Questions tagged [human-evolution]
The study of evolution with a particular focus on questions about the evolution of modern humans.
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Why do people feel shame when exposed nakedly?
Why do people feel shame? Meaning the kind of shame specifically related to exposing 'private parts'.
Where does it come from (i.e. social factors due to upbringing, inherent in our genes etc.)?
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Is Race the Result of Microevolution
I've been studying evolution for some time and was wondering whether the emergence of different races is an example of micro evolution within our species?
Bonus Question: is it impossible for homo ...
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Why did many species of Homo and their ancestors evolve in East Africa?
One thing I find interesting about the theory of evolution is the idea that Homo Erectus and Habilis evolved in Africa, began to spread around the globe, then was superseded by Homo Sapiens Sapiens ...
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What evolutionary reason is there for hemolytic disease?
Nowawadays we have methods which allow us to overcome hemolytic disease of newborn or to prevent it to onset. The Rh or Kell conflict, but how is it possible that it is present? Why it haven't ...
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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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If I workout, will this inherited trait (of being stronger) not be passed down to my offspring (Lamarck's theory on evolution)?
I'm a student in biology and just recently learned about Lamarck's theory on evolution and how it has been disproved. While I understand that you cannot alter your genes, I'm still having a hard time ...
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growth limit on muscle
Is there any biological limit on muscle growth in human body, one can keep pushing body and keep growing more and more muscle but somewhere it must become diffcult for body to sustain those cells ...
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Lengthening muscles not good from evolutional perspective? Why do we do it with explicit stretching?
Stretching has many advantages, among other things it helps us to be flexible in our movement (which is an advantage?!).
But why do we need to actively stretch, it seems that the body wants to ...
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single use traits
Are there any known traits (in any organisms) that serve exclusively one purpose?
(Counterexample: Giraffes long neck help them reach less available food AND communicate sub-sonically).
If so is ...
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Examples of chromosome fusions
One of the best "smoking gun" pieces of evidence of humans' close relation to chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans is that human chromosome 2 is a fusion of two primate chromosomes, with a double ...
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Is it possible to have a mechanism to use carbon dioxide as a source of oxygen in human body?
Is it possible to seperate O2 from CO2 and use it for energy In Human? Why Plants and not Humans can do it?
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Why human endometrium doesn't stay constant? [duplicate]
Is there any explanation or evolutionary advantage to the endometrium constantly cycling between the proliferative and menstrual cycle? Wouldn't it be more advantageous if it kept always fully ...
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Reference to hypothesis about breast sexual attractiveness?
Some time ago there was a hypothesis published,suggesting evolution made breasts mimic buttocks for either primitive men being attracted to women when they started to walk on two legs, or to ...
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Why a brain's hemisphere controls the opposite side of the body? [duplicate]
As a physics student with very little understanding of biology, in a course about physics foundations diagnostic techniques I have come up with this question. I don't even know if it does make sense ...
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Is there any strong factor against human edible plants being widespread and easy to gather?
While many habitats have plants, fruits, nuts and berries available for consumption by humans walking by, most places (if any?) seem to require significantly more effort than simply picking our food ...
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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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Are there genetic causes underlying the difference in circumference of the upper arm and foream?
Is there any genetic reason for the difference in size between the upper arm and lower arm (i.e., the forearm)?
In most women, it seems that the upper arm is larger in circumference than the forearm. ...
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Why do female humans invest more in parental care than male humans, from an evolutionary standpoint? [closed]
As the question title suggests, why do female humans invest more in parental care than male humans, from an evolutionary standpoint?
My guess is that the crux of this that males and females have ...
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How detailed a construction of the family tree of known human fossils do we have?
For the sake of this question, by "human" I mean Hominina. The best I could find is this, which isn't very detailed. Of the dozens of paleospecies we'd seek to link up, do we have a more detailed tree ...
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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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Sex and human's sexual urge.
Why is it necessary for humans to feel pleasure while having sex? Why is it that other animals don't need to experience it? Is it evolutionary ? Why do we mate for pleasure when it's so energy wasting/...
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Can the characteristics of an offspring depend on the locality of its conception also?
Transfer of characteristics from a parent to its offspring is explained in biology. When an adult male and female (of humans) who are displaced from their local environment to another (say, a ...
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Different number of flaps in heart valves
Can anyone tell me why the different valves of heart have different number of flaps is it in any way related to evolution of homo sapiens.
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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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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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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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Why do we have the tibia and fibula (a 2nd bone) in the lower leg?
Does fibula participate in rotational movement of ankle or not (just like the radius in forearm)? If not, what is the purpose of that bone?
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Why do women mature (physically) earlier than men? [closed]
All sources I've read (the first page) states that the fact that women mature (in the sense of physical maturing) earlier than man is caused by the earlier selective prunning in brain. Though, this 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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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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Is there a biological basis for race (re: Nicholas Wade's article) [duplicate]
I just recently read this article by Nicholas Wade on Time Magazine's website about a biological basis for race. It all sounded very racist, but of course my Western liberal attitudes about racism ...
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Genetic entropy [closed]
One day my internet acquaintance told me, that genetic entropy can be evidence in favor of intelligent design and he also provides me this waiting time problem and this simulating evolution by gene ...
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Is bad tasting food more likely to cause harm?
Taste is often referred to as subjective. For example certain foods taste bad to me, such as oranges, grapefruit, grapes, raisins, and sweet potatoes. However the wiki article on taste explains that ...
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Is it possible to genetically alter human beings to see parts of the infrared? [duplicate]
Most electron transitions take place in the infrared region,The ability to see this part of the electromagnetic spectrum without reliance on sophisticated technology would have tremendous advantages. ...
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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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Correlation between threat and odour, taste
Is there any sort of correlation between threat and taste/smell?
Are we evolved such that things which are harmful to life taste and /or smell bad and things(food) which are useful to us taste, smell ...
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Is there any kind of "unintended consequence" in evolutionary systems?
In the social sciences, unintended consequences is a term used to describe an unexpected positive or negative effect of a particular action. This is obviously the wrong word to use in the context of ...
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Evolution of complex organs [duplicate]
If it evolved, how is a feature selected through a long time span with useless function before the feature becomes complete?
For example, an eye is a very complex organ consisting of countless small ...
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Were Neandertals as Hairy as We Are?
What I mean to say regards facial and androgenic hairs. There are many theories as to why some people have both kinds of hairs, while others have one or the same and others still have neither. The ...
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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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What percentage of a Neanderthal's DNA could be in a Denisovan?
My questions arose from an online course video at 3:11-19
The professor mentioned that the Neanderthals were inbred with their cousins breeding together but the Denisovans were very diverse , with 70%...
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Does SIV cause AIDS in primates... If not why [closed]
does SIV cause AIDS in primates or have they developed resistance to the virus **
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Have people in Africa already started evolving resistance to AIDS?
Are people living in areas where AIDS is rampant (for e.g. Africa), less likely to die from it than they once were because some of the people without genes/mutations that give them resistance already ...
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Is the "freeze response" really a remain of our reptilian past?
I'm looking for any reliable sources relating the common-known human reaction on a stressful situation, humans sometimes freeze and can not move. From some materials found on the internet I got that ...
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How big advantage had a trait have to bring to evolve in the human evolution? [closed]
Yes, I've heard that we have evolved from the common ancestor with primates as intesively, as the chimpanzees. Sometimes I read about some enormously complex traits, evolutionary psychologists think ...
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Why aren't we immune to the "cold" [duplicate]
As far as I know, people suffer from the cold since ever. Why didn't and don't we evolve to resist it?
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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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Are women smaller to optimize cloth needs during pregnancy? [closed]
Current life events made me wonder: Is it possible that female humans evolved to be on average smaller than males, so that they can reuse their partner's cloth during pregnancy?
At least in my ...
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Why is there no symmetry in pigmentation when comparing people north and south of the equator?
If you are at the equator and start moving north, the further you travel, the lighter the skin of the indigenous peoples. Considering that we live on a ball, why do we not find the same traveling ...
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Brain capacity of Cro-magnon man vs Modern man
Cranial capacity of Cromagnon man was about 1650cc whereas average cranial capacity in modern human is 1450cc.
My question is, why during the course of evolution, a reduction in cranial capacity is ...
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