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What is Contemporary Evolution?

  • Writer: Isabella Vegso
    Isabella Vegso
  • Oct 13, 2018
  • 3 min read

Updated: Feb 28, 2021

Evolution has been occurring on Earth since life first appeared on the planet. In response to selective pressure around them, species change and evolve to better suit their environment, passing on the most favourable genes to the next generation.


Due to a recent increase in human influence on the planet, species have begun to evolve to better suit the new conditions that humans create. Here are just some examples of species who have changed their evolutionary path in response to modern human impacts.


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Poison resistant house mouse:

‘Warfarin’ is a poison that has been used on the common house mouse. The Algerian mouse, however, is resistant to this poison. Due to human travel and the introduction of different mice species around the world, the Algerian mouse and the common house mouse were introduced to each other and allowed to reproduce. This gene flow resulted in more mice resistant to this poison, allowing house mice to evolve towards future generations that have a stronger resistance to Warfarin.


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"Begger" dogs:

Stray dogs, particularly in Moscow, have been evolving away from “wolf-like” traits and begun to display “beggar” traits in greater frequency. These traits include an increased ability to understand when humans will give them food, and even the ability to ride the subway! They do this using their sense of smell in combination with their able to remember the conductor's name on particular stops. This allows them to expand their territory, forming larger and stronger packs.

Interested? Read this article from Popular Science to find out more!


Image from: https://www.blogto.com/city/2010/09/bed_bugs_in_toronto/

Pesticide resistant bed bugs:

Bed Bugs recently experienced a period of inactivity due to effective pesticide use. Due to this overexposure, only the bed bugs that displayed traits with the most resistance to pesticides were able to reproduce. This allowed a newer generation of beg bugs to emerge with various new traits displaying greater resistance to pesticides. They have now evolved a wax like exoskeleton that repels pesticides and a faster metabolism, making them harder to eradicate.



DEET resistant mosquitoes:

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DEET is the bug spray commonly used to ward off mosquitoes. To do this, it masks the ‘scent’ of humans, preventing and deterring mosquitoes from getting close enough to bite. However, recent research (which you can read about here on Natural News) has now shown that after exposure, mosquitos become seemingly immune to the pesticide and can ignore its effects. It is hypothesized that this is due to a genetic factor present in some mosquitoes, which will only become more prominent in modern mosquito populations as it places a selective advantage on those that carry it. This may have dangerous consequences, and not only for the increase in mosquito bites you may have to endure. Mosquitoes are the main carrier and transferor of malaria to humans, so a decrease in the efficiency of DEET could result in an increase in the spread of the deadly disease among human populations.


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Tuskless elephants:

Current studies have shown that a greater number of elephants are being born with shorter or no tusks. This may be due to the over poaching of elephants. Tuskless female elephants are commonly spared, allowing the tuskless gene to be passed on. This may spare the elephant from becoming a victim to poachers, however inhibits elephants from using their tusks for fighting during mating season, as well as a tool for digging up water and roots.





Contemporary evolution is an important concept in understanding our environmental impact on the species around us. It is often easy to think of humans as ‘separate’, however we are all critical aspects of the environment, and the decisions we make affect the entire planet.


It is important to keep in mind that we are not separate from organisms around us, and our decisions have lasting consequences on even the path of evolution!

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