<p>musicamusica, curmudgeon should have issued an RKA (Ruined Keyboard Alert) before making that Barney crack. I smell a lawsuit!</p>
<p>A little advice curmudgeon—dont mix nausea and the postings of biblical literalists. You will NEVER get better.</p>
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<p>Nothing sinister, ellemenope (or even exciting). Just a bit of a nutritional issue. It’ll pass.</p>
<p>speaking of which, McCain was lamenting the rising cost of laxatives,…</p>
<p>Definite pandering to get votes!</p>
<p>Well, speaking of evolution … seems to me this thread has “evolved!” Actually I like the evolved version better – much more amusing. </p>
<p>My 2 cents about the OP – nothing like a few courses in World Pre-History, Anthropology, and Archaeologoly, in addition to a trip to the Galapagos, to convince me … (Not that I have ever taken the Bible literally.)</p>
<p>The different beaks on the finches suggested to darwin that species evolve(among other things of corse).
But how does the human race demonstrate a similiar differecnce as the finches? The biggest obvious difference among humans is race. But humans who lived in cold regions didn’t develope any notable adaptations to their enviornment(thicker skin?). Humans don’t have any real differences other than skin, when looking at humans from different regions(desert, cold climates, hot climates, etc).</p>
<p>I have evolved a round belly from living in the dessert.</p>
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<p>How about something like sickle-cell anemia, which is also a protection against malaria?</p>
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Humans have many differences other than skin, when you look in the right place, which is their genome. Hence the mutant hemoglobin allele alluded to above, which is selected for in tropical locales, the acquisition of lactose tolerance alleles by populations that domesticated cows, the maintenance of the cystic fibrosis allele in Europeans, thought to be protective against cholera, etc.</p>
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<p>That’s not true at all, and we’re learning that in fact there are many differences found between various corners of the human race and differences that have evolved over time. Of course much of this research is still very new as the human genome was only recently sequenced. There are many examples of human populations evolving to develop traits that are beneficial in the local environment. In addition to the above cited examples we’ve also been learning a lot for examining ‘cave men’ and other early humans. </p>
<p>Present day humans have evolved to have much less hair because as we developed clothing the need for insulating hair was no longer a factor in influencing natural selection. Other examples include the size of our toes, which have been getting ever smaller compared with our ancestors… when everyone wears shoes there is really no benefit to having a larger toe for balance and agility. Various human populations have evolved to better utilize the available food resources around them… the lactose tolerance gene being one basic example. That’s exactly the same thing that happens on a plate of bacteria… if you taint all the bacteria’s food with an antibiotic eventually you’ll find that the population has evolved to deal with the antibiotic and continue eating the food. It happens faster in bacteria because the time for a new generation to develop can be a matter of minutes vs. decades for humans but it’s the same evolutionary principles.</p>
<p>In comparision to how the finches beaks evolved to ther needs, how have humans made such pyhsical ransformation?
hunter gatherers didn’t develope any signifant psyhsical diverences compared to, say, farmers.
Yes, groups of people have developed immunities, but that when people have moved to new areas, they, too have developed immunities.
People in the dessert have not developed some pyhsical capability to be able to stay hydrated longer, those in the artctic have not developed a trait to stay warmer than a regular human.
Body wise all humans have progressed in terms of anatomy. Those changes were not limited to, say, only asians or only caucasians.
Darwins theory would mean that humans who live in the united states would have an obvious adaption that those in europe, or africa, do not.
Immunities develope after generations of exposure to a certain element, and is not suggestive than no other human race could develope the same. Genetics also vary amongst all humans, just like in any species, and not indicitive of an adaptation.</p>
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You really shouldn’t talk about something you clearly know nothing about. There is definitive evidence of ongoing selection at the DNA level; see for example: [PLoS</a> Genetics: Localizing Recent Adaptive Evolution in the Human Genome](<a href=“PLOS Genetics”>PLOS Genetics)
And there are examples of physical adaptions as well, e.g. selection for increased ventilatory response in humans who live at high altitude.</p>
<p>“Darwins theory would mean that humans who live in the united states would have an obvious adaption that those in europe, or africa, do not.”
Plenty of us living in the US have adapted by developing a sense of humour from exposure to the anti-darwin biblical fundamentalist tribes. In Europe they just dont get the joke.</p>
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<p>The time scales you’re thinking about are far too short… the majority of the ‘US’ population has only been here for a few hundred years… nothing in terms of evolutionary history. You’ve asked about adaption… skin color is an excellent example. There is a reason why those in northern climates evolved to have lighter skin colors than those who lived in areas closer to the equator… and that’s just one example of adaption.</p>
<p>My dentist tells me that the reason you need to get your wisdom teeth pulled is that humans are evolving to have smaller jaws than they used to, but are still growing the back molars called wisdom teeth. The average jaw is not big enough to accomodate them, so in a lot of people they start causing trouble and need to get pulled. Other people (such as myself) don’t have any wisdom teeth. Some are missing two or more, like my D who had the bottom ones taken out, but never had the top ones. The dentist sees this as evolution, ie, first the jaw has gotten smaller, now some people no longer grow the extra teeth.</p>
<p>Another good example similar to the wisdom teeth is eyesight. Today, there are no evolutionary advantages to having good eyesight because we have developed technologies to easily correct bad vision. Prior to such advances, those with poor eyesight were at a significant disadvantage.</p>
<p>For other broader and more extreme evolutionary differences one only needs to look to our biological relatives the primates and fossils of early humans. Through those examinations there are tons of things that humans evolved over the years to better adapt to our surroundings. Longer legs… upright spines… shorter tail bones…</p>
<p>I have evolved a round belly from living in the dessert.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>LOL, rorosen!</p>
<p>Skin color (or the amount of melanin) is definitely an adaptation experienced by humans. It is not an accident that the Scandinavians are so fair-skinned. With a lot less sunlight in a year, their skin contains a lot less melanin in it than the skin of someone living in Africa. They need all the sun they can get. Those who live where there is a lot of sun need the protection that melanin brings from the sun’s rays.</p>
<p>Agree with the poster who reminded us that evolutionary changes often take a long, long, long time. That is why so much of the research is done on plants and bacteria.</p>
<p>I once read a fascinating article about a theory that the ancestors of humans were ocean-dwelling. Our “webbed” fingers and toes and downward angling nostrils (chimps do not have either of these), as well as our relatively hairless bodies and the salt-water content of our eyes, saliva and perspiration, as well water-filled placenta are suited to life in the ocean. It made me think of that movie “WaterWorld” with Kevin Costner, where the Earth becomes covered with water so humans, i.e., the Mariner (Costner) evolve to develop gills.</p>