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Evidence for contemporary evolution during Darwin's lifetime

  • Richard Stafford
    ,
  • Adam G. Hart
    ,
  • Angela L. Smith
    ,
  • Anne Elizabeth Goodenough
Research Output:
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Article
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Abstract

Darwin's On the Origin of Species[1] introduced the world to the most fundamental concept in biological sciences — evolution. However, in the 150 years following publication of his seminal work, much has been made of the fact that Darwin was missing at least one crucial link in his chain of evidence — he had no evidence for contemporary evolution through natural selection. Indeed, as one commentator noted on the centenary of the publication of Origin, “Had Darwin observed industrial melanism he would have seen evolution occurring not in thousands of years but in thousands of days - well within his lifetime. He would have witnessed the consummation and confirmation of his life's work” [2].

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output:
Contribution to journal
Article
 Peer-review

Original language

English

Article number

R95

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Current Biology (Volume 20, Issue 3)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 09/02/2010

Publication status

Published - 09/02/2010

ISSN

0960-9822

Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/227995
  • Scopus: 75749138514

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