Newly Discovered: Mimulus Peregrinus

Mimulus peregrinus, a new species that came to be in southern Scotland approximately 140 years ago, provides exciting insights into the natural processes of hybrid evolution.

From Scientific American online:

"M. peregrinus's genus turns up around the world but most species grown in North America and Australia. Different monkey flower species can hybridize, although their offspring carry an odd number of chromosomes, rendering them sterile....A rare mutilation duplicated the entire genome of M. peregrinus...[that] evened out the number of chromosomes and the flower avoided a genetic dead-end."

Another startling and invaluable look into the evolutionary processes which make life on earth possible - and a reminder that these age-old "mutations" occur contemporarily. Carl Sagan would smile at such a discovery.