Editing Peppered moth (section)

== Evolution ==
{{Main|Peppered moth evolution}}
[[File:Biston.betularia.7200.jpg|thumb|260px|''Biston betularia betularia'' morpha ''typica'', the white-bodied peppered moth.]]
[[File:Biston.betularia.f.carbonaria.7209.jpg|thumb|260px|''Biston betularia betularia'' morpha ''carbonaria'', the black-bodied peppered moth.]]
The evolution of the peppered moth over the last two hundred years has been studied in detail.
At the start of this period, the vast majority of peppered moths had light coloured wing patterns which effectively [[camouflage]]d them against the light-coloured trees and lichens upon which they rested. However, due to widespread pollution during the [[Industrial Revolution]] in England, many of the lichens died out, and the trees which peppered moths rested on became blackened by [[soot]], causing most of the light-coloured moths, or ''typica'', to die off due to predation. At the same time, the dark-coloured, or melanic, moths, ''carbonaria'', flourished because they could hide on the darkened trees.<ref name="miller">{{cite web |author=Ken Miller |date=August 1999 |url=http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/Moths/moths.html |title=The peppered moth: an update |publisher=[[Brown University]]}}</ref>

Since then, with improved environmental standards, light-coloured peppered moths have again become common, and the dramatic change in the peppered moth's population has remained a subject of much interest and study. This has led to the coining of the term "[[industrial melanism]]" to refer to the genetic darkening of species in response to pollutants. As a result of the relatively simple and easy-to-understand circumstances of the adaptation, the peppered moth has become a common example used in explaining or demonstrating [[natural selection]] to laypeople and classroom students through simulations.<ref name="globalchange">{{cite web |url=http://mvhs.shodor.org/mvhsproj/moth/mothtea.pdf |title=A modelling exercise for students using the peppered moth as its example |access-date=27 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303210125/http://mvhs.shodor.org/mvhsproj/moth/mothtea.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The first ''carbonaria'' morph was recorded by Edleston in Manchester in 1848, and over the subsequent years it increased in frequency. Predation experiments, particularly by [[Bernard Kettlewell]], established that the agent of selection was birds who preyed on the ''carbonaria'' morph. Subsequent experiments and observations have supported the initial evolutionary explanation of the phenomenon.<ref name=CB601>{{cite web |url=http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB601.html |title=The peppered moth story |publisher=Index to Creationist Claims: CB601 |author=Mark Isaak |work=[[TalkOrigins Archive]] |date=2005-05-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB601_2_3.html |publisher=Index to Creationist Claims: CB601.2.3 |title=Dark moths increased in s. Britain after pollution control began|author=David Wilson |date=2003-09-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB601_2_2.html |publisher=Index to Creationist Claims: CB601.2.2 |title=In several areas dark moths were more common than expected|author=David Wilson |date=2003-09-10}}</ref>