Are there any verifiable examples of evolution actually occurring in any known species to date?

Question

From the very beginning when all living creatures were being cataloged and recorded, has there ever been a case of recorded evolution? An improvement of a species- no genetic tampering, occurring naturally. Please provide sources where possible.

Answer 1

This happens daily, just most of the time it is not news worthy,

Here is a news story of it happening this week.

yearly flu shots don't make sense without evolution

e coli double it's bio mass every twenty minutes and evolution can be seen literally daily

humans have two easy traits to point out, sickle cell anemia and lactose tolerance that can be linked to evolution  

Answer 2

Evolution happens constantly - One of the most obvious examples is bacteria developing resistance to antibiotics.    Evolution works something like a Chess program that can be played on a computer.  The program doesn't think like a person.  It just tests thousands of possible moves and possible responses to those moves -  Good programs can test every possible move not only for a single response, but several moves into the future.

With Evolution, every chance variation in the offspring of a living thing is an opportunity for a test.   - Animals and plants tend to produce more offspring than can survive, grow and reproduce, given the food, water and other resources that are available.  - So the offspring that are most suited to their enviroment are most likely to survive.  

Answer 3

Of course there have.  Probably the best known case (though certainly not the most dramatic) is called the peppered moth, occurring in Europe.  Normally, these moths hang out on trees.  Most trees in certain areas have white bark, and the moths are mostly white.  However, in the 1800's, as factories belched out black smoke, the soot would cause the trees to be black.  In the 1850's or so, the first black moth was found.  As more trees got dark, the number of dark moths increased.  After pollution controls came in to play, the trees again looked white, and the moths returned to being mostly white.  They were changing color so they weren't conspicuous to predators (mostly birds) against a different colored background.    

Answer 4

yes, but mostly in bacteria which can create seceral generations in one day. Mutations occur more quickly and changes can more readily be observed

Answer 5

I was in the woods this morning, and I swear on my own life that I saw evolution occurring at a super-accelerated rate. my boyfriend and I saw a "bird" that looked part bluejay, and part vulture, or part reptile. They had big, full, plummage that was identical to a bluejay (they were also travelling with regular bluejays, but they were the size of chickens. Their necks were long and thin, and too small for their big bodies, they looked bald, pink, and scaly.

They were extremely disoriented, "forgetting" how to fly, then plummeting to the ground, getting back up then trampling clumsily through the bushes.

They also make uncomfortable, high-pitched, squacky sounds.

I looked to find a pic of them on google and youtube, but I don't think anyone even knows that they exist! (yet). They were the weirdest looking creature I've ever seen..

I also saw tiny white moths that could camoflage themselve against wood, the siding of houses, and even furniture...it was impossible to believe, unless you actually saw them yourself..

My theory is that our climate is changing so much due to global warming, that animals have no choice but to evolve, as quickly as possible!

Here's a link that shows an ordinary bullfrog actually devouring a snake, and one swallowing a bird whole. And a bluejay eating another bird!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC2fnNX9m...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOrOSi_y8...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD_t6UGXU...

Answer 6

First - you seem to imply that improvement of the species is a prerequisite.  It depends on what you mean by "improvement".  Evolution simply means that organisms that thrive better in a particular locale and leave more young are selected for and that those that don't are selected against by natural selection.  (You might like to read http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/fitness/...

A light tan mouse on light sand is "improved" while a reddish fur mouse on a red sandstone background is also "improved".   If this continues long enough over time and if the two habitats move far enough away so matings can't take place between the two types or if matings of tan X reddish give young that don't survive on either substrate, then various mutations accumulate in each population that are different than in the other possibly leading to speciation.

You can also see it happening in the cline of California salmanders (Ensatina eschscholtzi).  In this cline, there is a vast difference from one end to the other of the population.  Each population can mate with the ones beside it, but not with those further away. In fact, if the center populations were to be exterminated, then the ends would in fact be two different species.  Each would be, according to your definition, an "improvement of a species" and occuring naturally.   You can also see exactly this happening today in the whole Larus complex of gulls worldwide.  Some are being separated by eye color, cere color, and some variation in calls and/or breeding times. They are a classic example of a ring species http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_specie...

http://www.arthurgrosset.com/europebirds...

http://www.cooper.org/awards_and_grants/...

There are many other examples as well.  Whole new species have arisen in the past 10,000 years in some of the northern fresh water lakes - we know it's been in that time period since ice covered the regions before then.

There are many more but this should give you a start to your answers.

Answer 7

Chris B- you are wrong.

before the smog and subsequent tree change there were dark moths that lived on the white trees. there were fewer of them b/c they didn't blend in to the tree bark as well as the white moths. when the environment changed, the dark moths were now better suited to survive, therefore reproducing and passing on their genes to make more dark moths. then when it cleared up the few remaining white moths multiplied and the majority again were white. this is not evolution, this falls under darwin's theory of 'survival of the fittest'.

-same goes to the bacteria lady. there is no way to tell if the bacteria have immunity or if they develop it.

asker-the beauty of the evolution theory is that it can't be seen in a short amount of time, therefore it can neither be proven or disproven (kinda like the bible).