• Question: Could evolution occur today?

    Asked by 635enek28 to Yang, Stephen, Shane, Karla, Emma on 13 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Stephen Rhatigan

      Stephen Rhatigan answered on 13 Nov 2017:


      Evolution is occurring today. Evolution can take millions of years so we don’t notice it. But there are some examples like:
      African elephants are being born without tusks in response to poaching. A fraction of the elephant population were always born without the ability to grow tusks but due to poaching this has become an advantage for survival and so those genes are being selected for. Read more here:
      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/elephants-africa-tusks-ivory-poaching-born-without-a7440706.html
      Another example is bacteria evolving to have resistance to antibiotics.
      I’m sure there are lot’s of examples of current and observable evolution and a biologist would be able to answer this question much better than me.
      Evolution is a process which never ceases.

    • Photo: Emma Hanley

      Emma Hanley answered on 13 Nov 2017:


      Yes it is occurring today, I think Stephen provided some good examples.

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