Table of Contents
What are some human evolutionary traits?
7 strange and surprising ways that humans have recently evolved
- Drinking milk as adults. liz west/flickr.
- Disease resistance. Rod-shaped Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria CDC.
- Blue eyes. Flickr/Antoine K.
- High-altitude breathing. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj.
- Missing wisdom teeth.
- Alcohol flush reaction.
- Shrinking brains.
What causes neoteny?
Doug Jones, a visiting scholar in anthropology at Cornell University, said that human evolution’s trend toward neoteny may have been caused by sexual selection in human evolution for neotenous facial traits in women by men with the resulting neoteny in male faces being a “by-product” of sexual selection for neotenous …
What adaptive traits do humans have?
Our bipedalism (ability to walk on two feet), opposable thumbs (which can touch the fingers of the same hand), and complex brain (which controls everything we do) are three adaptations (special features that help us survive) that have allowed us to live in so many different climates and habitats.
What is mosaic evolution?
mosaic evolution, the occurrence, within a given population of organisms, of different rates of evolutionary change in various body structures and functions. An example can be seen in the patterns of development of the different elephant species.
Why is evolutionary psychology important?
Just as human physiology and evolutionary physiology have worked to identify physical adaptations of the body that represent “human physiological nature,” the purpose of evolutionary psychology is to identify evolved emotional and cognitive adaptations that represent “human psychological nature.” According to Steven …
What is the evolutionary explanation?
Evolutionary explanations theorize or explore empirically how natural selection shaped human social behavior, social organization, social change, and cultural evolution by causing humans to behave in ways that maximize their inclusive fitness in past and current environments.
What is the dog-human connection in evolution?
The dog-human connection in evolution. Evolutionary theorists have long recognized that the domestication of animals represented a major change in human life, providing not just a close-at-hand food source, but also non-human muscle power and a host of other advantages.
What are the characteristics of human evolution?
Human evolution from its first separation from the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees is characterized by a number of morphological, developmental, physiological, and behavioral changes.
Can evolutionary theory help us understand the human mind?
The underlying idea is that since our mind is the way it is at least in part because of our evolutionary past, evolutionary theory can aid our understanding not only of the human body, but also of the human mind.
What is the scientific evidence for human evolution?
The evidence on which scientific accounts of human evolution are based comes from many fields of natural science. The main source of knowledge about the evolutionary process has traditionally been the fossil record, but since the development of genetics beginning in the 1970s, DNA analysis has come to occupy a place of comparable importance.