Museum collections are windows on evolutionary processes

Museum collections are windows on evolutionary processes

Museum collections are windows on evolutionary processes

Natural history collections can be used to study evolution directly. Studies using museums have demonstrated significant changes in genotype and phenotype over relatively short time scales, in response to environmental (including human-induced) change.

To give some examples: • Black-tailed Godwits have smaller ornamental feather (feathers that are involved in mate selection) than they used to, and this has been linked to habitat quality. • Flowering times of many plants have shifted over the last century. • Museum collections reveal changes in genetic diversity in populations over time. • Density of pores on leaves (stomata) has declined by 40% in some species, and this has been suggested to be linked to climate change in some way. • The classic example of genetic change over time is the Peppered Moth, which adapted to be black in industrial areas of Britain (and elsewhere). Recent genetic work on 19th century museum specimens has shown that the black mutant may have appeared only once, and that there was very strong selection for the black moth.

• American salamanders are smaller than they used to be.

• The colour of Tawny Owls has changed over the last century in Finland, so that grey owls are less common than previously. This has been linked to declines in snow cover and temperature increases. • Some Australian birds, and a variety of other types of animals, have declined in body size, with a suggested link to increasing global temperatures. • Birds and moths have developed longer wings in more fragmented habitats, although it is unclear if this is down to phenotypic plasticity or genetic change. • 25 species of rodent demonstrate rapid change in skull shape and body size.

reference: holmes, mw et al. (2017). Natural history collections as windows on evolutionary processes. Molecular Ecology 25(4): 864–81.