4 ms·
Rapid population bottlenecks can easily cause non-linear evolutionary change by drastically changing the histogram of phenotypes.
by chewbacha 3y ago
Rapid population bottlenecks can easily cause non-linear evolutionary change by drastically changing the histogram of phenotypes.
- nerdponx 3y agoIs it also possible that elephants have enough awareness to notice who among them is more likely to be murdered by humans, and start selecting partners differently?
- chewbacha 3y agoOf course there could be sexual selection at play! I would argue though, that form of selection will take at many generations to take hold where as genocide of a species happens in a single generation. Of course, the smaller the population, the faster sexual selection will take effect but it might be hard to disambiguate with other fitness factors. Fwiw, a very similar thing happens during selection for bacterial resistance. You eliminate all the cells susceptible leaving a population of resistant cells. This population then grows to replace the previous generation. You could analogize this with the elephants. Small tusk and docile elephants have a "resistance" to being murdered by poachers. The poachers eliminate all the others and suddenly the population seems domesticated.
- kelseyfrog 3y agoSure, but we need to keep in mind that when hearing hooves we should think horses not zebras.