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Evolution disruptors

By Dinosaurs

The unpublished works of Charles Darwin – Evolution Disruptors

Why T-rex has short arms

  Yes, you’ve probably heard of Endocrine Disruptors, but have you heard of Evolution Disruptors? Here’s my definition:

Evolution disruptors are man-made or naturally occurring objects that, at certain levels of exposure, can interfere with the natural selection genetic process and alter the future evolutionary path in animals. It can result in adverse developmental, reproductive, neurological, and genetic mutations in both humans and wildlife.  A wide range of objects, both natural and man-made, are thought to cause evolution disruption, including the selfie stick.

Can you think of another examples?

Fish Evolution: Take 2

By Animals

When I think of evolution, I think of small changes over millions of years, but not so for the hardy tomcods of the once heavily polluted Hudson river. Deadly PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) were discharged to the river by General Electric Co between 1947 and 1976. This naturally had a deadly impact on the inhabitants, with the tomcod being hit quite hard, as they are filter feeders (PCB contaminants settle on the bottom river bed ). Their life span was reduced from an average 7 years to 2 years and many suffered from tumours.

However, they are fighting back and have evolved to be resistant to the toxin (unlike their counterparts in other ecosystems).  Studies continue into their mutated, toxin resistant genes. Refer to this LiveScience.com link for the related article

Here boy. Fetch!

By Dinosaurs

‘Arrgh!’ Apologies for the typo in the last posting.  (If you replace ‘seeing’ with ‘wearing’ it might make a bit more sense. The link on the site has been updated). In my defence, I offer the fact that I is engineer and us enginiers are not known for our grammatical prowess.  However, engineers are known for their ability to apply logic and process and as such I have added the new process of independent proof reading prior to posting.  The newly appointed proof reader comes highly qualified with a masters of science! (definitely one up on the humble engineer).