Questions tagged [human-evolution]
The study of evolution with a particular focus on questions about the evolution of modern humans.
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Endogenous retroviral insertions as evidence for evolutionary relationships among primates
A synopsis of a 2005 paper in PlosBiology by Yohn et al. states that:
Searching the genomes of a subset of apes and monkeys revealed that
the retrovirus had integrated into the germline of ...
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Are all humans related to one mother and one father? [duplicate]
Are all humans related to one mother and one father ?
What is proof for that?
If that is case,that mean brother and sister reproduce, this is incest, so how population survived?
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Is there a specific book or textbook that lists all of the specific concepts of the theory of evolution in one place?
By specific concepts I mean those such as Zahavian signaling, the "sexy son" hypothesis, Mendel's peas, Lamarckism etc.
Essentially I am looking for a book that helps visualize evolution in ...
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Is it possible that East Asians are a hybrid between modern and achaic humans?
As I understand it, all populations outside Africa have at least 2% Neanderthal ancestry. In eastern Asia and I think Papua New Guinea in particular that percentage could be more than 4%.
Now you also ...
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Why did humans lose their tail during evolution?
Most mammals seem to have tails. Even human embryos start out with a tail. But here we are with nothing but a tail bone that hurts when we trip over backwards. What is it good for? Why don't humans ...
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Do technological developments terminate the evolution of human species? [duplicate]
One of the most agreed upon mechanisms for evolution is natural selection. Changing environmental conditions necessitates development of variations that enable the survival of that particular species. ...
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Disprove mitochondrial eve is 6500 years old
Some creationists, such as Roger Liebi, actively exploit this article:
A high observed substitution rate in the human mitochondrial DNA control region (published in Nature Genetics, April 1997).
This ...
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What motivates an organism to reproduce? [closed]
What is the biological factor (gene or something else in case of humans) which motivates an organism to reproduce?
By reproducing the evolutionary success of an organism increases. But why would an ...
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Do the EDAR sinodont mutation affect brain size or intelligence?
I am reading on wikipedia that a certain mutation in the "Ectodysplasin A receptor" known as rs3827760 or 370A is responsible for the sinodont dentition pattern in East Asians as well as ...
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Genetic differences between Africans and non-Africans due to cross-breeding with Neanderthals?
It is estimated that soon after the "out of Africa event" there was some interbreeding between Homo sapiens sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis. All non-African peoples are thought to have ...
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How well evolution is supported by experts? Are there acceptable scientific objection to evolution? [closed]
There are people in internet , with professional sounding voice , who claim that evolution is not scientifically possible (such as there is not enough time for evolution, or modern genetics has ...
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How do we know that the DNA we share with other species (especially primates) isn't fully the result of transposable elements?
I recently read a couple studies that concluded the 25% of genetic similarity between cows and reptiles is actually primarily due to TEs (transposable elements) rather than common ancestry.
Here's the ...
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How do we logically infer large time scales using Molecular Clocks?
If molecular clocks are uses in genetics to determine the mutation rate of genes to estimate times speciation occurred between two or more life forms, are there genes that have mutation rates that we ...
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Flora and fauna of early homo sapiens environment?
Where can I find as much detail as possible on the flora and fauna (and perhaps geological structures too) between the time of the origin of Homo Sapiens say ~300kya to their "out of Africa" ...
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Intelligence without natural selection?
Natural selection is not the only driving force of evolution. There are other mechanisms such as genetic drift, mutations, gene flow, etc... To what extent can these different mechanisms (which don't ...
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evolution of a preference for cooked meat
When I got a meat thermometer a few years ago, I was startled at how low optimal cooking temperatures are for beef, less that 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, as a kid, I remember reading that the desert ...
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How do we know how long speciation occured? [duplicate]
Just as we use radiometric dating to age rocks, what is the method used to age how long ago speciation occurred in genetics?
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Is it tautological that all living humans descended from a single male and single female human ancestor?
Many popular science articles cite high sequence conservation of mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome among living people as evidence that all humans are descended from a single male and single ...
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Are babies cute, or is cute babies?
I have no doubt that the cuteness of babies is an evolutionary advantage. So the 'why' is clear, a bit of research also explains the mechanics, such as babies having certain features that trigger ...
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Human Evolution Chromosome 2: Fusion or Break?
I have a question regarding Chromosome 2. I've heard that there is evidence that the Human Chromosome 2 is a fusion between the two ancestral chromosomes 2a and 2b, but could it be possible that it ...
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Disease-causing allele frequency and modern medicine
I was thinking about what the impact modern medicine might have on human evolution based on a couple assumptions.
If we assume that:
modern medicine has massively cushioned the selection pressure ...
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DNA from Egyptian Mummies Evolution vs Human of Today
Comment: I ask my biological questions from the point of view of mathematical proportions. I am not a biologist.
Are there significant differences in DNA from Egyptian Mummies vs. those available from ...
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Biological reason for "deadlift face"?
Always when I deadlift at the maximum load, my face looks more or less like this:
or this:
The same applies for when I do other heavy-weight exercises.
But what biological mechanism causes that? ...
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Did the capacity to be "knocked out" arise because it conferred an evolutionary advantage?
From first principles, it seems surprising that a blow to the head would cause unconsciousness rather than just impaired function.
I've heard a lot of analogies to computers -- "Your brain has to ...
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Why are humans so variable in appearance
Most animals look almost identical to their peers. To distinguish lions we record the spots on their face; with whales we look at the blemishes on their tail or flukes. In other words, we have to try ...
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Abilities used to survive against natural enemies: directional selection or frequency-dependent selection?
Regarding abilities used to survive predators and parasites, are they subjected more to directional selection or frequency-dependent selection?
It's usually that host-parasite coevolution is ...
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Is the human mouth more burn-resistant than other animals which don't eat cooked food?
I burnt my mouth on some hot pizza and it got me wondering if we have been eating cooked food long enough to have evolved a better resistance to oral burns than other species. Have there been any ...
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Largest direct ancestor of humans
Going back the genealogical lineage from present humans to the beginning of life, what was the biggest - in terms of body size or mass - animal in this sequence?
More generally, what would a time vs. ...
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How could humans have interbred with Neanderthals if we're a different species?
To be clear, I'm not doubting that Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis did interbreed: of that much I'm convinced.
Within the past few years I've seen an upcropping of pop-sci articles discussing ...
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Is there any species of mammals where males can feed the offspring with milk?
It seems to me that an evolutionary path where not only females, but also males could feed the offsprings is entirely plausible: the males anyway have niples, so it is easy for the offsprings to ...
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What do blue cone cells add to visual function?
First of all, I saw this other question in the SE sites with a good answer, but I didn't find an explanation about the blue cones specifically.
So most human beings have 3 types of cones (cells ...
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Do human lungs have more protection against smoke compared to other animals?
Our ancestors have used fire for more than a million years. Wood smoke is not good for the lungs, but our ancestors were depended on fire. Especially in colder regions of the World like in Europe, ...
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Tribes outside humanity
All humans are a group with common ancestry but some humans distinct themselves into sub-groups by "distinctive ancestry" and tend to ask other humans "where are you originally from&...
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On the Origin of Homo Sapiens
Paleoanthropologists are certain Homo sapiens originate from Africa. However where in Africa is still contested.
Could you give the reasons why it is thought that Homo sapiens evolved in Eastern ...
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Where in Africa did Homo sapiens evolve from? [closed]
I’m aware that the possible oldest homo sapiens fossil was found in Morocco. The vast majority of our fossils however is found in Eastern Africa. In recent years,a controversial study on mitochondrial ...
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Do mutations that cause the loss of a complex trait occur more often than mutations causing gain of a complex traits?
The Wiki entry on the evolution of biological complexity states that "[m]utations causing loss of a complex trait occur more often than mutations causing gain of a complex trait". There is ...
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What were the three dinosaur evolutions and do they imply that bipedalism could have evolved multiple times in hominins?
At this pop-sci article transcribing an interview with Jeremy DeSilva, they state:
"If we’ve learned anything about evolutionary trends, it’s that good
ideas evolve over and over again. For ...
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Which others human species/subspecies are known to have coexisted in the past with anatomically modern humans?
According to this article,
interbreeding between archaic and modern humans
There is evidence for interbreeding between archaic and modern humans
during the Middle Paleolithic and early Upper ...
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What's the most recent common ancestor of reptiles and humans?
In the Phylogeny of humans and reptiles, what is/are some of the most recent common ancestors?
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What are evolutionary reasons for humans' limited regeneration abilities? [duplicate]
As far as I understand (I am not a biologist), a ability of a species arises during the evolution if:
It increases reproduction chances
It is not too energy expensive
It is physically possible
At ...
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Does mitochondrial eve have to exist?
Suppose we took all living humans and found the set of their mothers, mothers' mothers, etc. and then traced down as far as possible. Is there a logical reason that this tree has to converge to one '...
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How much of the Neanderthal genome is living on in humans?
I've understand that outside of African, most ethnic groups carry some (4% or less) Neanderthal DNA. So en masse, across all living humans, what percentage of the original Neanderthal genome is still ...
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How can monkeys be ancestors to people when they are herbivores? [closed]
How monkeys can be ancestors to people when monkeys are herbivores but humans are omnivorous?
Maybe it is monkeys that evolved to become omnivorous gradually?
How does the generally accepted theory of ...
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Why aren't there any transitional animals today?
You have probably heard this question before and in different formats. Usually, it is used as a "proof" to disprove the theory of evolution.
I understand that the apes we descended from are ...
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Common ancestry of our cells to the first unicellular cell
If we start the chapter of life with low fidelity self replicating RNAs forming exactly identical copies of themselves, which then later evolved to form the first primordial basic cells which further ...
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Are humans more adapted to "light mode" or "dark mode"?
I was discussing with a colleague about using dark-mode vs. light mode and remembered an article arguing that humans vision is more adapted to light-mode rather than dark-mode:
I know that the trend “...
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What is the biology behind human population dynamics?
A paradox: Human population growth looks a lot like a simple logistic growth pattern. But the simplest interpretation of logistic growth doesn't seem to fit. Is this peculiar to humans, or does it ...
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Evolutionary selection pressure for human hair patterns?
Are there hypotheses or conjectures that postulate any selection pressures or benefits that account for the patterns of non-pubic human hair? Particularly:
Humans do not grow notable (i.e., non-...
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Has human intelligence evolved as a costly male signal?
In this video at 42:06, Daniel Dennett posits that our big brains are:
The human artifice or version of the peacock's tail.
Peacocks have sexual dimorphism - it's males who exhibit the costly signal ...
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Why did the indigenous peoples of northern Asia and America not evolve the same physical characteristics as people of Nordic ancestry?
I was watching DW's documentary on the Arctic the other day, and I was struck by how the indigenous peoples of the far north seemed - visually speaking - to fit into two categories. On the one hand, ...
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