Reduce Your Pelvis in 10,000 Years or Less

While the avid dieter obsesses about reduction of different body parts, permanent reduction of many structures seems to be achieved relatively effortlessly (though much more slowly) throughout evolution. In a recent article in Nature, Shapiro et al. examine one such example, the genetic basis of pelvic reduction in the threespine stickleback fish (2004). They conclude that a regulatory mutation in the Pitx1 gene is responsible for the pelvic reduction.