Coope G R
Centre for Quaternary Research, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham TW20 0EX, UK.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2004 Feb 29;359(1442):209-14; discussion 214. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2003.1393.
There is a curious paradox in the evolutionary legacy of Ice Ages. Studies of modern species suggest that they are currently evolving in response to changing environments. If extrapolated into the context of Quaternary Ice Ages, this evidence would suggest that the frequent climatic changes should have stimulated the evolutionary process and thus increased the rates of change within species and the number of speciation events. Extinction rates would, similarly, be high. Quaternary insect studies call into question these interpretations. They indicate that insect species show a remarkable degree of stability throughout the Ice Age climatic oscillations. The paradox arises from the apparent contradiction between abundant evidence of incipient speciation in insect populations at the present day and the evidence that, in the geological past, this apparently did not lead to sustained evolution.
在冰河时代的进化遗产中存在一个奇特的悖论。对现代物种的研究表明，它们目前正在随着环境变化而进化。如果将这一情况外推到第四纪冰河时代的背景下，这些证据表明频繁的气候变化应该会刺激进化过程，从而提高物种内部的变化速率以及物种形成事件的数量。同样，灭绝速率也会很高。第四纪昆虫研究对这些解释提出了质疑。它们表明昆虫物种在整个冰河时代的气候波动中表现出了显著的稳定性。这个悖论源于当前昆虫种群中明显的初始物种形成证据与地质历史上这显然并未导致持续进化的证据之间的明显矛盾。
