Natural Selection Isn’t Always Slow, Flower Study Finds

The mutant (left) and wild-type Colorado blue columbine (Aquilegia coerulea) are so different that a taxonomist might assign them to different genera at first glance. (Zachary Cabin)

Evolution can occur in great leaps, despite Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection and small changes over time. Scientists have identified a flower in Colorado dubbed a “hopeful monster,” mutating to adapt to its environment.

“Evolution doesn’t necessarily take all these small changes like Darwin proposed,” Scott Hodges of the University of California-Santa Barbara said of the theory.