Re:Bugs are evolving to eat plastic, study finds
by Uptrenda on Tuesday May 24, 2022 @07:55PM
(#31498955)
Article is apparently about microbes and not insects (lol.) The author also uses the word "evolve" but is this really correct? Doesn't it literally take millions of years for evolutionary changes? IMO: what's happening is they're finding microbes that already had the ability to break-down plastic rather than microbes literally changing forms to be able to break-down plastic? Or can these kind of environmental changes really happen that fast?
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Re:Bugs are evolving to eat plastic, study finds
by aesch on Tuesday May 24, 2022 @08:33PM
(#31499230)
Evolution doesn't take millions of years for fast reproducing microbes. Another example is Covid, we've already seen half a dozen evolutions (that we know about) within the past several years.
Re:Bugs are evolving to eat plastic, study finds
by brian_cloutier on Tuesday May 24, 2022 @10:42PM
(#31500022)
To add to this, evolution typically happens _all at once_. Change does take a very long time but most of that time is spent in statis: everything has found its niche and lives in an equilibrium.
Once the environment changes (such as by introducing a whole new kind of food) species can very quickly adjust to the new reality.