Fish caught in evolution
Anthony L.
While exploring the current news WebPages I came across this article on evolution that I found very interesting and felt needed to be shared. You can also find the article at ecoworld. Several days ago scientist were able to capture for the first time an animal in the process of an evolutionary change. The reason for the remarkable change is for the species to cope with increased pollution and the effects of climate change. Generally, the evolutionary process of speciation occurs when one species is split by a physical distance or barrier allowing each group to develop different traits the observations of Lake Victoria’s cichlids provide evidence of an unusual form of evolution known as sympatric speciation, which occurs without the physical separation of a population group. Researchers are still debating weather the lake has a high level of pollution being put into it causing the fish to evolve the way it does. Although it was found that the fish that live at shallower depths find blue lights to be extra sensitive to there eyes. After this scientific break through will the process of evolution be left alone? For everyone that does not believe in evolution this would explain that it does in fact exist. With the growing number of people will more animals evolve in the same way due to pollution and growing population of resources being depletited?
October 14th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Interesting article. I find it very fascinating that evolution can be observed by the human eye. Evolution due to destructive factors such as pollution make for a very interesting observation. Did the scientist’s say that pollution and changing climate factors were the exact cause of the fish’s change?
The advantadges due to this scientific discovery certainly do seem limitless, but it might raise just as many questions. Evolution I feel will never be left alone because of it’s broad range. This fish though might be able though to clear a lot more confusion though and help scientists get their point across further.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Nice article. It is crazy that scientist would find and be able to record these fish developing better eye sight. It makes sense that better eye sight would be a favored trait in water that is thick with pollution and hard to see in. However, the article said scientists were still debating whether or not pollution was the only cause for the fish to evolve the way that they did.
I agree with Christine that it’s going to be a while before evolution is left alone. Too many people have misconceptions with the theory of evolution and I believe it’s going to be a long time before these misconceptions will go away.
October 16th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
I do have to agree with what Anthony said about evolution being in present existence. This had occurred only about several days ago and people still have misconceptions and disbeliefs in the “theory” that, sadly, will never go away, no matter how much evidence is thrown on the table to be observed as proof. I do think that many more animals will evolve in the same way, maybe not directly relating to pollution, but due to limited resources and the alarming number of people continuing to grow. It’s survival of the fittest and these animals are doing all they can to live on.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
This is a very interesting and somewhat controversial article. I agree with you that again this is substantial proof that evolution is true and people who disagree with evolution need to realize that their beliefs can correlate with evolution. Again I agree with the other comments that it is amazing that scientists can document evolution occurring right in front of us. To answer your first question I believe that the overall certainty that evolution is fact is much higher that it has ever been with such advancements recently. I also think today people are even more compassionate about disagreeing with evolution and those people get more attention that the continued proof of evolution is overlooked. People also disagree with evolution just to disagree. So no, this issue of evolution will not ever be left alone, just improved.
The other question you asked was about the growing population correlating with evolution. I agree that this will continue change in animals. Also since in some areas human growth is so quick organisms will have to adapt to this change too, and like the cichlid will have to evolve in order to survive
October 17th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
To answer your first question, I don’t ever believe the process of evolution will ever be left alone. Such as the beginning of life, evolution does not have an answer for this other than there was a chemical reaction of some sort. Therefor science cannot prove the origin of life leaving people to believe that something must have created the universe. I don’t completely agree with evolution but I agree with Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Since they do not yet know if the pollution in Lake Victoria was the only reason for the mutation in the fish, it could be all a man made effect. I recall seeing a two-headed redfish in a Florida sportsmen magazine that had been mutated because of power plant pollution. Also, because the article doesn’t specify how they witnessed the species split into two distinct species it could also of been part of survival of the fittest. There are over 1300 different Cichlid fish in the world and there are more discovered all of the time; maybe this could have been a previously undiscovered fish that because of murkier waters became better suited to its environment and now is becoming more prominent. I do think because of population we will see more species have to adapt to their environment. Humans have effected many species and will continue to.