Predators accelerate temperature evolution

What is it about?

It is typically thought that organisms cannot evolve fast enough to keep up with rapidly changing climate. Here we show using a freshwater crustacean (Daphnia pulex) and its larval fly predator (Chaoborus americanus) that rapid evolution to temperature is possible, and that predators may be key factor to accelerating prey evolution.

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Why is it important?

In nature no organism lives in isolation, they live in communities with predators, competitors, parasites, etc. Here we've shown that interactions between predators and their prey can 'help' prey evolve quickly to temperature change.