75
votes
Accepted
Are humans the only species who drink milk as adults?
Good observation!
Gene coding for the lactase
Gene LCT
Mammals have a gene (called LCT C/T-13910) coding for the lactase enzyme, a protein able to digest lactose. ...
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56
votes
Accepted
Does it make sense to classify all humans in a single species?
Actually, we not only consider that all human beings belong to the same species (Homo sapiens) but even that we belong to the same subspecies (Homo sapiens sapiens). So, does it really makes sense?
...
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54
votes
Why did evolution fail to protect humans against sun?
Skin cancer typically results from a lifetime of sun exposure, and is usually seen in older individuals. 90% of new melanoma cases are diagnosed in people over 45. Nearly 95% of melanoma deaths are ...
- 1,019
35
votes
Are humans the only species who drink milk as adults?
The problem with this question is 1) wording and 2) access.
"Drink" and "digest thoroughly" are two different things. The latter does not prohibit the former. It is only lactose that is not tolerated;...
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30
votes
Accepted
Are humans more adapted to "light mode" or "dark mode"?
A question that requires quite a lot of guts to ask on this site :) Nonetheless, and risking sparking a debate, there are a few arguments that spring to (my!) mind that can support the notion that we ...
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25
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Why did evolution fail to protect humans against sun?
I find your question to be fine for this site, and you've provided the asked for sources, so it's fair to give you an answer.
Where is the error in my thinking?
The error is in thinking that ...
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24
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Are humans the only species who drink milk as adults?
Just to point out an exception, adult cows sucking other cows' milk are not uncommon. At least, it's common enough to be a concern in dairy farms and for simple fixes to have been developed. The usual ...
- 586
20
votes
Accepted
Why do humans suffer anxiety when they view "Trypophobia trigger images"?
Trypophobia is not a recognised specific anxiety disorder (Washington Post). It is worth mentioning that anyone can have a phobia to anything, this is merely a question of whether many people ...
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17
votes
Human Evolution Chromosome 2: Fusion or Break?
The way you answer these sorts of questions is by looking at other, further relatives because that gives you more hints about what the "ancestral" trait is.
Since other apes (gorillas, ...
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16
votes
Do all living humans literally descend from one ape?
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.
Short answer
Whether or not the claim is true actually ...
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15
votes
Accepted
Why do humans grow taller than their ancestors?
A likely misunderstanding of yours
Now we almost don't fight with other species
Misunderstanding about selection
As you will go through this course, you will understand why this sentence makes ...
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14
votes
Why are dogs descendants of Wolves but humans are not descendants of chimpanzees?
The very simplistic answer is that dogs and wolves belong to the same genus and are so closely related that they are often considered to be parts of the same species. The genus is Canis (Latin for dog)...
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13
votes
Why did evolution fail to protect humans against sun?
Besides the arguments already mentioned in the previous answers, the human body has developed numerous ways to protect itself from the harmful effects of sunlight and ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
...
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12
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Why do humans suffer anxiety when they view "Trypophobia trigger images"?
As someone who is very disgusted by this kind of image, I think it is a caused by an association with maladies like burns, infections, and especially parasites. It is difficult for me to even describe ...
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12
votes
Are humans the only species who drink milk as adults?
Here is a bit of a tangential example, because it isn't milk from cows. There are some varieties of ants (Primarily the Leaf-cutter ant, if memory serves) which will collect, breed, feed, protect and "...
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11
votes
Accepted
Have humans finished evolving?
Issue in your introduction
I thought that massive changes among organisms are over long periods of time.
Actually, some evolutionary events can happen on a very short time scale. A single mutation ...
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11
votes
Why are humans so variable in appearance
Because we as humans are really really good at picking up small differences in humans and really really bad at detecting them in anything else.
Animals are often quite good at telling each other ...
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11
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Are humans more adapted to "light mode" or "dark mode"?
From experiments it seems you should better use dark mode if you want to prevent myopia:
Using optical coherence tomography (OCT) in young human subjects, we
found that the choroid, the heavily ...
- 211
10
votes
Accepted
Endogenous retroviral insertions as evidence for evolutionary relationships among primates
The Yohn et. al. (2005) paper (from Evan Eichler's lab) is describing a single type of endogenous retroviral element (loosely think of it as a 'species'), called PTERV1. They show that there were ...
- 481
10
votes
Accepted
Why do humans retain two kidneys?
One of the easiest answers to the question; "Why do we have ____?" is "Because our ancestors did". This is not trivial or flippant, as it is a significantly important answer that is so often ...
- 7,701
10
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Is the Lucy fossil really what scientists claim it is?
Per the comments, the actual paper seems pretty like a pretty straightforward operation of normal science:
Somebody noticed something that looked off about one of the bones and decided they'd look ...
- 6,997
9
votes
Are humans the only species who drink milk as adults?
Pigs can. At least one milk, and milk derivates, producer around here used/uses their own pig farms to dispose of all byproducts of production, overdue products returned from stores, same day unused ...
- 91
8
votes
Questions about the evolution theory
The post is way too broad. Many questions are unclear and many questions lack research from your part. But I still wanted to give you some info that may help you. Answers will be short but it would ...
- 68.3k
8
votes
Accepted
Why did evolution make people's skin dark?
It didn't, the basal condition for humans is dark skin, all other pigmentation patterns evolved from it. Additionally Dark skin is not monophyletic/homologous in humans,
that is some darks skinned ...
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8
votes
Accepted
How valid are Koestler’s criticism of evolutionary theory?
Maybe both. Certainly his understanding of limb developement doesn't match modern understanding. The quote you provide seems to indicate that he thought the appearance of an additional digit would ...
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7
votes
Accepted
Are there genetic causes underlying the difference in circumference of the upper arm and foream?
The first answer explains that proximal limb segments do more "work" * using quotes to be careful w.r.t. technical definitions of work. Genetically, this is correct--it's the ancestral condition for ...
- 587
7
votes
Why do humans not have a powerful sense of smell?
There are several factors in human.
we are upright, which brings the nose just about as far away for scents as it can get, you want your nose as close to the ground as possible for the most efficient ...
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7
votes
Accepted
Why do humans not have a powerful sense of smell?
Humans' poor sense of smell is a myth, borne of 19th century speculation rather than actual data. This is described in an excellent recent paper in Science , "Poor human olfaction is a 19th-century ...
7
votes
Accepted
Human genetic diversity in Africa in comparison with the rest of the world
Here is a tree based on mitochondrial DNA variations in human populations.
van Oven M, Kayser M. Hum Mutat. 2009 Feb;30(2):E386-94.
Updated comprehensive phylogenetic tree of global human ...
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7
votes
Accepted
What are the evolutionary reasons behind men being taller than women?
I assume by asking why, you are asking about the distal evolutionary causes, and not the molecular mechanisms that account for these things.
(Important disclaimer: these causes are difficult to be ...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible