Читать книгу Nature Speaks - Дебора Кеннеди - Страница 16

About Coevolution

Charles Darwin, naturalist and author of The Origin of Species, encountered an orchid with an unusual feature — foot-long hollow tubes hanging beneath the blossoms, the tips filled with nectar. Darwin realized that the pollinator for this flower must have an equally long snout, or proboscis, to be able to reach the nectar and fertilize the flower. Darwin was ridiculed for this preposterous idea — imagine the sight of a poor insect attempting to fly while sporting a foot-long proboscis — until just such a moth was discovered. The Hawk Moth flies with its snout coiled in a tight ball, and unfurls this dexterous appendage to delicately probe the orchid’s hanging nectaries. In part, through his encounter with this orchid, he began to formulate the theory that species can form long-term evolutionary relationships leading to extraordinary and mutually beneficial transformations and unique dependencies. All life has slowly and patiently evolved over the eons, exquisitely adapting to a challenging world. How will we continue to successfully evolve in a world we are so rapidly transforming?