Micro meet macro, macro/micro--

I picked these stories up from Plime (yes, I do get all my news from them) and they had me really fascinated because they are great examples of how evolution works.

First up--the Italian wall lizard that found a new environment and started to change.

Of especial note, to me, is this part:

“Striking differences in head size and shape, increased bite strength and the development of new structures in the lizard’s digestive tracts were noted after only 36 years, which is an extremely short time scale,” says Duncan Irschick, a professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “These physical changes have occurred side-by-side with dramatic changes in population density and social structure.”

Evolutionary change in only 36 years--a little more time than I've been alive, a totally observable phenomenon. That's pretty neat.

Also, I saw this bit regarding elephants and their amphibious roots . I was fascinated, because you can see similarities between elephants and other water-happy mammals like walruses and seals.



You can also find several incidences of elephants frollicking happily in water--like this big guy.

Thinking about how aquatic mammals developed kind of reminds me of this book I read while in college, The Descent of Woman . I was reminded of it, because Morgan proposed the aquatic ape theory (after Desmond Morris)--that humans, the relatively unhairy, vocal primates we are, are such, because we went from the trees, to the beach. I didn't know if I bought the theory, but I really liked her writing, and stay a little intrigued by the thought, being a relatively hairless, vocal primate who really does like swimming, myself.

Anyway, the microevolution of this handsome little lizard, and the somewhat longer, more interesting evolution of the elephant, seemed an appropriate topic for the anniversary of Darwin's death (and he did not either recant evolution on his deathbed), since it shows how we still work with his simple idea and elegant idea regarding the complexity of life.

Also cool: Many, many Darwin-related documents have just been made available on-line at The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online.