‘Landmark study’ solves mystery behind classic evolution story | Science | AAAS. The story of the peppered moth is a classic example of evolution in action, right up there with Darwin’s finches. As coal soot and smoke blackened the trees of industrial England in the late 1800s, a rare, dark variant of the peppered moth flourished, quickly supplanting its common, white peers by blending in with the newly darkened tree bark. By the 1950s, 90% of all peppered moths in the region near Manchester were dark, not white. When air quality started to improve in the 1970s, the white moths made a comeback; today, they constitute more than 90% of the population.
But the story had an unsatisfying ending: Despite decades of research, scientists didn’t know the exact mutation responsible for the once-unusual dark wings. By 2011, a team of researchers led by Ilik Saccheri, an ecological geneticist at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, had narrowed down the likely location of the mutation to a single chunk of chromosome.
The gene’s influence isn’t limited to moths. Should You Fear the Pizzly Bear? In New England today, trees cover more land than they have at any time since the colonial era. Roughly 80 percent of the region is now forested, compared with just 30 percent in the late 19th century. Moose and turkey again roam the backwoods. Beavers, long ago driven from the area by trappers seeking pelts, once more dam streams. White-tailed deer are so numerous that they are often considered pests. And an unlikely predator has crept back into the woods, too: what some have called the coywolf. It is both old and new — roughly one-quarter wolf and two-thirds coyote, with the rest being dog. The animal comes from an area above the Great Lakes, where wolves and coyotes live — and sometimes breed — together. David Christian: The history of our world in 18 minutes. Song of the Jellyfish by Lee Upton. Getting morning hugs from the lions.
The peppered moth's dark genetic past revealed.
Life's Innovations/Major Transitions. Microevolution. Attempting to demonstrate evolution with a line.