• Question: Will humans evolve even more dramatically?

    Asked by to Anna, Elaine, Fiona, Kevin, Darren on 19 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by , .
    • Photo: Kevin O'Dell

      Kevin O'Dell answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      Evolution requires two key ingredients, mutation and selection.

      There is a standard human DNA mutation rate so among all the wonderful things your parents have given to you are about 150 new mutations (that’s 150 new DNA changes in 2 sets of 3 billion base pairs of DNA). More of these are from your father than your mother, simply because it takes more cell divisions to make a sperm than it does to make an egg. As I hinted earlier, this is constant, so has no effect on the rate of human evolution.

      So we have to look at selection. In 2014 the proportion of people that survive to have children is probably higher than at any time in human history. This’ll be due to lifestyle things like medicines and heathcare. So the selective pressure is reducing because we clever humans can invent things that keep most of us alive. So we might expect the rate of human evolution to slow down.

      So we may still be evolving, but probably less dramatically than in the past.

    • Photo: Fiona McLean

      Fiona McLean answered on 22 Jun 2014:

      Kevin’s answer is really good! People are still evolving a bit for example in Britain we’re getting taller (so you will probably be taller than your parents) because we have lots of food available so when we have growth spurts as kids and teenagers we grow to our full potential.

      I guess the only other thing that could cause a jump in evolution is if there is a world “event”. For example if the land suddenly became covered in water then people who can swim or people who can climb things would get selected for.

      I suppose you also never know what science could lead to. I love the X-Men and kinda wish that I could have powers to control metal or walk through walls! Think I might have to wait a while for that though!

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