gave them human foods to eat and this small amount of food grew into a habit. During the food scarcity in the wild, all the monkeys migrate to the city for foods.
Peppered Moth
The world is still going through a great industrial revolution and this factor is causing a great pollution in the whole planet. Similarly during the industrial revolution in the US and UK air got filled with the pollutants from these industries and that put a great impact on nature. One of the creatures which suffered was the peppered moth. The color of peppered moth was off white with dark spots on their wings. But over the generations, they started evolving with a darker pigment. That means the dark color moths were born more as they are hard to locate by the predators while the light color ones got eaten by the predators. But magically when the industrial laws came in 1975, the lighter moth population gradually started increasing and the darker moths disappeared with a change once more.
Polar Bears
Though we all known about the declining of the polar bear population in the arctic due to global warming. But day by day, scientists are finding various hybrids of the polar bear. One of this example is the growler bears which are a cross between polar bears and the grizzly bears. In 2006 it was first confirmed by the licensed hunter that he hunted a bear with complete grizzly like features. Again in 2010, a hunter came across a grolar-grizzly bear hybrid who was also fertile.
Atlantic Tomcod
Have you heard of the Hudson River? It was heavily polluted in the year 1947 by dropping a huge amount of PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyl) and this continued till 1976 leaving almost all the local wildlife dead or mutated. But there was only Atlantic tomcod which not only survived but also started developing a great immunity to poison in the waterway within 50 generations which generally takes 1000 of years to develop.
Yellow Bellied Three-Toed Skink
Now you will be knowing a very interesting example of animal evolution as it has been discovered that a yellow-bellied three- toed skink which lives near the coast, lays eggs but the same skin which lives in the mountains, gives birth to the live youngs. But what’s the reason affecting such a change? It is the climate. The coastal regions have enough temperature to maintain eggs but in the cooled mountains, the body temperature of the other is more essential.
House Mouse
One of the most common pests in the world, the house mouse is in the limelight. We have different kinds of poisons available that we use to kill these mouse, but it was noticed some years ago that they got immune to poison. But how is that possible? Actually, they started cross breeding with the Algerian mice in Europe and the Algerian mouse have high resistance to poison and that resulted in this great change.
So this proves that nature is powerful and it can turn many impossible things into possible. But always there are limitations. So, evolution is not going to save every single species on this earth. Darwin’s theory is going to work every time and till then every part of nature will try to adapt themselves to the changes. We will have to stop the changes.
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