Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution

Cities are often seen as places where nature has retreated before concrete and steel. Yet urban environments have become powerful laboratories of evolution, where animals and plants rapidly adapt to the challenges and opportunities created by human society.
Drawing on examples from around the world—from mosquitoes evolving to thrive in subway systems and birds changing their songs to overcome traffic noise to mammals, insects, and plants developing entirely new survival strategies—Menno Schilthuizen shows that evolution is unfolding all around us, often at remarkable speed. The city, he argues, is not the opposite of nature but one of its newest and most dynamic ecosystems.
Blending evolutionary biology, ecology, and engaging storytelling, Darwin Comes to Town reveals how urban life is reshaping biodiversity and offers a fresh perspective on the intimate relationship between humans and the natural world.