--- title: Natural selection we can watch: moths, finches, germs and tuskless elephants — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Natural selection we can watch: moths, finches, germs and tuskless elephants», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Natural selection is usually slow, but sometimes we can watch it happen within a few years or --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Natural selection we can watch: moths,… # Natural selection we can watch: moths, finches, germs and tuskless elephants Lesson 279 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/0/) — Natural selection is usually slow, but sometimes we can watch it happen within a few years or decades, like a film on fast-forward. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/3/) — That is why your doctor says to finish the antibiotics: if you stop early, the toughest germs survive and multiply, and medicine slowly stops working on them. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/4/) — People can do the choosing too: by picking which dogs have puppies, we made every breed from a sausage dog to a Great Dane; that is artificial selection. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/5/) — In industrial England, soot darkened trees, so dark peppered moths were hidden while pale ones were eaten by birds; dark moths became common near cities, and pale moths came back when the air was cleaned. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/7/) — Peter and Rosemary Grant measured finch beaks on the Galapagos for about 40 years. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/8/) — Antibiotics kill bacteria, but a few may be a bit tougher; if you stop early, the tough ones survive and multiply, and bacteria can become resistant, which is a real danger. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/9/) — When insects such as lice and mosquitoes are sprayed with poison, the survivors breed, and soon most of them carry the resistance; farmers change and mix methods to slow this down. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/10/) — After strong hurricanes in the Caribbean, scientists who had measured lizards just before by chance found that survivors had bigger toe pads that grip better, and the next generation had bigger toe pads too. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/11/) — City animals often become bolder than country ones, because bold ones get more food near people; some city birds even sing at a higher pitch to be heard over traffic. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/12/) — In Mozambique during a long war, poachers killed elephants with tusks; tuskless females survived more often, and within a few decades many more elephants were born without tusks. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/13/) — Dogs come from wolves, and people chose which dogs had puppies and over many generations made the breeds; this is artificial selection, Darwin's favourite example along with pigeons. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/14/) — From one wild cabbage plant, farmers bred cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprouts, choosing leaves, flowers or buds; they are all the same species. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/15/) — Most mammals stop digesting milk after babyhood, but in places where people kept cows for thousands of years, a change that keeps milk digestion spread; it is a recent example of human evolution, and grown-ups without the change, who get tummy trouble from milk, are called lactose intolerant. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/16/) — Birds ate the stick insects that looked least like twigs, so over many generations the survivors looked more and more like twigs; camouflage is a classic result of natural selection. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/17/) — Flu viruses change quickly, and the kinds the body does not recognise spread more, so flu vaccines are updated each year; this is evolution in months, not millions of years. - ← previous: [Evolution: why giraffes really have long necks](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/278-evolution-why-giraffes-really-have-long-necks/) - next →: [Evolution myths put right: monkeys, the strongest and missing links](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/280-evolution-myths-put-right-monkeys-the-strongest-and-missing-links/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)