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Evolution: fish select for the survival of teh fittest
October 30, 2002An important breakthrough has been made in determining the forces responsible for the evolution of populations in nature. By studying wild populations of grayling (a close relative of salmon), Mikko Koskinen and Craig Primmer at the University of Helsinki and Thrond Haugen at the University of Oslo found that natural selection, a force suggested by Charles Darwin in `The Origin of Species`, was responsible for up-to 90% of grayling evolution.
In their study, published in Nature on October 24, the team stated that their findings were in fact the reverse of what many people expected: As the grayling originated from a common source only about a century ago and were very small in number, a random process known as genetic drift was expected to be the driving evolutionary force. However, by comparing the evolution of important biological features of the fish (such as growth rate) with the evolution of sections of DNA not affected by natural selection, the team found that natural selection was in fact much more important than genetic drift. This finding agrees with the hotly debated view of a British geneticist Sir Ronald Fisher, one of the founders of the field of population genetics.
Helsingin yliopisto (University of Helsinki)
Evolution Current Events and Evolution News RSSWhy nice guys usually get the girls
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Deciphering the regulatory code
Embryonic development is like a well-organised building project, with the embryo's DNA serving as the blueprint from which all construction details are derived.
The humble beginnings of a king
Tyrannosaurus rex and related large carnivorous dinosaurs together form the family Tyrannosauridae. A long forgotten fossil skull in the collections of the Natural History Museum in London has now provided crucial clues to the early stages of the lengthy evolutionary history of these fearsome predators.
Study sheds light on evolution of human complexity
A painstaking analysis of thousands of genes and the proteins they encode shows that human beings are biologically complex, at least in part, because of the way humans evolved to cope with redundancies arising from duplicate genes.
Electron self-injection into an evolving plasma bubble
Particle accelerators are among the largest and most expensive scientific instruments. Thirty years ago, theorists John Dawson and Toshiki Tajima proposed an idea for making them thousands of times smaller: surf the particles on plasma waves driven by short intense laser pulses.
There's a speed limit to the pace of evolution, Penn biologists say
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a theoretical model that informs the understanding of evolution and determines how quickly an organism will evolve using a catalogue of "evolutionary speed limits."
Precuneus region of human and monkey brain is divided into 4 distinct regions
A study published this week in PNAS provides a comprehensive comparative functional anatomy study in human and monkey brains which reveals highly similar brain networks preserved across evolution.
New dinosaur species from Montana
A husband and wife team of American paleontologists has discovered a new species of dinosaur that lived 112 million years ago during the early Cretaceous of central Montana.
Inconspicuous leaf beetles reveal environment's role in formation of new species
Unnoticed by the nearby residents of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, tiny leaf beetles that flit among the maple and willow trees in the area have just provided some of the clearest evidence yet that environmental factors play a major role in the formation of new species.
First draft of the pig: Researchers sequence swine genome
A global collaborative has produced a first draft of the genome of a domesticated pig, an achievement that will lead to insights in agriculture, medicine, conservation and evolution.
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