I slit the sheet the sheet I slit and on the slitted sheet I sit.

You people are Amazing.

+1 internets for you and subby.

Scientists say they've solved the shrinking Soay sheep stickler, sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick.

/try not to say schtikler.

ElQue: I slit the sheet the sheet I slit and on the slitted sheet I sit.

I tried to say it out loud and said, "I sh*t the sleet."

I've been chuckling ever since.

Thanth Thubmitter. My tongue ith thucked

Approves (new window)

milder winters have changed their size, trumping natural selection.

Natural selection seems to be working properly. And it's not a catastrophe. They may get less money per sheep, but shepherds also enjoy a tighter fit. In the end they come out even.

More sheep is apparently a bad thing. Only global warming idiots would see this as a bad thing.

Subby I can't even say that headline. I tried for like 5 minutes and I just can't form the words.
I hate you

Seriously?

Journalists comprehension of natural selection fail.

Scientists have been studying the evolution of Soay sheep in the Outer Hebrides for more than quarter of a century and believe milder winters have changed their size, trumping natural selection.

The smaller, slower growing sheep can survive more easily now, perfectly inline with natural selection.

meat0918: Journalists comprehension of natural selection fail.

Not really. Although as always, it's better to get your information about science from the actual journals rather than the media.

The Dynamics of Phenotypic Change and the Shrinking Sheep of St. Kilda (Ozgul et al. 2009)

I'll see if I can track down a preprint or otherwise non-paywalled version later if anyone's interested.

Why are sheep growing more slowly than they used to?
We next analyzed individual growth rates within each age
class (7). The growth of lambs was significantly negatively
influenced by August body weight and population density
operating additively and via an interaction with the preceding
winter's North Atlantic Oscillation index (23) - lambs grew
more slowly in years of high density following a bad winter:
growth slows as competition for food increases and the
amount of stored reserves required to stay alive also
increases. This interpretation is complicated by a concordant
increase in population size, resulting from increased survival
rates in the first year of life, as winters have warmed and
shortened (24). Changing winter conditions have extended the
season of grass growth while reducing the length of time
individuals depend upon stored fat reserves. This suggests
that the form of density-dependence has changed with the
climate (24), and that this has had phenotypic consequences.
These results suggest that climate change has the potential to
generate rapid change in phenotypic traits, providing
contemporary support for observations from the fossil record
of phenotypic change accompanying climate change (25).
We next identified how each term contributed to the
temporal dynamics of mean body size by analysing temporal
variation in ΔZ (7). Fluctuations in the population structure
(DCs and DCr) caused by density-dependence and climatic
variation (24), followed by the growth terms (GR),
contributed most. These terms accounted for 88% of the
observed variance. Viability (VS) and fertility selection (FS)
accounted for 5.8%, and the OMD and ODC explained 4%
(Fig. 2B). An individual-based analysis of annual growth
rates suggests that climate and population density explain
substantial amounts of variation, particularly for lambs (7).
Although the OMD and ODC terms contribute little to the
dynamics, we also conducted an individual-based analysis of
the difference between offspring and maternal weights.
Population density and maternal body weight (which is
determined by the birth weight of the mother and her growth
since birth) explain significant amounts of variation
suggesting that any response to selection contributes
substantially less than 4% to the phenotypic dynamics,
suggesting that the recent dynamics of body weight have not
been strongly influenced by selection and adaptive evolution.
Our approach has provided several insights. First, the
dynamics of body size - both the trend and variation around
the trend - are primarily a consequence of environmental
variation and not evolution. Second, we identified that
positive viability selection on size early in life is countered by
young mothers being unable to produce offspring that were as
heavy as they were at birth. Finally, we report that
environmental change has resulted in a reduction in lamb
/ www.sciencexpress.org / 2 July 2009 / Page 3 / 10.1126/science. 1173668
growth rates and that this explains why sheep are smaller than
they used to be. There are two general conclusions from this
analysis. First, the recent focus on evolutionary explanations
for changes in heritable phenotypic traits (26, 27) could
fruitfully be complemented with research identifying the role
of environmental variation. Second, individuals and
populations respond to environmental change in complex
ways, and there should be no expectation for simple linear
associations between environment, phenotype, genotype and
population dynamics. These results reinforce the need for a
theory linking genetic, phenotypic and population dynamics
in age-structured populations in variable environments.

Jon Snow: Not really. Although as always, it's better to get your information about science from the actual journals rather than the media.

Agreed.

nicksteel: More sheep is apparently a bad thing. Only global warming idiots would see this as a bad thing.

The amazing thing is that the Soay sheep population on St Kilda are essentially unmanaged and feral. Since the Islanders left almost a century ago, the sheep have been left alone for research and study. In the fierce north Atlantic, these creatures provide a unique insight to how nature and animals interact, especially since the island's limited size means that it's a particularly simplified ecological system. with a military radar and weather station there, much of the data is collected already.

But are they still sexy?