Interesting article on evolution

by Caedes 43 Replies latest social current

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  hamilcarr

  I don't see any reason why recent human evolution would have slowed down. One of the striking instances of recent human evolution was detected some years ago. It is the ability to digest milk in adulthood, conferred by genetic changes that occurred only 3,000 (?) years ago.

  The mutation arose in a central European region, where an early cattle-raising culture flourished only 6,000 years ago. The further one lives from that area, the smaller the chance to be lactose-tolerant.

  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/science/10cnd-evolve.html?pagewanted=print
• 

  Kudra

  Think of groups of people that reproduce at a great rate (large "litters") and think of groups of people that are not reproducing (not passing along their genes) as much.
• 

  IP_SEC

  You guys act like cultural evolution is not biological evolution. This is not so.

  A group of baboons. Only the most agressive males mate. Humans move in with a trash dump. Only the most aggressive males get to eat there. The most aggressive baboons get TB and die off. All that is left are the less aggressive males. They mate. A new less aggressive troop is born in one generation. Pretty quick evolution of a subset.

  Evolution is predictive... but dang hard to predict.
• 

  drwtsn32

  I don't see any reason why recent human evolution would have slowed down.

  What about the points I mentioned earlier:

  Humans are no longer in isolated pockets like they were even a few hundred plus years ago. The world is a small place; people intermingle. This makes it much harder for genetic changes to propagate.

  Environmental pressures are often rendered moot by our current technologies and abilities. There are people thriving in all sorts of climates nowadays.

  Medical science can keep people with abnormalities alive to reproduce, preventing that trait from getting "weeded out" by natural selection.
• 

  drwtsn32

  Think of groups of people that reproduce at a great rate (large "litters") and think of groups of people that are not reproducing (not passing along their genes) as much.

  Have you seen Idiocracy? It scares me because it seems probable. lol
• 

  Kudra

  Hah, I was going to edit the post to say- watch the movie Idiocracy cause they can put the concept in a much more PC way that I could in a post here... if I tried to post what I am thinking about it would be so offensive...
• 

  drwtsn32

  You guys act like cultural evolution is not biological evolution. This is not so.

  Cultural evolution may affect biological evolution, as your example illustrates. But they are definitely not the same. Culture does not always affect biological evolution, and maybe it is even uncommon for it to do so.

  Can you think of a time in recent human history where our culture affected our biological evolution? Unless it's making you tolerant to lactose because you herd cows with the fam. lol
• 

  drwtsn32

  if I tried to post what I am thinking about it would be so offensive...

  We don't want to offend the trailer trash rednecks. ;)

  oops, was that offensive?
• 

  hamilcarr

  Humans are no longer in isolated pockets like they were even a few hundred plus years ago. The world is a small place; people intermingle. This makes it much harder for genetic changes to propagate.

  Environmental pressures are often rendered moot by our current technologies and abilities. There are people thriving in all sorts of climates nowadays.

  Medical science can keep people with abnormalities alive to reproduce, preventing that trait from getting "weeded out" by natural selection.

  I think the reasons you give show why speciation, but not evolution within the human species has become impossible. Isolation, for instance, could have spurred speciation. This doesn't prevent the human species as a whole to evolve very quickly. Incrasing mobility, the use of technology, must be reflected, somehow, in our genetics.
• 

  drwtsn32

  I think the reasons you give show why speciation, but not evolution within the human species has become impossible.

  Well I never said human evolution is now impossible. I just think it has slowed drastically, if not stopped, for now. Speciation is probably not going to happen unless there's a group of humans that remain isolated from the rest of humanity for a long period of time (perhaps if we start to colonize other planets?). Otherwise I believe humanity will evolve as a whole.

  Incrasing mobility, the use of technology, must be reflected, somehow, in our genetics.

  On what basis can you make that claim? Actions or learned abilities are not recorded in our genes.