Max Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 Seems obvious to me, but now someone's actually gone and said it - we see evidence of ongoing evolution in our own species. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/07/news/humans.php Providing the strongest evidence yet that human beings are still evolving, researchers have detected about 700 regions of the human genome where genes appear to have been reshaped by natural selection, a principal force of evolution, within the last 5,000 to 15,000 years. The genes that show this evolutionary change include some responsible for the senses of taste and smell, digestion, bone structure, skin color and brain function. Many of these instances of selection may reflect pressures that came to bear as people abandoned hunting and gathering for settlements and agriculture, a transition well under way in Europe and East Asia about 5,000 years ago. Three populations were studied: Africans, East Asians and Europeans. In each, a mostly different set of genes had been favored by natural selection. The selected genes, which affect skin color, hair texture and bone structure, may underlie the present-day differences in racial appearance. The study of selected genes may help physical anthropologists explain why people over the world have a such a variety of distinctive appearances, even though their genes are on the whole very similar, said Spencer Wells, director of the Genographic Project of the National Geographic Society. The finding adds substantially to the evidence that human evolution did not grind to a halt in the distant past, as is tacitly assumed by many social scientists. Even evolutionary psychologists, who interpret human behavior in terms of what the brain evolved to do, hold that the work of natural selection in shaping the human mind was completed in the pre-agricultural past, more than 10,000 years ago... [see link for the rest of the article] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taphophilia Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I also read wisdom teeth are evolving out and I don't have them. I only have 28 teeth. I have one bud of a wisdom tooth in my jaw bone but it never grew. Taph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pandora Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 You must be more highly evolved than I am. I have had two taken out and two coming in that I refuse to go the dentist for because it was such a horrible experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuaiDan Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I also read wisdom teeth are evolving out and I don't have them. I only have 28 teeth. I have one bud of a wisdom tooth in my jaw bone but it never grew. Wow! Me too! Even have just one bud that never grew in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amanda Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 Great article Max! Thanks! I wish it would have elaborated on brain function's evolution more. Also, I think it would be very interesting if they did a study on the genetic evolution in the US, since there are soooooo many mixed marriages and children born multi-ethnic. I tell my children if they marry a girl whom is Asian, their children will have the whole world covered! And if the theory that Native Americans are from Asia... they already do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 Um, I already posted that article somewhere here. But yeah, it's a good article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
white_raven23 Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 Heh Heh. I'm a throwback. I've had all four wisdom teeth extracted. And my eye doctor has joined the digital age.......got to see my own eyeball innards in her computer and I asked a "what's that?" and she responded that that nerve I was looking at doesn't do anything....and not everyone had them anymore (she was uncomfortable until I make it clear I had no delusion that I sprang fully formed from dust wearing the latest hat). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I've also had all four wisdom teeth extracted. I was in my early 20's at the time. I remember it being a very painful experience. One of my wisdom teeth was decaying, so that didn't help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-COG Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 I had them knock me out when mywisdom teeth had to go. The main reason was that one tooth had to be cut out, and no way would I stay awake for that! I have sensitive teeth anyway; even for just a filling they have to numb me up good. Hmmm, an unused nerve in the eye. Guess God threw that one in just in case? (Throwing a bit of bait out to the fundies reading this...) I remember as a kid reading about evolution in a set of books published by a museum. (My parents may have been fundies, but they appearantly thought we should have science books on hand, thank goodness) I read that some scientists predict that we eventually will only have eight toes, as our little toes on each foot will gradually fade away because they are unneeded. Anyone else hear anything about this? The book I was reading was from the 1950's, so I don't know if this prediction still holds water. I wonder what else we'll lose--or gain? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Never heard the one about little toes, but if it happens, it'll take place over thousands of years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyby Stardancer Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 Heh. I got knocked out when they took out all four of my teeth the summer before college (Sophmore now). It should have gone easily for them, as the bones had all receded from over them, so they just had to dig through gum to get at them. Was in some terrible pain afterwards, but I was back at work after two days of recovery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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