Are we evolving - (Apr/10/2006 )
Evolution has slowed down because of the lost of geographic isolation and negligible impact of natural selection on large population sizes maintained by immunized/drugged first-world countries
Because of this, you probably see more evolution occurring in third-world countries than first-world countries.
-Matt
Because of this, you probably see more evolution occurring in third-world countries than first-world countries.
-Matt
hmmm actually i think the loss of geographic restrictions leads to an increase in gene flow between communities previously isolated, thus a higher amount of novel genes/variants are likely to occur. In the end although this will prevent speciation it will encourage development of newer more advantageous genes that can then quickly spread in the population and become more common - actually speeding up evolution
also environments are drastically different between 1st and 3rd world countries, although each has its own selective pressures
thus its not a case of faster vs slower evolution its just two diffrent evolutionary paths working here. And each has its own pressures and selection factors wroking here, which will result in quicker evolutionary variations is just a matter of what changes you are looking for
How can you say that humans are still evolving? In order to evolve we would need some type of pressure, survival of the fittest...humans have escaped the evolutionary process, and have set the world on an accelerated path to distruction.
My 2 cents!
My 2 cents!
no we didnt escaped form evolution only the fittest will remain.
you may dont like it but we have no control on environment and nature.
remember cathrina....
and even if you believe we escape and defeat other types of anymals what about evolution within homo sapiense??
sure there's still pressure...we're not running from animals who want to eat us, but there's still pressure...as an example, we are creating more pressure by our treatment of the environment. At least in the US...I know that conditions like asthma have increased pretty dramatically over the past couple of decades...things like this will encourage adaptation over the long haul. we are creating our own selective pressure
Events like Catrina are not selection pressures, they are random "acute" events, that could equally wipe out evolutionarily fit as well as unfit individuals.
I think Aimikins has hit the nail on the head... we are creating our own environment and our own selection pressures.
yes they are not selection pressures but look they show that we dont really control our environment.
we are not out of the evolution, life will continue "the evolution" with or without us.
how do you know that humen are the most intelligent creature of this time???
when discussing enviromental pressures, its not just simple ones that occur from mother nature, its is our immediate environment
the environment is what we shape around us, and with that we create new selection pressures, i mean merely have a look at the rate of infant death between first and thirld world countries to see that success (ie living) is still dependant on your environment, whether natural or man made
". . . strong 'selection pressure', we could be forgiven
for thinking, might be expected to lead to rapid
evolution. Instead, what we find is that natural
selection exerts a braking effect on evolution. The
baseline rate of evolution, in the absence of natural
selection, is the maximum possible rate. That is
synonymous with the mutation rate."
- Dawkins
Selection pressures may have been more intuitively obvious on the African savannah, and perhaps arguably stronger as well; but when it comes to the availability of mutagenic agents, our modern cities have to be tough to beat.
Does anyone have data comparing "number of children per person" to "IQ" in developed nations?
Somehow I suspect the overall trend would be negative...