Evolution Is Alive And Well In Hawaii

[bcuzbcuz]

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27592656

 

Crickets in two places fall silent to survive
By Jonathan Webb
Science reporter, BBC News
Kauai
The first discovery was made on the island of Kauai in 2003

To hide themselves from deadly flies, crickets on two Hawaiian islands have evolved an inability to sing.

Ten years ago, two years apart, males appeared on Kauai and Oahu with altered wings, which they would normally rub together to chirp and attract females.

New findings published in the journal Current Biology show that the wing changes are physically different and arose from separate mutations.

This makes the silent crickets a brand new example of "convergent evolution".

Parasitoid fly and its cricket host
The fly pinpoints a singing cricket using sound, then leaves maggots which burrow into its back and feed
The killer flies have an unusual ability to pinpoint a cricket's location using sound.

After finding its victim - a male cricket, singing to attract a mate - a pregnant fly will spray baby maggots onto the cricket's back, which burrow in, feed, and emerge a week later leaving the husk of the hapless cricket behind.

The presence of these North American flies placed the crickets, themselves relatively recent arrivals from Australia, under pressure to adapt.

In less than 20 generations, a mutation that leaves males unable to sing spread to over 90% of the crickets on the island of Kauai.

[it] appears to be the blink of an eye in evolutionary time”

Dr Nathan Bailey
University of St Andrew's

 

Because they are mute, these "flatwing" male crickets are hidden from the parasitoid flies and escape being eaten by maggots. That triumph comes at a cost, however, since finding a mate is tricky without a voice. The silent types loiter near the few males still singing away, and intercept females for themselves.

Two years after the Kauai discovery in 2003, flatwing crickets were also found over 100km away on Oahu.

Unusually rapid
Researchers first assumed that the silent crickets had simply travelled the distance - with some help.

"An egg laid by a female in some soil could hitch-hike on someone's boot," said Dr Nathan Bailey, whose group at the University of St Andrews led the new study.

flatwing cricket
Silent, "flatwing" crickets appeared independently on two islands over 100km apart
The idea that the trait had evolved twice, at almost the same time, seemed far-fetched. "It still seems amazing to me," Dr Bailey told BBC News.

The first clue was an observation that the mutant, silenced wings on the two islands had two different shapes.

Hawaii
Originally, the team thought the silent crickets might have travelled between the islands
Next, by doing crossing experiments with the mutant crickets, the researchers confirmed that both types of flatwing arose from a single gene on the X chromosome.

Finally, comparing a raft of other genetic markers between the two groups yielded convincing evidence that the two mutations had occurred independently.

"Up until my post-doc Sonia showed me the diagram of nearly non-overlapping genetic markers from each island... I was unconvinced either way about what we were dealing with," Dr Bailey said.

When the same feature evolves separately in two genetically distinct populations, scientists describe the process as convergent evolution. Another example is the "projectile tongue" of certain salamanders, which appears to have evolved independently on more than one occasion.

cricket wings
Biologists studied the cricket wings under a microscope to discern the newly evolved differences
Dr Bailey said this is an unusual example, because it has happened "in what appears to be the blink of an eye in evolutionary time" and researchers can now watch as the story unfolds further.

"This is an exciting opportunity to detect genomic evolution in real time in a wild system, which has usually been quite a challenge, owing to the long timescales over which evolution acts."
 

The actual article at BBC is better because the words fit the photos, which I couldn't copy.

[Duncan]

are they still considered crickets?

[bcuzbcuz]

are they still considered crickets?

A duck that doesn't quack like a duck, is it still a duck? Good question.

My students think I speak like an American, am I still a Canadian?

Or maybe, since these crickets, originally from Australia, sound different, they just got tired of other insects inquiring about their accent and decided to keep quiet?

[Duncan]

A duck that doesn't quack like a duck, is it still a duck? Good question.

My students think I speak like an American, am I still a Canadian?

Or maybe, since these crickets, originally from Australia, sound different, they just got tired of other insects inquiring about their accent and decided to keep quiet?

 

all good stuff! I just wonder if these crickets or other insects will eventually evolve into I dunno a platypus or elephant or budgie or something, like are there half cricket half something else remains buried somewhere?

[MormonFreeThinker]

What is that? An Ape or a Deformed Human? 

 

[Duncan]

What is that? An Ape or a Deformed Human? 

 

 

 

it's a prop from Harry and the Henderson's!

[katherine the great]

are they still considered crickets?

Yes.  But cricket is really just the common name for the family.  They can be different species and genera of crickets.  The thing that interested me the most about this article is that I'm not used to looking at "convergent evolution" on the "micro level" (so to speak) but only in a much broader sense over much larger times and spaces.  This is truly evidence of evolution at work in real time.  Brilliant!

[katherine the great]

What is that? An Ape or a Deformed Human? 

 

Neither.  It looks like an australopith to me.  

[rodheadlee]

What is that? An Ape or a Deformed Human? 

 

You might be descended from apes, but I'm not.

[halconero]

You might be descended from apes, but I'm not.

Humans are apes.

[thesometimesaint]

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27592656

 

Crickets in two places fall silent to survive

By Jonathan Webb

Science reporter, BBC News

Kauai

The first discovery was made on the island of Kauai in 2003

To hide themselves from deadly flies, crickets on two Hawaiian islands have evolved an inability to sing.

Ten years ago, two years apart, males appeared on Kauai and Oahu with altered wings, which they would normally rub together to chirp and attract females.

New findings published in the journal Current Biology show that the wing changes are physically different and arose from separate mutations.

This makes the silent crickets a brand new example of "convergent evolution".

Parasitoid fly and its cricket host

The fly pinpoints a singing cricket using sound, then leaves maggots which burrow into its back and feed

The killer flies have an unusual ability to pinpoint a cricket's location using sound.

After finding its victim - a male cricket, singing to attract a mate - a pregnant fly will spray baby maggots onto the cricket's back, which burrow in, feed, and emerge a week later leaving the husk of the hapless cricket behind.

The presence of these North American flies placed the crickets, themselves relatively recent arrivals from Australia, under pressure to adapt.

In less than 20 generations, a mutation that leaves males unable to sing spread to over 90% of the crickets on the island of Kauai.

[it] appears to be the blink of an eye in evolutionary time”

Dr Nathan Bailey

University of St Andrew's

 

Because they are mute, these "flatwing" male crickets are hidden from the parasitoid flies and escape being eaten by maggots. That triumph comes at a cost, however, since finding a mate is tricky without a voice. The silent types loiter near the few males still singing away, and intercept females for themselves.

Two years after the Kauai discovery in 2003, flatwing crickets were also found over 100km away on Oahu.

Unusually rapid

Researchers first assumed that the silent crickets had simply travelled the distance - with some help.

"An egg laid by a female in some soil could hitch-hike on someone's boot," said Dr Nathan Bailey, whose group at the University of St Andrews led the new study.

flatwing cricket

Silent, "flatwing" crickets appeared independently on two islands over 100km apart

The idea that the trait had evolved twice, at almost the same time, seemed far-fetched. "It still seems amazing to me," Dr Bailey told BBC News.

The first clue was an observation that the mutant, silenced wings on the two islands had two different shapes.

Hawaii

Originally, the team thought the silent crickets might have travelled between the islands

Next, by doing crossing experiments with the mutant crickets, the researchers confirmed that both types of flatwing arose from a single gene on the X chromosome.

Finally, comparing a raft of other genetic markers between the two groups yielded convincing evidence that the two mutations had occurred independently.

"Up until my post-doc Sonia showed me the diagram of nearly non-overlapping genetic markers from each island... I was unconvinced either way about what we were dealing with," Dr Bailey said.

When the same feature evolves separately in two genetically distinct populations, scientists describe the process as convergent evolution. Another example is the "projectile tongue" of certain salamanders, which appears to have evolved independently on more than one occasion.

cricket wings

Biologists studied the cricket wings under a microscope to discern the newly evolved differences

Dr Bailey said this is an unusual example, because it has happened "in what appears to be the blink of an eye in evolutionary time" and researchers can now watch as the story unfolds further.

"This is an exciting opportunity to detect genomic evolution in real time in a wild system, which has usually been quite a challenge, owing to the long timescales over which evolution acts."

 

The actual article at BBC is better because the words fit the photos, which I couldn't copy.

 

The Cricket noise keeps God awake at night. Bad Cricket.

[jkwilliams]

Evolution has been observed in the Lenski experiment for years.

 

http://myxo.css.msu.edu/ecoli/

[katherine the great]

Evolution has been observed in the Lenski experiment for years.

http://myxo.css.msu.edu/ecoli/

True but it's exciting to see it in insects in their natural habitat. For some reason many people can't make the connection between bacteria or viruses and the animal kingdom. Even with fruit flies, their lab testing is considered by some as "selective breeding" and not evidence of evolution.

[thesometimesaint]

Having a form of knowledge but denying the power there of.

[jkwilliams]

True but it's exciting to see it in insects in their natural habitat. For some reason many people can't make the connection between bacteria or viruses and the animal kingdom. Even with fruit flies, their lab testing is considered by some as "selective breeding" and not evidence of evolution.

 

Yep. Everyone is familiar with drug-resistant bacteria, but they don't seem to understand that is evolution. In the US, bed-bugs have evolved to resist pesticides, and you can even see where the DNA mutations have occurred. Fascinating stuff.

[strappinglad]

Was this a mutation of an existing gene or a manifestation of pre-existing ability? This article shows that antibiotic resistant bacteria were around long before manmade antibiotics flooded the environment. Were chirpless crickets always around but were so few that they went unnoticed until the invasion of the parasites?

https://www.asm.org/index.php/journal-press-releases/92870-fossilized-human-feces-from-14th-century-contain-antibiotic-resistance-genes

[jkwilliams]

Was this a mutation of an existing gene or a manifestation of pre-existing ability? This article shows that antibiotic resistant bacteria were around long before manmade antibiotics flooded the environment. Were chirpless crickets always around but were so few that they went unnoticed until the invasion of the parasites?

https://www.asm.org/index.php/journal-press-releases/92870-fossilized-human-feces-from-14th-century-contain-antibiotic-resistance-genes

It doesn't matter if they were there before. This is natural selection, so what it means is that those crickets with the mutation causing silence survive, whereas the noisy ones die off. That is exactly how evolution works.

[thesometimesaint]

Was this a mutation of an existing gene or a manifestation of pre-existing ability? This article shows that antibiotic resistant bacteria were around long before manmade antibiotics flooded the environment. Were chirpless crickets always around but were so few that they went unnoticed until the invasion of the parasites?

https://www.asm.org/index.php/journal-press-releases/92870-fossilized-human-feces-from-14th-century-contain-antibiotic-resistance-genes

 

Dinosaurs are still around we just call them fried chicken.

[strappinglad]

Humans are apes.

Yes, in the same way that dogs are rodents, I mean just look at the hairless Chihuahua.

[jkwilliams]

Yes, in the same way that dogs are rodents, I mean just look at the hairless Chihuahua.

Huh? Are you saying that humans don't belong to the Hominid family?

[cdowis]

We believe that the Creator is subject to the laws of nature and use them in the creation process.  Does anyone deny that the Creator used gavity in creating the universe?

 

 And clearly evolution is one of those laws.

[thesometimesaint]

Yes, in the same way that dogs are rodents, I mean just look at the hairless Chihuahua.

 

Dog, rodents, people, and apes, are all mammals.  We are biologically hairless savannah apes. Even the hirsute ones.

[jkwilliams]

We believe that the Creator is subject to the laws of nature and use them in the creation process.  Does anyone deny that the Creator used gavity in creating the universe?

 

 And clearly evolution is one of those laws.

What are you, some kind of atheist with a liberal arts degree?

[cdowis]

What are you, some kind of atheist with a liberal arts degree?

 

No, I am a scientist -->

a social scientist, majoring in gender studies with a minor in white entitlement.

Edited June 1, 2014 by cdowis

[strappinglad]

True or false? According to evolutionary theory, all current species can be traced back to a common ancestor, ostensibly some single celled organism. By a process of mutation and natural selection and some method which adds information to the DNA code all life, be it plant or animal or a little of each or neither slowly bushed out. Hence dogs, being mammals, must have come from a common ancestor with rats, and we being primates , must have had a common ancestor with gorillas. This is the gist of what I was taught but it has probably 'evolved' over the last decades. Or did the ' hopeful monster ' theory arise again ?