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Author Topic:   Evolution - recent examples?
pink sasquatch
Member (Idle past 6053 days)
Posts: 1567
Joined: 06-10-2004


Message 4 of 39 (118468)
06-24-2004 11:21 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by tubi417
06-24-2004 8:52 PM


Here's one of my favorites, the study describes a single gene mutation leading to morphological and reproductive differences:
Evolution: single-gene speciation by left-right reversal.
Ueshima R, Asami T.
Nature. 2003 Oct 16;425(6959):679.
The researchers witnessed a speciation event in a closed population they were studying, a single gene mutation changed the shell pattern of a snail, and the constraints of the new shell shape prevent the snails with the two types of shells from aligning their genitals to mate. But, the old-shelled snails could mate with the old-shelled, and the new-shelled could mate with other new-shelled snails.
Thus snails with the shell-changing mutation are incapable of breeding with the ones without the mutation - even if they are sitting next to each other in the same pond. By most definitions this is considered speciation.
I think the snail example is powerful: Humans witnessed it, it is based on a single gene mutation, that mutation prevents mating between those with and without the mutation (reproductive isolation), and the shell pattern is visibly different (morphology difference).

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