“Using a multidecadal dataset on Magellanic penguins, we show that despite strong selection on body size, some environmental conditions favored larger bodies, and others favored smaller bodies, thus preventing consistent evolution in one direction or the other […] Such findings highlight that fluctuating selection can be driven by environmental variability, and these processes could eliminate the possibility of evolutionary rescue for many long-lived animal species.”
Authors: T. J. Clark-Wolf, P. Dee Boersma, Floriane Plard, Ginger A. Rebstock, and Briana Abrahms
Journal: PNAS
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2406314121
Photo credit: Dee Boersma
