Living in the desert is a challenge. But the Mojave Desert woodrat has an ace up its sleeve: it can eat poison. This allows the cute little rodents to survive and thrive by eating the toxic creosote bushes. Surprisingly, the genes necessary for this have not evolved. Instead, by eating the feces of other woodrats, they inherit detoxifying bacteria that colonize their intestines.
Desert rats are an example of how an organism’s behavior influences its evolution. And it’s not a one-time thing. In recent years, it has become clear that many organisms influence their own evolution by creating non-genetic traits that can be subject to natural selection. This challenges the traditional Darwinian view of evolution as a process rooted in random genetic mutations. But that’s not all. These non-genetic adaptation methods may also help explain another puzzling aspect of evolution: evolvability, or why some organisms are better able to evolve than others. No.
I am among a group of evolutionary biologists who believe that non-genetic inheritance plays an important role in evolution. This has practical implications. In the face of climate change, species will need to adapt quickly or go extinct, but there is growing evidence that non-genetic adaptations like those seen in desert woodrats can save organisms from the brink. are. New ways of thinking also influence how we view our own evolution. Our complex culture causes the way humans evolve to be very different and much faster than most other species. This rare…
