Has Human Evolution Stopped?

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My old history teacher used to reckon we'll grow another finger eventually, next to the little one - but he was a smoggy- and called mr hand.
 


Brian Griffin said:
No idea - that’s why I’m asking are we even capable of evolutionary change in the face of something like global warming which will affect our environment
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Evolution through natural selection happens as a result of certain members of the population managing to survive long enough to breed and raise their offspring to the point of self-sufficiency while other members of the population fail to do so and therefore fail to pass on their own genes to the next generation.

If the planet heated up to the point that 99% of humans died of and the only ones left were those that had some sort of genetic resistance to the temperature, then "natural selection" would have done its job and the "new" version of humans in future generations from then on would all have that gene that made them more resistant to temperature (except for any born with a mutation "back" to the old standard.

Species don't "learn to adapt" in the way you're suggesting. Individuals who can't cope with the conditions of their habitat die. Those that survive breed. "Cant cope" genes fail to be passed on to the next generation. "Manage to cope" genes get passed on to the next generation.

That's slightly oversimplified, but it's essentially the general gist.
 
walesie said:
My old history teacher used to reckon we'll grow another finger eventually, next to the little one - but he was a smoggy- and called mr hand.
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he was not daft, but he missed out that a pouch will also evolve. Both to allow effective use of the mobile phone
 
Modern humans left Africa about 50,000-70,000 years ago and look how we've evolved since. Asians, Inuit's, Eurasians, Aborigine's etc. we're evolving all the time. There is proof that we're becoming less intelligent as a species, just look at how the influencers are thriving.
Gelan said:
We're trying so hard man...just need people to stop and listen. OK, so we don't have normal empathy...we have to learn it, and if every nuerotypical soul had to learn it too, maybe they wouldb't be so clumsy with it. Love is a gift...don't gift wrap it in shite.

ps. Sorry I'm a bit tough love :confused:
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The number of times I've give the truthful answer to a question that didn't require one. I can't help it, if you ask me what the meal was like and I thought it was crap I'll tell you (that answer went down well with my wife on our first date when she cooked me a meal). NT's are weird with their white lies for answers, just tell the truth man woman man.
 
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Alcoholic_Author said:
I think we must be crossing wires, we all contain random mutations, I was pointing out that a mutation alone does not proliferate, it requires us to select it, natural selection.
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Natural selection is natural selection. Evolution is changes to the body caused by a natural requirement.

Due to the introduction of fire we could cook food. That resulted in less energy (and oxygenated blood) needed to digest the food, so blood could be diverted from the digestive tract to the brain, allowing humans to have bigger brains - evolution

People marrying taller people and having babies that grow taller - natural selection.
 
Billy Smart's Circus said:
A ‘recent’ evolutionary change is that we’ve only evolved to being able to drink cows milk in the last 5,000 years which humans couldn’t for the first 300,000 years.
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A of the world haven't evolved this yet, Asians etc.



More recently, and less noticeable, diseases such as the Black Death, have resulted in evolution in terms of aspects of the immune system.
Kevj said:
In January and February? Staggering numbers of so.
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Something like a quater of British babies are aborted. Shocking stuff really.
 
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Brian Griffin said:
So it’s possible that evolution has stopped then if we put it down to diets
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Nah, just happens over a much longer period of time.

But advances in training methods would be the reason for what you mention in the OP
 
The Onion Bag said:
Natural selection is natural selection. Evolution is changes to the body caused by a natural requirement.

Due to the introduction of fire we could cook food. That resulted in less energy (and oxygenated blood) needed to digest the food, so blood could be diverted from the digestive tract to the brain, allowing humans to have bigger brains - evolution

People marrying taller people and having babies that grow taller - natural selection.
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Only if there was a shortage of food and for some reason only tall people could eat, suddenly.

What you're describing is sexual selection, not natural selection.
 
dangermows said:
That's not evolution though. If bairns went on the same diet and exercised as much there'd be no difference. They're not born with fatter genes. Theyre just greedier and lazier.
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They aren’t greedier or lazier they’ve been put in an environment that doesn’t allow them freedom and feeds them rich banquets everyday. The kids are fundamentally no different to us they just have knacker parents and live in a world where people are frightened to let them get on with it.
fyl2u said:
Evolution through natural selection happens as a result of certain members of the population managing to survive long enough to breed and raise their offspring to the point of self-sufficiency while other members of the population fail to do so and therefore fail to pass on their own genes to the next generation.

If the planet heated up to the point that 99% of humans died of and the only ones left were those that had some sort of genetic resistance to the temperature, then "natural selection" would have done its job and the "new" version of humans in future generations from then on would all have that gene that made them more resistant to temperature (except for any born with a mutation "back" to the old standard.

Species don't "learn to adapt" in the way you're suggesting. Individuals who can't cope with the conditions of their habitat die. Those that survive breed. "Cant cope" genes fail to be passed on to the next generation. "Manage to cope" genes get passed on to the next generation.

That's slightly oversimplified, but it's essentially the general gist.
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That’s why I think Darwin is an favourite genius. It is so simple a concept for something that evaded humanity for a long time.
 
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Brian Griffin said:
I suppose the obvious answer is no as world records for running get broken very often - but the people who do that are the exception not the norm.

If babies suddenly started being born with an extra finger we’d likely try and treat them to make them ‘normal’.

But I’m struggling to think how we naturally evolve. Any ideas?
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Evolution isn't a sudden thing its a gradual process so no-one would notice the difference environmental impacts have.
 
Titus said:
Training methods and such have also evolved hence records being broken
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I remember reading years ago that we had reached close to the peak of human endurance when it comes to breaking records. They said that the future would be more accurate timing. As in time a race down to millionths of a second maybe.
 
I believe the reason so many humans suffer from back problems is our spines haven't evolved enough to accommodate walking upright, so no we haven't stopped evolving in that sense.
 
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