About this Video

• Video Title: Darwin Comes to Town | Prof Menno Schilthuizen
• Channel: Linnean Society
• Speakers: Alan Michelle, Elizabeth Rawlinson, Menno Schilthuizen
• Duration: 00:49:50

Introduction

This Linnean Society video features Professor Menno Schilthuizen discussing his book, Darwin Comes to Town, which explores urban evolution. The lecture examines how animals and plants adapt to and evolve within city environments, highlighting both the opportunities and challenges presented by urban landscapes.

Key Takeaways

• Ecosystem Engineers: Ants and termites are "ecosystem engineers," modifying their environments to benefit themselves. Humans are now the world's major ecosystem engineers, creating concentrated habitats that influence other species' evolution.
• Urban Opportunities & Challenges: Cities offer new resources and habitats for species, but also pose challenges like extreme temperatures (urban heat island effect), noise pollution, fragmented green spaces, and chemical pollution.
• Adaptation & Evolution: Species are adapting to urban environments through genetic changes. Examples include lizards evolving better grip, plants producing heavier seeds, and mice developing resistance to high-fat diets and toxins.
• Microevolution in Cities: Urban environments are driving microevolution, with subtle changes occurring within species, like the urban blackbird developing a shorter beak and altered song. In some cases, this could lead to speciation.
• Citizen Science: Urban evolution is an ideal area for citizen science, as many people can participate by observing and recording changes in urban flora and fauna.

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To answer your questions accurately, please provide the transcript of the lecture. I need the text of the lecture to identify examples of the founder effect, bottleneck effect, exotic species, and instances where the concept of "fitness" is applicable.