Biodiversity Public Lecture

The Origin of Modern Species

Why are there so many species on earth? Do they evolve by natural selection as Darwin claimed? How do they evolve, persist, and go extinct? Can humans create new species? Biology has come a long way since Darwin, and he would be astonished at some of the answers to these questions.

Dr. Schluter will explain recent great discoveries in the origin of new species using examples from flies to fish, including his own work on BC stickleback. Findings will include: that new species are originating fastest at cold latitudes such as Canada, instead of hot latitudes such as the Amazon; that when new species form rapidly, evolution of new species often re-uses old genes borrowed from previous species; and that humans now know how to make new species in the lab.

This is a FREE event and it is part of the Biodiversity Lecture Series organized jointly by the Biodiversity Research Centre and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.