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Published online 27 March 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.695
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The rapid evolution of tuatara
Study of the 'living fossils' may challenge theory of rate of evolution in cold-blooded organisms.
The tuatara does not seem to be the first place one would look for an example of rapid evolution. The New Zealand reptile has hardly changed its appearance over the last 200 million years.
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Hi, Ecologists usually study evolution of the non somatic kind. That is, evolution that happens as a consequence of mutations in the germ line during reproduction. The evolution of cancer is of the somatic kind. This means that it affects cells of the soma, the ones that are not transmitted to the offspring. These findings by the New Zealand group regarding the tuatara prompt us to rethink our conception of evolution. Such finding are synonymous to cold fusion. Regards Dr. Terence Hale