Randy said "Many species have evolved to better survive in a human-dominated
environment. That is evolution."
I agree 100%. Consider dogs. They self domesticated and along the way picked up many traits that did not exist in wolves. For just one example dogs will respond to a human pointing, a trait that is totally lacking in wolves. No one even selected for this. It was evolution helping the dog survive and prosper in the presence of humans. How is that different from a human putting selective breeding pressure on dogs to hunt in cooperation with humans? Another example is the African honey guide birds. They have adapted to respond to a specific whistle call from humans that causes them to hunt wild bee nests and guide the humans to the nest and as a reward they get fed the left overs from the humans raiding the nest.
What humans can accomplish is rapid selective pressure for wanted traits. Those traits often exist in the wild types. Humans can rapidly exaggerate the expression by selective breeding. Honey production in bees is one example. Or the opposite, select for less expression of unwanted traits. Reduced stinging and defensive behavior in bees is one example. But, in either case such selection is still evolution. Evolution is change in response to a stimulus. Nature can be the stimulus, but so can man.
Such selection can even enhance survival in the wild. Feral pigeons in the new world at all escaped domestics. DNA studies show the ferals in the US mainly are derived from Racing Homers. Our feral pigeons have a great tolerance for humans as a result of their prior domestication and this human tolerance stands them in excellent shape to survive as ferals. A number of native species (deer, raccoons, skunks, geese, piliated woodpeckers, bald eagles) all have evolved a high human tolerance and this allows all of them to live right besides humans comfortably. In the case of the woodpecker and eagle this selection has happened amazingly fast in only the last 50 years.
Dick
" Any discovery made by the human mind can be explained in its essentials to the curious learner." Professor Benjamin Schumacher talking about teaching quantum mechanics to non scientists. "For every complex problem there is a solution which is simple, neat and wrong." H. L. Mencken
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On Mon, 9/5/16, randy oliver <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Subject: Re: [BEE-L] evolutionary pressures
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Monday, September 5, 2016, 11:21 AM
>
>
>Breeding makes use of the mechanisms of evolution (eg
adaptation) but it
> is not evolution.
I beg to
differ. Wikipedia defines evolution as: "change in
the heritable
characteristics of biological
populations over successive generations."
Many species have evolved to
better survive in a human-dominated
environment. That is evolution.
Thus, the response of a
population of organisms to human-applied selective
pressure absolutely would also be evolution.
Just because the selection
pressure is not
applied by something other than humans does not mean that
it is not evolution.
>You sound like a proselytizer here.
>
A
proselytizer tries to convert people to their beliefs. I
don't care what
others choose to
believe. But I do try to discuss biological
observations
and well-supported theories.
What I'm seeing in this thread is naysayers
attempting to dispute clear evidence with
unsupported arguments.
--
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley,
CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com
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