It’s a new and surprising chapter in the theory of evolution. According to recent studies, it’s in our cities, of all places, that animals and plants adapt particularly quickly to changing living conditions.
Nature’s response to the spread of cities is astonishing: Why do catfish in the river of a French city systematically prey on urban pigeons on the banks? Why do female birds on a university campus in California suddenly change their mating behavior? How do mice in New York’s Central Park cope with an altered diet of human food waste? How have killifish in the Atlantic built up resistance to deadly chemical waste? And, is it possible for moths to adapt to nighttime light pollution?
New research provides surprising new insights into Darwin’s theory of evolution. Nowhere else do animals and plants adapt so quickly to new living conditions as in cities. Biologists have long known that animals and plants occupy new habitats in the vicinity of humans. But now, new genetic analyses show that these adaptations are accompanied by significant changes in DNA.
Even more surprising: these evolutionary changes have not occurred over periods of millennia, but within just a few decades. The process has amazed scientists, who watch as nature transforms even our most hostile man-made interventions — pollution, light pollution, noise, garbage and dense development — into creative energy for new adaptations. Some researchers believe that our cities may soon develop their own, brand-new life forms.
What are the implications of these developments for the balance between humans and nature on our planet?
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Absolutely love this program. Thanks for putting it on.
So we have Big Mac mice in New York. Not bad eh.
Humanity is eradicating ALL life even dooming its own. Instead of trying to be one with life and earth humanity reaches for death
catfish eat ANYTHING! just depends on how big they are relative to the "meal"…
The future is now. Let's apply what we have learned or else our future will be of deserts
Documentary gets in a way for me to watch my ads.
if cities are altering evolutionary changes in the animals and insects what changes occur in humans?
Look at the netherland they built most of their nation on reclaims wetlands marshland swamps vital for errosion and floods because in their small brain they think their planning and technology will hold off mother nature, game over in a few dacades venice and much of the netherland will be gone underwater.. and some how they go around telling the world how smart technologically advanced they are 🤣😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Living in costa rica this isnt no jungle no forest this is an enviromental catastrophe waiting to happened thousands of years people in europe have chopped all your old native forest killing your wild life and suddenly you have an urban jungle who believes this nonse, what you are seeing is the start of your collapse of your civilization through drought famine war like it has happened many many many times in european history leading to millions of dead much like in world war 1 and 2. what is the point of all this if you end in disaster what is the point of learning how species adapt in behaviour and genetics if the human race collapses into chaos….. just weird view of how to run this planet and the reason why the entire planet is heading for disaster for copying this toxic system of wealth and progress..
A beautiful documentary ❤
I noticed an example of this just last night. I live in a city on a river and we have a lot of geese in the area. I was at a very large discount store in an area with some retention ponds that attract the geese. It was a couple hours after sunset on a low-humidity night so the temperature was cooling rather fast. It was near closing time, so there was a lot of empty space in the parking lot, and I saw a large group of geese, about 30, walk into an empty area of the parking lot, and lay down. It seemed an odd place to take a rest, but I think they were enjoying the warmth of the asphalt, which had been absorbing sunshine all day.
Interesting
Pigeon has to be the only bird dumb enough to get eaten by a fish.
Just an awesome video from DW. Every government should focus on species to maintain ecological balance. Thank you.
It’s astounding that science prove behavioral differences within same species based on environment, yet the same scientists will tell us there are not behavioral differences among human groups. Species to sub-species is like language to dialect, it runs on a continuum. There is no hard definitive line between language and dialect nor in species and subspecies, it’s sort of a judgement call. So these scientists will tell us that two types of finch which look nearly identical with only very small observational differences are distinct species of finch, yet they tell us that humans that are drastically identifiably distinct in taxonomy by skeleton, skull, skin, hair, eyes, and behavior due to hundreds of thousands of years of evolution in different environments, we humans are supposedly one species with no distinction between us 🤣🤣🤣 I guess biology stops working when it gets to humans!
Now, hydrogen being the most common element…like they say… No I know hydrogen isn't exactly water but these fairly basic fish seem to have evolved a workaround against a nasty chemical and live to swim into the future..
To me, that tells me that there's plenty of planets up there with living things in the water or waterlike equivalent, despite whatever odd toxicity may also be present in the biosphere of the wider universe… Cool stuff.
Hellalujeh DW!
As a strong, young, black male, I can confirm that urban evolution is REAL. These little pale old ladies and their purses are no match for my strength and speed, however, other aggressive black males have become my OWN biggest threat as well!
Unplanned experience of all time, right👍
Evolution facilitates the adaptation of a specie to survive a changing environment. Failure to evolve fast enough to keep pace with environmental changes poses an existential threat.
Artificially changing the environment to suit us may slow our evolution or alter our evolution path to be overly reliant on the artificial environment for the survival of humankind. And we may not survive the harsher natural environment.
EAT CATFISH, SAUTEED WITH HORSERADISH, GARLIC AND BUTTER
The biomass of a city (excluding humans, pets and pigeons) is paltry, and cannot compare to that of a forest. These creatures are hanging on for dear life. DW is putting a bright face on a dire situation.
Used to see so many monarchs when I was a child. Now, I am surprised if I see just one during their migration period.
This could be a series! There are probably as many examples of this phenomenon as there are cities. I personally have seen raccoons that seem far more clever than their "country" cousins!💚🌲👍🤙✌️
once you realize that the world will be here after people and be here after the people after that …. when you destroy 40 million trees for wind turbines mabey people will realize that you are the monsters not us
Animals seem to be adapting well but humans are not. We are getting sicker. We are having more diseases.
How does changes in our gut bacteria cause changes in our bDNA in response to environmental changes. On such a level that it becomes inherited. I would love to know that answer.
Not Again! Don't you just get sad when the music is so annoying the post is unwatchable.
I am a beekeeper in New Zealand and i found the white clover study interesting scientists here have developed new strains of white clover but unfortunately my bees struggle to get nectar from them because the flowers are too long for the bee's tongue to reach the bottom of the flower.Hopefully evolution allows them to catch up or i can breed bee's with a longer tongue.
Interesting documentary, but guys….
There is a voice-over of a scientist stating that there is evidence, while the material on screen shows there is no evidence?
The scatterplot shown at @35:16 with the corresponding r^2 of 0,19 (which basically tells you there is no relationship).
Also, what exactly are you showing? standard deviation distance (x axis) vs the average GMIS?
For a scientist, this is cringing…