While species across the world are rapidly going extinct due to human activities, we are also causing rapid evolution and the emergence of new species, a latest study has found.

A growing number of examples show that humans not only contribute to the extinction of species, but also drive evolution, and in some cases the emergence of entirely new species, said researchers at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

This can take place through mechanisms such as accidental introductions, domestication of animals and crops, unnatural selection due to hunting, or the emergence of novel ecosystems such as the urban environment.

“The prospect of ‘artificially’ gaining novel species through human activities is unlikely to elicit the feeling that it can offset losses of ‘natural’ species,” said Joseph Bull from the Centre for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at Copenhagen.

“Indeed, many people might find the prospect of an artificially biodiverse world just as daunting as an artificially impoverished one,” Bull said.

Human influence

The study highlights numerous examples of how human activities influence species’ evolution.

For instance: as the common house mosquito adapted to the environment of the underground railway system in London, it established a subterranean population. Now named the ‘London Underground mosquito’, it can no longer interbreed with its above ground counterpart and is effectively thought to be a new species.

Unnatural selection due to hunting can lead to new traits emerging in animals, which can eventually lead to new species, and deliberate or accidental relocation of species can lead to hybridisation with other species.

Due to the latter, more new plant species in Europe have appeared than are documented to have gone extinct over the last three centuries. Although it is not possible to quantify exactly how many speciation events have been caused through human activities, the impact is potentially considerable, researchers said.

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