Out of Africa: How the fruit fly made its way in the world
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - 09:30
in Biology & Nature
The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster used to be found only in sub-Saharan Africa but about 10,000 years ago it began to colonize Asia and Europe. This period saw the start of human agriculture and the domestication of cats and oxen but we have no evidence to suggest that early agricultural practices were associated with significant global warming, so the fly’s northerly spread is thought to relate to genetic factors rather than to environmental changes.
