A SCIENTIST at a Scottish university has discovered a flower which sheds new light on our understanding of evolution.
Dr Mario Vallejo-Marin, a Plant Evolutionary Biologist at Stirling University, unearthed a new species of monkeyflower which indicates the way species originate can be repeated.
He first found the flower on the bank of a stream in South Lanarkshire, in 2012, but was unable to locate it anywhere else.
But during an expedition two years later Dr Vallejo-Marin uncovered a second batch of the yellow plant growing 350 miles to the north north near Stromness on the Orkney Islands.
"Orkney was a missing region which hadn't been sampled," said Dr Vallejo-Marin, Senior Lecturer in the School of Natural Sciences. "There were different varieties of monkey flower on the island, but when we spotted this population I knew it was unusual as after looking at hundreds of plants, you get to recognise the subtle differences.
"Usually a species forms once in a particular location then spreads to other regions. In this case, the opposite has occurred as the same species has evolved multiple times in different places. It shows that when the conditions are right, the origin of species is a repeatable phenomenon."
Dr Vallejo-Marin named the species Mimulus peregrinus, which translates as 'the foreigner', in recognition of its origins from two invasive species first brought to the UK from the USA and South America in the 1800s.
Hybrid plants of its kind are normally infertile, but this one spread by doubling the amount of DNA in its cells and evolving to form a new species in a process known as polyploidisation, the same mechanism by which Wheat, Cotton and Tobacco originated.
Dr Vallejo-Marin added: "It is impossible to say whether Mimulus peregrinus evolved first in the south or in the north of Scotland, but our discovery of a very young species of this kind has allowed us to study evolution as it happens.
"We only know of a handful of other plant species as young as Mimulus peregrinus and so in this respect it is like looking at the big bang in the first milliseconds of its occurrence.
"The process of evolution it has followed is particularly interesting and adds complexity to our conception of the tree of life. Instead of branching out as it grows, Mimulus peregrinus is an example of how some branches can come back together again and spawn new species that are in part the combination of their ancestors."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article