Title: Book Review: An Intrepid Ecological Geneticist’s Pursuit of Industrial Melanism
Abstract: Observing Evolution—Peppered Moths and the Discovery of Parallel Melanism. Bruce S. Grant, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021. Biology students everywhere are familiar with the industrial melanism story, a straightforward and compelling example of natural selection. Industrial melanism traces the rise of the pigmentation polymorphism of the peppered moth, Biston betularia, whose populations near English cities rapidly changed from light to dark body color in concert with the increasing smog and pollution of the Industrial Revolution. The abrupt change of the moth’s color frequencies was persuasively documented by Bernard Kettlewell. His research led to a cogent paradigm (his “contrast/conflict” model), which inferred that heritable differences between pale and melanistic phenotypes were somehow recognized by the individual moths. Pale moths would light upon the white tree lichens, while the melanistic moths chose sooty darker tree trunks. Kettlewell suggested the ongoing natural selection that drove this behavior arose as a...
Publication Year: 2022
Publication Date: 2022-05-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot