00:00evolution is always happening it's just happening so slowly that it's difficult to quantify in real
00:08time however now researchers say after looking at 160 cities across 26 countries they have
00:14identified the largest contributor to the evolutionary process of species today the
00:19study looks specifically at the white clover as it's found in cities all over the world finding
00:23it's more similar to the same plant in a city on another continent than it is to other plants of
00:28the same type in rural areas on the same continent the researchers say this is clear evidence of
00:33parallel adaptive evolution or when populations of a particular species evolved separately when
00:38faced with similar selective pressure so what selective pressure is that well according to the
00:42study us urbanization has been fingered as a driving force of many species extinction in the past but
00:48this study was able to highlight what exactly was changing in an individual species in particular the
00:53white clover's production of a certain biochemical predator deterrent this is just the latest study
00:58to identify such traits evolving quickly due to urbanization as well another study from 2018 found
01:04that cliff swallows were having shorter and shorter wings as their longer wing siblings weren't as good
01:08at escaping cars on roads and back in 1978 researchers found that the peppered moth was turning black
01:14as soot covered trees from chimney smoke made darker jeans varieties better at camouflaging against predators
01:23of o'clock in the past but a lot of individuals being exploited as well as the more
Comments