Rat Evolution Happening in NYC - Jason Munshi-South

Charles Darwin had a scientific breakthrough when he observed that the finches he saw in the Galapagos Islands were similar, but had distinctions in their coloring, beak and body shape that prevented Darwin from calling them the same species. Fordham University rodent biologist Jason Munshi-South says that's essentially what is happening to rats and mice in New York City. Munshi-South describes that it doesn't matter how much area an animal has, as long as it has a lot of time in genetic isolation from its neighbors: "It's now to the point where if someone gave us a mouse from New York City, we would have a good chance to guess what park it came from." Munshi-South isn't yet sure whether rats are as isolated as the city's park mice are, but has a study to test the rats for genetic isolation and to see if they're evolving in different directions, as the city's mice are.