"It is notorious the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself." -,Leon Megginson
I read this interesting story about natural selection from the book Super Thinking:
” BEFORE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, most peppered moths in Manchester, England, were light-colored, using trees covered with pale bark and lichens as camouflage to avoid becoming prey for birds. The first reporting of a live dark moth was in 1811, but definitive proof of this variation didn't appear until the first was captured in 1848. A dark moth was extremely rare, estimated to represent only o.01 percent of the peppered moth population around that time. But by 1895, the frequency of dark-colored peppered moths in Manchester had risen from 0.01 percent to 98 percent!
What happened? During this period, pollution from the new coal factories left the trees covered with soot and killed the pale lichens, resulting in darker trees. The light-colored moths' color became a liability rather than an asset. The dark-color genes, however, immediately became incredibly useful, as any moths that expressed them were now camouflaged against the dark trees. Birds picked off the light-colored moths in droves, leaving dark-colored moths to propagate and take over the gene pool. England's Clean Air Act of 1956 cleaned up the pollution, making the trees light again, reversing the trend, and ultimately making the dark-colored moths rare once more. This rise and fall of the dark-colored peppered moth is a showcase of natural selection, the process that drives biological evolution.”
” BEFORE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, most peppered moths in Manchester, England, were light-colored, using trees covered with pale bark and lichens as camouflage to avoid becoming prey for birds. The first reporting of a live dark moth was in 1811, but definitive proof of this variation didn't appear until the first was captured in 1848. A dark moth was extremely rare, estimated to represent only o.01 percent of the peppered moth population around that time. But by 1895, the frequency of dark-colored peppered moths in Manchester had risen from 0.01 percent to 98 percent!
What happened? During this period, pollution from the new coal factories left the trees covered with soot and killed the pale lichens, resulting in darker trees. The light-colored moths' color became a liability rather than an asset. The dark-color genes, however, immediately became incredibly useful, as any moths that expressed them were now camouflaged against the dark trees. Birds picked off the light-colored moths in droves, leaving dark-colored moths to propagate and take over the gene pool. England's Clean Air Act of 1956 cleaned up the pollution, making the trees light again, reversing the trend, and ultimately making the dark-colored moths rare once more. This rise and fall of the dark-colored peppered moth is a showcase of natural selection, the process that drives biological evolution.”
