the yellow mutation in cardinals is one in a one million chance, there is no evidence that it inherited but there is also other signs of possible mutations in behavioural traits.
Is Ganymede an example of a new species /subspecies or an random mutation?
and yes im that starved for lore im even going to this level details…
I have a feeling they just wanted a yellow bird, but you know
Its lore they are sleeping on. They will reveal it around 2024
From what little I’ve just read, it could be purely genetic or partial environmental. There doesn’t appear to be a conclusive answer yet.
But if it IS a new species, the more interesting question to me is “what is the speciation event?”
Did the construction of the Omniums really have that big an effect on local species? Or is it the disastrous weather patterns Mei is worried about?
could be a lot of things that caused the possible speciation but the the behavioural traits make me think that whatever happened occured 5-10 generations before ganymede.
my main guess is that background radiation is far higher than today. anywhere from 7-21 millisievert.
I highly doubt Blizzard, or anyone who puts weirdly colored birds into their story, ever thought about an answer to that question.
I don’t know. Mutation is the slowest driver for evolution.
As “Bigbird” demonstrates, under the right conditions, speciation via natural conditions can occur in just two generations.
That said, radiation would still act as a catalyst to speed up changes in the genes of a popultion.
It’s global warming. Duh.
Are cardinals even found in Germany?
I think that’s the more concerning aspect.
Climate change affects a lot of species in a lot of different ways.
And who knows, maybe the omnic crisis sped up the process 10 fold. Or the war with all its brimming technology introduced something else into the atmosphere.
In all seriousness, any change in the environment that negatively affects a specie’s odds of survival speeds up the process of evolution, and climate change is no exception.
I’m curious what you meant with this by the way:
Any kind of evolution requires mutation to happen, there’s no evolution without mutation. Evolution is basically just accumulation of mutations over time.
BLIZZARD. WE ARE SPECULATING ABOUT THE BIRDS GENETICS. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ATHENA DROP SOME LORE. WE ARE STARVING
Not necessarily.
Evolution is defined as a change in the frequency of genes in a population.
It could mean 90% of humans have lobed ears, and 1000 years later, 10% of humans have lobed ears. But it doesn’t mean any new genes were added or removed. The frequency just changed.
Speciation is closer, but still iffy. Speciation just means two individuals of opposite gender can’t produce viable offspring. Be it achieved through divisive mutations, or just incompatible homozygosity (through which mutations enforce, but don’t necessarily trigger).
one of the best examples of speciation is comparing chimpanzees to humans, we share 99.99 (my numbers may be off the last time i look at non avian species was 30 plus years ago.) of similar genetic structures but the both are two clearly different species. Avians have extremely far shorter generations and mutations and specifications should happen far more often
Three cheers for neoteny!
Hip hip, the spine was once a baby sea squirt!
Fair enough, but that’s still mutation. It’s just in this case it took longer for the gene that affects earlobes to become relevant to odds of survival and reproduction of individuals within a specie. That’s usually how it goes, a mutation being selected for as soon as it happens is the exception and usually only occurs when a population is living in a very harsh environment where it’s basically “adapt or go extinct.”
To put it another way, most mutations are accumulated when a specie is living in relative prosperity, and are selected for when the specie faces harsh odds of survival.
Still, no evolution without mutation.
Btw, fellow biology student or? 
Isn’t Ganymede one of these? Looks pretty close.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_cardinal
As in, epigenetic causes?
Of course there’s no evolution without mutation. We need genes in the first place after all.
But evolution is not reliant on mutation on a one-to-one basis. It just relies on it as a template.
Mutation is only one of the 5 mechanisms of evolution. You forget about sexual selection, natural selection, artificial selection, and gene flow.