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There has to be evolutionary pressure on animals to avoid cars on the road. I wonder if there is any evidence that road kill numbers are reducing?

by xefer 8y ago

agumonkey 8y ago
Also what about social pressure evolution rather than genetic evolution ?
- vectorEQ 8y ago
  you mean micro vs macro evolution i think, and it might be interesting for you to look at those terms? this article , like darwins findings which there are proof for, are all about micro evolution - the environment and social circumstances triggering minor changes. i dont think (but ofcourse, i didnt do any experiements on it... ) that these 'new species' have new DNA. (and really.. that means they aren't actually new species... guess people are confused about what race and species actually mean. but that's another story :D... )
  - agumonkey 8y ago
    macro evolution it is then
vanderZwan 8y ago
I guess you haven't actually read the article, since you would have found your answer in paragraphs fourteen to seventeen: > The shape of a bird’s wing is not something that evolution can mess with with impunity. It is very closely wedded to a bird’s way of life. Long pointed wings are better for fast flying in a straight line, while short rounded wings are good for making rapid turns or for quickly taking off. > The conclusion was inescapable: only cliff swallows with wings short enough to take off vertically from the tarmac to escape an oncoming car had managed to get away and spread their short-wing genes in the gene pool. The tardier long-winged ones ended up as ex-swallows on the hard shoulder, their long-wing genes excluded from the pool. And, as the surviving swallows became ever better adapted at evading approaching vehicles, the number of casualties plummeted. > When researchers consulted the bird collections of eight natural history museums in North America and took measurements on the shape of the wings of 312 starlings, they discovered something interesting. The starlings’ wings had gradually become more rounded over time, because the secondary flight feathers (at the bird’s “lower arm”, closest to the body) had become elongated by some 4%. > It is precisely this quick-response benefit of more rounded wings that may be one of the reasons that the settler starlings evolved. In those 120 years since Schieffelin had released the starlings’ founding fathers in Central Park, the human population in western North America (the part of the continent that the starling expanded into) grew almost fifty-fold. What had been tiny settlements when the starling arrived blossomed into metropolises in a matter of decades. And with urbanisation came new dangers for urban birds: cats and cars. It is quite likely that this is what caused the American starlings to evolve a wing shape that helped them get out of the way of a pouncing cat or a speeding motorcar hurtling towards them. The answers are out there if you actually look for them, you know.
- xefer 8y ago
  I was thinking more about squirrels and such

There has to be evolutionary pressure on animals to avoid cars on the road. I wonder if there is any evidence that road kill numbers are reducing?

by xefer 8y ago

There has to be evolutionary pressure on animals to avoid cars on the road. I wonder if there is any evidence that road kill numbers are reducing?

agumonkey 8y ago

Also what about social pressure evolution rather than genetic evolution ?

vectorEQ 8y ago
you mean micro vs macro evolution i think, and it might be interesting for you to look at those terms? this article , like darwins findings which there are proof for, are all about micro evolution - the environment and social circumstances triggering minor changes. i dont think (but ofcourse, i didnt do any experiements on it... ) that these 'new species' have new DNA. (and really.. that means they aren't actually new species... guess people are confused about what race and species actually mean. but that's another story :D... )
- agumonkey 8y ago
  macro evolution it is then

vanderZwan 8y ago

I guess you haven't actually read the article, since you would have found your answer in paragraphs fourteen to seventeen: > The shape of a bird’s wing is not something that evolution can mess with with impunity. It is very closely wedded to a bird’s way of life. Long pointed wings are better for fast flying in a straight line, while short rounded wings are good for making rapid turns or for quickly taking off. > The conclusion was inescapable: only cliff swallows with wings short enough to take off vertically from the tarmac to escape an oncoming car had managed to get away and spread their short-wing genes in the gene pool. The tardier long-winged ones ended up as ex-swallows on the hard shoulder, their long-wing genes excluded from the pool. And, as the surviving swallows became ever better adapted at evading approaching vehicles, the number of casualties plummeted. > When researchers consulted the bird collections of eight natural history museums in North America and took measurements on the shape of the wings of 312 starlings, they discovered something interesting. The starlings’ wings had gradually become more rounded over time, because the secondary flight feathers (at the bird’s “lower arm”, closest to the body) had become elongated by some 4%. > It is precisely this quick-response benefit of more rounded wings that may be one of the reasons that the settler starlings evolved. In those 120 years since Schieffelin had released the starlings’ founding fathers in Central Park, the human population in western North America (the part of the continent that the starling expanded into) grew almost fifty-fold. What had been tiny settlements when the starling arrived blossomed into metropolises in a matter of decades. And with urbanisation came new dangers for urban birds: cats and cars. It is quite likely that this is what caused the American starlings to evolve a wing shape that helped them get out of the way of a pouncing cat or a speeding motorcar hurtling towards them. The answers are out there if you actually look for them, you know.

xefer 8y ago
I was thinking more about squirrels and such