Evolution: can work at high speed (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, May 30, 2022, 14:57 (687 days ago) @ David Turell

Another study sells adaptation speed as evolution:

https://www.sciencealert.com/evolution-may-be-happening-up-to-four-times-faster-than-we...

"New research suggests that Darwinian evolution could be happening up to four times faster than previously thought, based on an analysis of genetic variation. (my bold)

"The more genetic differences there are in a species, the faster evolution can happen, as certain traits die off and stronger ones get established. The team behind this latest study calls it the "fuel of evolution", and they looked at data on 19 different wild animal groups around the world.

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"'The method gives us a way to measure the potential speed of current evolution in response to natural selection across all traits in a population," says evolutionary ecologist Timothée Bonnet, from the Australian National University.

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"The average length of each field study was an impressive 30 years, with details of births, deaths, mating and offspring all recorded. The shortest was 11 years and the longest a whopping 63 years. That gave the researchers a grand total of 2.6 million hours of field data to combine with genetic information on each animal.

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"As there's no baseline to work from – this is the first study of its type – the researchers emphasize there's not yet enough evidence to show species are evolving faster than in the past. What is clear is that there's more of this "fuel of evolution" than we thought.

"With the world and its wildlife reeling from the ongoing effects of climate change, knowing more about how quickly animals can adapt will be helpful in modeling which species will be able to survive and which won't.

"The concern is that as shifts in the global climate continue to accelerate, species won't be able to adapt in time. Even more comprehensive and longer term studies are going to be important to figure out exactly how quickly evolution is taking place.

"'This research has shown us that evolution cannot be discounted as a process which allows species to persist in response to environmental change," says Bonnet.

"What we can say is that evolution is a much more significant driver than we previously thought in the adaptability of populations to current environmental changes.'"

Comment: pure Darwin propaganda. True evolution progresses by speciation. This is simply the speed of existing species adapting to changes in environment and other factors. It could well be called epigenetic variation. Darwin expected these variations would lead to new species, but this study is not that result.