Missing link between land carnavor and seals discovered

Researchers from the US and Canada have found a fossil skeleton of a newly discovered carnivorous animal, Puijila darwini. It appears that Puijila is a link in the evolution of the group that today includes seals, sea lions and walrus. Click here to see more about the discovery.
Darwin predicted that discovery of these "missing links" would be very rare because they lived such a short time and the conditions to preserve them is extremely rare. The scientists beleave that Puijila evolved during a period of climate change in the artic and could shed some light on what we might expect under the current change.

YouTube - Paleo-Breakthrough (Seal Evolution) from an Arctic Fossil
	4 min 7 sec - Apr 15, 2009 - fossils Arctic evolution paleontology palaeontology Haughton Crater missing link natural history Miocene Epoch Natalia Rybczynski Puijila darwini ... www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hT8DtfriYU -

Man's effect on evolution of animals that we hunt and fish

From today's New York Times:

Seeing the Risks of Humanity’s Hand in Species Evolution

By CORNELIA DEAN

Human predation is causing some species to evolve to reproduce at younger ages and smaller sizes, to the long-term harm of the species.

“Humans are frighteningly efficient predators,” said J. Stanley Cobb, a lobster expert who retired recently from the University of Rhode Island. “They impose mortality in specific ways, at particular stages of the life cycle. If we believe that natural selection has shaped the life history characteristics of a species, then we have to believe that a different mortality regime will affect life history.”

Because humans discovered fire, the benefits of hunting in teams and the bounties of agriculture, people have been changing the natural landscape, causing plants and animals to evolve in response.