Examples of evolution by Usic https://padlet.com/usictech/v9uowu76088ziibn Made with whimsy en-us 2022-03-09 12:44:23 UTC 2022-03-17 14:00:48 UTC hello@padlet.com Pick one of these examples, or find one of your own to write notes about - what evidence for evolution can you find? usictech https://padlet.com/usictech/v9uowu76088ziibn/wish/2085981990 Peppered Moth

Brightly Coloured Peacocks

Darwin's Finches

Flightless Birds

Pesticide Resistant Insects

Blue Moon Butterfly

Deer Mouse

Mexican Cavefish

]]> 2022-03-09 12:48:31 UTC https://padlet.com/usictech/v9uowu76088ziibn/wish/2085981990 Mexican Cavefish https://padlet.com/usictech/v9uowu76088ziibn/wish/2100049786 Mexican cavefish have no eyes. As the eyes and the visual parts of the brain requires lots of energy, and these fish live in the dark, their ancestor Mexican tetra has evolved to lose their eyes and they find their way around by sucking. The reason was assumed to be mutations that disabled genes that were important for eye development and caused them to go blind but it was found that genes were actually switched off by methylation. Some researchers seem to lean toward the mutations, some lean toward the turned off gene, and some assume it’s because of both.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2150233-blind-cave-fish-lost-eyes-by-unexpected-evolutionary-process/ 
]]> 2022-03-17 13:27:09 UTC https://padlet.com/usictech/v9uowu76088ziibn/wish/2100049786 Pesticide Resistance Insects 26291991 https://padlet.com/usictech/v9uowu76088ziibn/wish/2100064160 Pesticides are usually some new synthetic compounds and they are able to control the number of specific organisms at the beginning. However, the pesticides could be  seemed as a source of nature selection. Therefore, the species soon adapted to the compound after a few generations. The process of nature selection in species is simple that some of the individuals might have the genes or traits against the compound. These specific individuals will remain in the field and produce their offspring. After several generations, most of the individuals in this species resist to the pesticide because only these individuals can survive with the pesticide.

Recently, the experts try to reduce the impact of the pesticides to the world. The pesticides were more focus on the certain molecular target or  pesticide-binding residues in an insect. As a result, while the insect needs to adapt to these factors, it also requires to maintain its cell's function. In a way, the mutation, which is called parallel de novo, might occur in the insect. There were some examples from previous research, such as, G143A in cytochrome b have a strong relationship to the QoI fungicides and A302S in Rdl can resist to cyclodiene insecticides.


Hawkins, N. J., Bass, C., Dixon, A., & Neve, P. (2018). The evolutionary origins of pesticide resistance. Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 94(1), 135–155. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12440]]> 2022-03-17 13:34:04 UTC https://padlet.com/usictech/v9uowu76088ziibn/wish/2100064160 Brightly Colored Birds https://padlet.com/usictech/v9uowu76088ziibn/wish/2100098534 In most bird species, males are more colorful than the females. Darwin’s theory of sexual selection, which proposes that traits that help males of species reproduce will be favored, helps explain the evolutionary process that lead to this. Darwin concluded that sexual dichromatism, which is the color differences between sexes of a species results from female preference. Female birds prefer bright colors in males, but also the females having duller colors helps them be less visible to predators when they’re nesting in trees. Bright colors also provide a warning for potential predators, so this can also be related with Darwin’s theory of natural selection, which proposes that traits that help species survive will be favored.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-are-male-birds-more-c/
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