Scientists have discovered that a plant called Crepis Sancta growing in urban areas have been producing heavier seeds that fall to the ground. While this adaptation is not all that unusual, the speed at which it occurred was faster than most experts expected.

Researchers from the Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionelle et Evolutive (CEFE), based in Montpellier, France have estimated that the change in the way the plant dropped its seeds occurred in as little as five to 12 generations. That's around five to 12 years.

Pierre-Oliver Cheptou, co-author of the study, spoke to BBC News regarding their findings and attempted to explain the phenomenon that they discovered:

Logic would assume that this sort of evolutionary trait would develop more slowly, which is probably the case in less fragmented situations. However, at the same time, it is consistent with the estimation we had for the trait in a fragmented urban situation.

We can hypothesise that in fragmented situations, the evolution towards lower dispersal leads to more isolated populations, increasing the risk of extinction.