Questions tagged [human-evolution]
The study of evolution with a particular focus on questions about the evolution of modern humans.
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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 evolution a fact? [closed]
Richard Dawkins in one of his videos says that Evolution is a fact and not just a theory.
He goes on to say that man and chimpanzees both evolve from apes.
Is this correct (Is evolution a fact and ...
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Does it make sense to classify all humans in a single species?
For what biological reasons do we consider that all human beings belong to the same species?
A Thai and a Nigerian share a common ancestor that is 140,000 years old (see Gravel et al. 2010 and this ...
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Are humans the only species who drink milk as adults?
I was drinking a glass of milk the other day and that got me thinking that no other animal to my knowledge drinks milk past their infant stages. One could argue that cats might but it isn't good for ...
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Why are the genomes of Humans 99.5% the same?
Human's DNA sequence is said to be roughly 99.5% equal. As far as I understand, this means that if I walked up to you and compared our DNA, the sequence of base pairs would be 99.5% the same.
My ...
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Human genetic diversity in Africa in comparison with the rest of the world
Background
The claim ...
Most of the genetic diversity in humans is in Africa
... is quite common. On Biology.SE, it is easy to find posts that make this claim. Consider for example:
Do humans ...
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In reconstructions, how are various shapes of facial features determined from skull only?
I have seen reconstructions (with skin, eyes, muscles etc) of some first humans based on skulls and skeletons. But how can the shape of nose (protruding part), shape of eyelids, shape of eyebrow, ...
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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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What is meant by "50% related to sibling" versus "95% related to chimpanzee"?
Obviously I am more related to my sister than to a chimpanzee, so what do these different percentages actually refer to?
Here is my preliminary research:
https://genetics.thetech.org/ask-a-...
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Why don't we keep evolving until we are super-human? [duplicate]
Humans (homo sapiens) have been on the earth for thousands of generations, and we have kept evolving throughout that time. Why don't we just keep evolving so that, let's say, we live for an average 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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Evolution of the (phenotypic) facial features of the indigenous people of (west/central) Africa
I am not even remotely an expert in this field; I just got curious, so help me.
First of all, let us remove all human sentimental attributes from this question (such as connotations of scientific ...
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How do we know the human species arose in Africa?
I have heard (from multiple sources) that the current scientific opinion is that the human species arose in Africa. What are the reasons for this opinion? If possible, simple and non-technical ...
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Why do humans suffer anxiety when they view "Trypophobia trigger images"?
When you type Trypophobia Trigger Images in google, you see a variety of images with irregular lumps and bumps among some more gory images.
Many people report that these images induce phobia like ...
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Do all living humans literally descend from one ape?
In the opening chapter of Sapiens, Harari writes:
Just 6 million years ago, a single female ape had two daughters. One became the ancestor of all chimpanzees, the other is our own grandmother.
Is ...
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Online phylogenetic tree of human lineages
I am looking for a source of information about the diversity of human lineages and their relationships.
With a quick google search it is easy to find this type of tree
A perfect online resource ...
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What is the closest species to humans in animal kingdom?
I presumed chimpanzees were the closest relatives of us. However, after watching this TED Talk, it seems bonobos are closer to us both in skeleton and behavioral similarity than chimpanzees. I once ...
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How was the resemblance between apes and humans explained in pre-Darwinian biology?
Humans and apes have somewhat obvious similarities, these must have been apparent to natural philosophers before the possibility of a common ancestry was first proposed in the mid-1800's. These ...
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Do human populations differ in core body temperature?
Human body temperature is a very complex and tightly regulated system. Hypothermia or fever of only 1-2K (i.e. changes of about 5%) already cause major symptoms and changes of 3-4K (i.e. about 10%) ...
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Is there evolution in humans since the first homo sapiens sapiens
Has the human species changed since first defined as homo sapiens sapiens?
I'm asking this question partly because I'm wondering how we might evolve next.
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Do the claims in this paper have any degree of validity?
The paper The waiting time problem in a model hominin population talks about a problem of waiting time, etc. Is the methodology of this numerical simulation, and the conclusion right or is it wrong?
...
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What was the evolutionary reason for cross lateralization of the brain?
In the human brain the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body and the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body. What led to this development? Why doesn't the left side of the ...
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Why did evolution make people's skin dark?
Why do people living in the equator have dark skin?
I know that Melanin acts as a protective biological shield against ultraviolet radiation.
But doesn't black absorb all light in a way making the ...
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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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Have humans finished evolving?
I thought that massive changes among organisms are over long periods of time. This is caused by, to my knowledge:
Evolutionary pressure
Natural/artificial selection
Mutations
Genetic drift
Will ...
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Fecundity per woman in early humans
The average fecundity per woman varies a lot from country to country. I call average fecundity per woman the average number of born children per woman. In Homo sapiens, what was the average fecundity ...
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Questions about the evolution theory [closed]
I'm not sure whether I can ask those questions about evolution in one post or should separate them into multiple posts, but I am just curious about the evolutiontheory. (I am new here)
Sorry for my ...
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Infer gene frequency within a species over time
I was reading Karlsson et al. (2014) and I came into this:
A selected variant that increases rapidly in frequency in the past ~250,000 years can be detected as an unusual reduction in genetic ...
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How did people's liking of ceremonies evolve? [closed]
Habitual group activities are prevalent across many animal species, particularly in mammals, especially in primates.
However, I do not see any evolutionary benefit of this. 'Ceremonies' take time, ...
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How quantitative is the theory of evolution right now? [closed]
We developed complex structures like eyes and brain, whose mechanisms rely on specific species of molecules and relevant chemical reactions. But we did not develop an enhanced night vision, the ...
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Junk DNA and "random" mutations [closed]
I'm somewhat irritated by "mutation" generally being described as a fully random factor in evolution: pure randomness does not seem like something that can survive in a long evolutionary process.
And ...
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Why do humans retain two kidneys?
If one kidney can function just as well as two, why do humans have two kidneys? The cost of growing two kidneys must surely be quite high, especially since one kidney is all that is really needed.
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Why do depleted blood veins seem to appear near the surface (or skin) more frequently than blood vessels and arteries?
I could be wrong, but it seems like blue veins generally exist closer to the surface of the body rather than red blood vessels and arteries. And I'm also wondering if this is evolutionary because ...
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Biological & Evolutionary Reasons for Palm (Bi)Symmetry
The fingers of the human palm exhibit a (bi)symmetrical pattern with regards to their size, in the sense that the thumb and the pinky are almost the same size, and the same holds for the index and ...
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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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