Science vs Fiction

Short review of:

Live Science: How fast does evolution happen?
By Marlowe Starling published 9.IX.2024
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/evolution/how-fast-does-evolution-happen

Citing a sentence of science:

To find out, Bonnet and an international team of researchers analyzed decades of genetic data for 19 bird and mammal species. They found that the rate of adaptive evolution was two to four times faster than previous estimates. More specifically, each generation increased its survival and reproduction by 18.5%, on average, under completely stable conditions.

(Wild Bighorn sheep got shorter horns in response to hunters, snow voles grew smaller, iguanas have become more tolerant of cold in a cold environment).

Citing a sentence of fiction:

Evidence shows that meat-eating theropod dinosaurs evolved into birds, but how fast does evolution normally take?

The answer would be that adaptive evolution and "revolutionary" evolution are very far from being the same thing. Adaptive evolutions tends to make birds into better adapted birds, and would equally tend to make meat-eating theropods into better meat-eating theropods./HGL