Can science tell us of any species that are currently evolving today?

Question

Not bashing evolution here, just curious if scientists are seeing any evolutionary leaps in animals or even humans today. For instance, any humans growing fangs so they can become vampires? Any bees growing shells so they can survive being stomped on by my foot?

Answer 1

Evolution does not work like that, it takes multiple generations to effect change in a species.  Your genetic makeup is set, your children may be born with genetic mutations that allow them to succeed better than others.  Size is an easy example.  On islands critters that are the same species as mainland animal are smaller cause with fewer predators and less resources large size is not benificial.  This change would take many generation and, depending on the animals life cycle, hundreds of years.  Bees already have a exoskeleton, but if it was hard enough to keep you from squashing it it couldn't fly and it would die.  Humans wouldn't grow fangs to become vampires, they would have to be born with them, either way it wouldn't be an advantage to be a blood sucking undead monster.

Answer 2

Devolution is definitely going on.

Other than that, scientists routinely initiate evolution in the laboratories. They modify various small animals and microbes to suit their purposes. This has been standard fare for some time.

Answer 3

Hi Serpico. Why not bash evolution. I have never been convinced of Darwin's theory, and that is all it is,  a theory. There have been far to many discrepancies for it to be taken as factual. There is nothing in the fossil record that can attach humans to any other species. All that we do know is that when one species becomes extinct, another takes its niche in the ecosystem. There has never been one case where any one animal has been proved to have descended from something else, or that a fish gave rise to an amphibian. It is all conjecture. I believe that Anthropology as a whole does not want to admit they are wrong and go back to the beginning.       Homo Erectus and all the other species that went before were all being's of a sort, but they were not human being's, and when we die out another sort of being will emerge, but not a human.

Answer 4

Science shows that all living creatures are evolving all the time.  The best examples are of viruses.  They often evolve quickly due due their high reproductive rates and relative simplicity.  Also many are tracked constantly by public health authorities.  There are huge amounts of available information on them.

There are many other examples of a species evolving visibly in one human life time.  Probably the easiest to understand is a study on butterflies in Manchester, England.  Light colored butterflies who used camouflage to hide on light bark of trees became dark during the soot and dirt during the industrial revolution.  The evolved to light colors after anti pollution laws were put into effect.

The butte fly example happens to be easy to look up for yourself.

Answer 5

Yes, Every species is still evolving. It looks like you don't really understand evolution though. You really should do some research.

Answer 6

All species do.

Evolution is simply defined as genetic change over time, and has been observed very, very extensively. Why do you think the flu changes every year? It evolves, that's why! Why do you think doctors tell you not to use antibiotics too much? Because bacteria evolve to become resistant to antibiotics!

The "theory" of evolution is the set of hypothesis about how evolution occurs. The fact that it does occur is beyond doubt.

Answer 7

Seeing evolution in such a short time is not normal.  It requires many generations and extreme selection pressures.  Disease organism have been shown to evolve resistance to antibiotics.  Insects evolve resistance to pesticides.  Thinking in terms of a single human lifespan is not very useful considering the age of the Earth.

Answer 8

It usually happens gradually over time with geographical isolation. When a species is isolated you get mutations through inbreeding this can happen quickly or slowly. Well meat eating people have evolved they have type O blood. They changed because the environment they lived in became harsh so they could no longer live off of plants. Bees were once ants that developed flight and yummy drool -Honey. So there are many examples of things that are evolving, even people are changing, but what ever the next change might be you never really know.

Answer 9

The other answers get half of it right.  Evolution is a constant and usually takes many generations.  Huge leaps have been observed when there are extreme changes in environments but these do not represent the normal course of events.  However the changes do not take thousands or even hundreds of years as some have suggested.  Fruit flies are a favorite subject because their life cycle is so short they can assume evolutionary changes on an observable scale.  There are many other species that ave rapid life cycles and so have similar attributes for scientific study.  The thing that is very hard if not impossible to observe is speciation.  The creation of a new species.  This is the result of the accumulation of lots of small genetic changes (usually resulting from genetic isolation and population divergence and resulting in two non-interbreeding groups).

Humans have evolved on a path where we no longer require fangs or claws because we have weapons and the mind is our greatest tool/asset.  As far as bees surviving your foot, tht would just about have to defy physics.

Answer 10

all species evolve constantly over thousands of years huge leaps are rare unless there is some drastic change in thier environment.you evolve when your children are born you have to change your habits.evolution is nothing but changing to fit your surroundings

Answer 11

These 'evolutions' are incrementally based, they happen so slowly it's like watching flies.....

Answer 12

d

Answer 13

All of them are currently evolving today.

Answer 14

The theory suggests that ALL species are evolving all the time.  Not in some linear, planned way but by the process of natural selection.  Some species will become extinct.  Humans are likely to be among that group.