Fish story
Anatomy is destiny, proclaimed Freud. Add a touch of evolution, and perhaps destiny becomes anatomy. Campus researcher ANDREW HENDRY of the organismic and evolutionary biology program has found evidence that the pressures of a new environment cause salmon to evolve faster than previously thought.
In an article published in the journal Science, Hendry and scientific colleagues show that salmon stocked in Washington State in the 1930s diverged into two types, depending on whether they spawned in lake or river. River males developed slender bodies adapted to swimming upstream, and river females developed larger bodies enabling them to dig deeper nests. Meanwhile, lake males grew fatter in their less demanding environment; lake females grew smaller, since digging nests was easier.
The surprising part of the finding is the speed with which these changes occurred, a mere 12 generations – about 10 times faster than expected.
