Thread: Evolution in 100 years?

A couple of relevant articles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/sc...ce&oref=slogin

The emerging lists of selected human genes may open new insights into the interactions between history and genetics. “If we ask what are the most important evolutionary events of the last 5,000 years, they are cultural, like the spread of agriculture, or extinctions of populations through war or disease,” said Marcus Feldman, a population geneticist at Stanford. These cultural events are likely to have left deep marks in the human genome.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2...-evolving.html
You'll find a link to the study under the article, but the gist is that statistical analysis of the human genome shows positive selection occurring at more than ten times the rate exhibited in humans' and chimps' common ancestors. Raw population growth is one factor, but the data suggests that our increasingly elaborate civilization exerts more selection pressure on the species than wilderness, not less.

Originally Posted by Taosaur

A couple of relevant articles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/sc...ce&oref=slogin

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2...-evolving.html
You'll find a link to the study under the article, but the gist is that statistical analysis of the human genome shows positive selection occurring at more than ten times the rate exhibited in humans' and chimps' common ancestors. Raw population growth is one factor, but the data suggests that our increasingly elaborate civilization exerts more selection pressure on the species than wilderness, not less.

Awesome find there, Taosaur. Reading up as we speak...

Originally Posted by bluefinger

Awesome find there, Taosaur. Reading up as we speak...

Actually Xaquaria dropped the NYTimes article in this thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=57359, from which I also self-quoted my abstract of the study from the Wired article (which Moonbeam and I discussed at length in a thread from last year).