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This is not really evolution. Evolution specifically depends on the mechanism of selective pressures on a population as a whole - basically the culling or growt
by faitswulff 6y ago
This is not really evolution. Evolution specifically depends on the mechanism of selective pressures on a population as a whole - basically the culling or growth of populations depending on inherited characteristics.
This is a single individual learning a new trick. Technically this is adaptation.
- blackbrokkoli 6y agoFair enough. I mean, it could be both, no? Maybe it was gradually adopted and changed from another technique. But maybe it is just one smart guy. The interesting thing is whether the species (or even other species) will adopt this over the next 50 years, I suppose.
- faitswulff 6y agoThe point is that if you’re seeing an individual do something novel, it’s not evolution. Evolution would be if it had a mutation that it passed on that made its survival more or less likely or in speciation - the diverging of one species into two or more. To be pedantic, it is in no way observable evolution. Scientists have observed speciation before when populations of fish got trapped in separate environments and became mutually sexually incompatible - so different species. That’s observable evolution.