Welcome to this brand new episode of Adapt or Die! The evolutionary biology of pop culture hosted by Austin Ashbaugh. The current cultural phenomenon we are discussing this season is Pokémon and todays episode is focused on the steel type. Our evolutionary connection to the steel type is the impact of urbanization on evolution.
In the Safari Zone, I get into what current evolutionary pressures of cities are on organisms which are reflected in game and how humans (both in and outside of the Pokémon world) have benefited from looking to adaptations of the organisms around them. During the pokémon professors rant, I appropriately rant about the need for urban pressures to impact pokemon evolution based on proximity to the cities if Pokémon are so route specific. Lastly, we will end todays episode with describing a regional variant of Maushold and results from our latest pokémon spectacular competition. Sit back and relax in a chair older than yourself, open an old dusty tome, and join me as we adapt or die!
Link to Google Slides of Pokémon discussed in this episode
Resources cited for research in this episode:
1. Branciari, R., Franceschini, R., Roila, R., Valiani, A., Pecorelli, I., Piersanti, A., ... & Ranucci, D. (2020). Nutritional value and contaminant risk assessment of some commercially important fishes and crawfish of Lake Trasimeno, Italy. _International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health_, _17_(7), 2545.
2. Cook, L. M., & Saccheri, I. J. (2013). The peppered moth and industrial melanism: evolution of a natural selection case study. _Heredity_, _110_(3), 207-212.
3. Arbel Harpak, Nandita Garud, Noah A Rosenberg, Dmitri A Petrov, Matthew Combs, Pleuni S Pennings, Jason Munshi-South, Genetic Adaptation in New York City Rats, _Genome Biology and Evolution_, Volume 13, Issue 1, January 2021, evaa247, [https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaa247](https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaa247)
4. Holderegger, R., & Di Giulio, M. (2010). The genetic effects of roads: a review of empirical evidence. _Basic and Applied Ecology_, _11_(6), 522-531.
5. Marc T. J. Johnson, Jason Munshi-South ,Evolution of life in urban environments.Science358,eaam8327(2017).DOI:10.1126/science.aam8327
6. Nemeth, E., & Brumm, H. (2009). Blackbirds sing higher-pitched songs in cities: adaptation to habitat acoustics or side-effect of urbanization?. _Animal behaviour_, _78_(3), 637-641.
7. https://asknature.org/biological-strategies/
8. https://www.serebii.net/pokemon/type/steel/

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Song credits: Music by Gregor Quendel from Pixabay
Logo design: Austin Ashbaugh, Chase Ashbaugh, Xander Allen