Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 23
Eviatar (Eibi) Nevo stands on the shaded “Mediterranean” side of Evolution Can-
yon in northern Israel. He is explaining the large evolutionary differences that he and his col-
leagues have found in the animals and plants living on this shaded slope and members of the
same species on the sunny “African” slope behind him. You can also see behind him one of
the many caves that dot the slopes of Mount Carmel. Some of these caves were inhabited by
Neanderthals and early modern humans over spans of tens of thousands of years.
coast, while the south-facing slope transports us to the dry African savanna.
Here, in what he calls Evolution Canyon, Nevo has built his career on the
study of an ecological collision between two continents.
For the past forty years, Nevo and hundreds of his students and col-
leagues have examined the animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria that populate
the canyon. They have revealed an evolutionary tapestry in which environ-
mental dif erences, natural selection, gene mutations, and the ebb and fl ow
of genes within populations have shaped every aspect of the canyon's life.
Some plants and animals are confi ned to only one of the two slopes of
the canyon, but many others such as fruit fl ies and butterfl ies roam the entire
canyon. In virtually every case the physiology of the animals and plants
