In response to a question, we discussed in lecture that islands, to an ecologist, are not necessarily land surrounded by water. For example, mountaintops could be habitat islands if the mountains are widely separated by large stretches of desert. You may find you can think of more examples if you consider what would be an island to a small organism that lives in a microhabitat that occurs only in small patches. Common ideas about evolution, revisited Try answering the overhead question from lecture 28 again. There is no evidence that evolution is occurring now, in one or a few of our lifetimes.
All evolution is adaptive.
Although a pregnant woman develops a craving for pickles, her baby will not inherit a preference for pickles, because characteristics acquired during one's lifetime are not inheritable. An evolving species is one that is progressing toward perfection, toward its ideal form. Most organismal biologists consider evolution to be a fact. Also pests evolving resistance to pesticides. Wrong, mutation, gene flow and genetic drift cause evolution that is NOT adaptive.