New paper in Science discusses how African elephants evolved tusklessness
Ivory poaching and the rapid evolution of tusklessness in African elephants
Shane C. Campbell-Staton, Brian J. Arnold, Dominique Gonçalves, Petter Granli, Joyce Poole, Ryan A. Long, Robert M. Pringle
“Social conflict and commercial harvest can intertwine to devastate animal populations. However, most known instances of harvest-induced evolutionary change occur gradually over longer time periods, and the selective effects of harvest can be difficult to disentangle from other factors. Our study shows how a sudden pulse of civil unrest can cause abrupt and persistent evolutionary shifts in long-lived animals even amid extreme population decline. ”