Charles Darwin claimed that hundreds of years ago, all living species, including humans, evolved from a few common ancestors and presented all the evidence he could present under the conditions of the day. The ideas of Darwin, who said that all living things evolve and will continue to evolve, form the basis of biology today.
Changing climate and environmental conditions push other living things to evolve, just like the evolution of humans. Just as our appearance and behavior have evolved, as in the images showing the evolution of humans, the same is true of other living species.
Plants and animals vary in size, shape and color
Although we do not understand when we look around us whether a plant experiences a change in a month or a year, they do. According to studies, it has been proven that the phenotypic change rates of living species affected by human activities are higher than those that are not affected.
Pepper moths living in Britain’s industrial areas have been observed to darken their color more than they normally would to adapt to soot-blackened buildings and escape predators. Likewise, house sparrows brought to North America from Europe changed their size, shape, and color to suit their new homes. Tufted hairgrass growing around power poles, on the other hand, has started to develop a tolerance to zinc, a plant-toxic substance used in the covering of the poles.
Biologist Andrew Hendry, while working on salmon, observed similar rapid changes as in plants. According to Hendry’s observations, the fish began to shrink in size to escape from the nets. Collecting the examples of rapid evolution he found as a result of his research, Hendry created a database with the help of his colleagues and published an article called ‘1999’ to inform people. Together with other colleagues, Hendry has now added more than 5,000 samples to his previously prepared database.
Observing that most of the living species are shrinking in size, the researchers state that most of these changes are caused by humans, but that climate changes also have an effect on some species. Some animals can retain more heat due to their large body size. Changing climatic conditions and increasing temperatures indicate that animals do not need a large body to retain heat and are shrinking in size. In fish, on the other hand, the reason for their smaller size is to escape from the nets more easily. Regardless of the conditions, all living things have always continued to change in order to adapt to their environment, and they always will, but it seems that this change is happening more rapidly for all living things in recent times.
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