Asked by paisley

A visitor asks whether evolution is still happening today or only occurred in the past. The museum educator explains that evolution is an ongoing process observable in contemporary organisms. What evidence demonstrates that evolution continues in modern times?
Question 9 options:

Modern evolution only happens in laboratory experiments, never in natural environments

Evolution completely stopped when humans appeared and no longer occurs in any organisms

Observable evolutionary changes occur in response to contemporary environmental challenges like climate change and pollution

Evolution only happened millions of years ago and cannot be observed in living organisms

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
Observable evolutionary changes occur in response to contemporary environmental challenges like climate change and pollution

Explanation: evolution is ongoing and measurable today — for example, bacteria evolving antibiotic resistance, insects evolving pesticide resistance, urban animals adapting to novel habitats, fish (killifish) evolving tolerance to industrial pollutants, birds and plants showing genetic changes in response to climate shifts, and laboratory evolution experiments (e.g., the long‑term E. coli experiment) documenting allele‑frequency changes over generations. These are changes in heritable traits driven by selection, mutation, gene flow and drift, not just historical events.