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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Science Daily [sciencedaily.com]:

Zoologists from Trinity College Dublin, working in tropical Southeast Asia, have uncovered a modern-day example of rapid evolution in action.

The zoologists have discovered that male and female Sulawesi Babblers (Pellorneum celebense, a species of bird) have evolved to attain different sizes on small islands, and in quick-fire time. They believe this is most likely due to evolutionary pressure favouring such "dimorphism" because the birds are able to reduce competition with each other by feeding on different, scarce resources.
...
"Our research is significant for showing the same process to have occurred on much younger islands, which were connected to the mainland by land-bridges only 30,000 years ago. This means that the difference in sexual dimorphism between mainland and island birds must have evolved quite rapidly, showing its importance for the ecology of the species."

30,000 years is considered a brief time span for evolution to effect change in a species.

Original Submission