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Urban Environments Create Changed Creatures

Rickard Ignell, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences/Wikimedia
Bedbugs making new bedbugs. It's called "traumatic insemination."

Urban dwellers get understandably upset when their homes are invaded by rats or bedbugs or other unwelcome creatures. 

But hardly anybody stops to think that the animals are there BECAUSE the city is there.  And that is very likely the case... many creatures evolved differently because of urban environments. 

Marc Johnson at the University of Toronto just published a paper in Science detailing some of the evolutionary changes apparently forced by urban environments.  We HAVE to ask about the mosquitoes that live in subways and do NOT need to suck blood for food. 

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Geoffrey Riley is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has hosted the Jefferson Exchange on JPR since 2009. He's been a broadcaster in the Rogue Valley for more than 35 years, working in both television and radio.
April Ehrlich is an editor and reporter at Oregon Public Broadcasting. Prior to joining OPB, she was a news host and regional reporter at Jefferson Public Radio.