It's rare that you see evolution in action — the only time I've seen it happen is when I evolved larger muscles to fend off all the ladies who find me immensely attractive. What, are you calling me a liar? Fair enough.
Biologists think they might be seeing evolution in action with African and Indian elephants: Both species' tusk size has been reduced dramatically in recent in history. In the last 150 years, tusk length has decreased by half, and Oxford University researchers think it's because of poaching.
Typically, the largest tusks belong on the largest elephants, who use those gigantor tusks to intimidate other males and become successful with females. But with the largest animals getting killed for their tusks, the little guy gets a better chance with the ladies, and thusly his offspring have smaller and smaller tusks.
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