Bird Specitation Caused By Humans

[Neon Genesis]

I wonder how the creationists will get around this: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/1203/2

During the winter, British bird-lovers lay out suet rolled with seeds and oats for birds landing in their chilly, barren yards. They believe that these handouts help the birds through winter, but scientists have now discovered that the practice may be splitting a species in two.

 

A recent study showed that this new winter destination has led blackcaps to breed mainly with their migratory companions. The United Kingdom is closer to blackcap breeding grounds in central Europe than is Spain, so the northwest-migrating birds return home 10 days earlier and start mating among themselves.

 

Although the two groups aren't geographically separated during the mating season, the migratory division has led to a rapid genetic and physical divergence between them as though they were reproducing kilometers apart, the researchers conclude. This split could be the start of speciation. But it's too early to know for sure, and the changes could always reverse if people in Britain stopped feeding the birds, Schaefer says. If nothing else, says Schaefer, the findings provide yet another example of the dramatic impact humans can have on other species. "Even [actions] based on good intentions, like feeding birds, can have evolutionary consequences on populations."

 

"[The study] has done a nice job of showing the early stages of speciation," says evolutionary biologist Michael Webster of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Whether blackcaps will eventually diverge into different species depends on the fitness of offspring from crosses between northwest- and southwest-migrating birds, says evolutionary biologist Darren Irwin of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, in Canada. These hybrid birds are known to migrate due west, which would lead them to the Atlantic coast of France. If blackcaps wintering there fare worse than their counterparts in the United Kingdom or Spain, the "selection against [these birds] could promote further divergence between the two groups," Irwin says.

[Ouroboros]

Mutations observed.

 

But wait, they're not turning into crocoducks, so it doesn't matter.

[OpheliaGinger]

They'll probably just claim that this is an example of how man has dominion over animals, so much so that he can change them into different species. Or they will just claim that the birds are just different breeds and not species.

[hereticzero]

Mutations observed.

 

But wait, they're not turning into crocoducks, so it doesn't matter.

Yah! Just let them explain the evolution of the orange vs green plaid patterns of Scottish kilts!

[Jedah]

They'll probably just claim that this is an example of how man has dominion over animals, so much so that he can change them into different species. Or they will just claim that the birds are just different breeds and not species.

Either that or just fall on the tried and true favorite wingnut conspiracy that all the scientific community is led by emissaries of Satan and thus cannot be trusted.