Not bad science as much as incomplete science. It seems that they came up with a hypothesis to explain the change in average size of mature shells, without following up to prove it correct or not. Has any one read the original, or know the authors to see if the article accurately reflects their findings?
Allen Aigen
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---------- Original Message ----------
From: Pete Krull <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CONCH-L] Crab Induced Snail Evolution in Our Generation?
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:47:41 -0400
This sounds like bad science to me. If the crabs eat smaller specimens that
means they would be eating mostly young snails, depleting that part of the
population. There would then, possibly, be more food available for the
remaining snails which might grow larger because they are eating more. This
is not adaptation but a change in the environment. pete krull
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