Do you think evolution is still taking place in nature?

Question

For example. Humans are supposed to have evolved from apes, so does this mean a new form of human will eventually evolve from the current primates that live on earth ?

Answer 1

of course! for example, if people don't stop eating too much and getting bigger, the genes which give people the higher chance of getting bigger are going to be more prevalent in the gene pool, so ultimately, fat will be the average and we'll all end up fat. people won't remember what skinny felt like. i guess that would be a good thing in the case of models.

i read this article by a prominent scientist (can't remember his name, sorry) who said that in the future, humans will have subdivided into two groups; a race of tall, athletic, but quite ditsy people, and another race of stunted pygmy primitive people, who are qutie clever and very good at killing things.

so which one would you rather be? tall and beautiful but a bit blonde (no offence to any blondes) or small and ugly but efficient at killing the beautiful people?

Answer 2

if we are, we're going backwards.

Answer 3

Evolution is still taking place in many creatures. But for radical changes to take place in a species there has to be stress placed on that species, such as environmental changes, dieses, competition from other species, predation etc... If an organism is pretty much stable and there is not much stress they may never radically evolve, there might, though, be slight variations like skin colour or small specializations like hair type, noses, all suited for a specific environment.

In the case of humans, evolution can be slow, instead of physically changing to suite our environment we are more likely to change our environment to suit our physical needs.

But still certain desirable aspects will be passed on (like large brain physical beauty, good immune systems etc...)

Over all, our physical features may not change much for millions of years but our insides may become more complex

Answer 4

Here is an example, some grizzly bears (polar bears) evolved to take advantage of large food supplies (seals) on the pack ice.  No ice, no tasty seal snacks, no polar bears.  Evolution

Answer 5

Evolution is still taking place, though what direction this will take is impossible to successfully predict. An example of the unpredictability of the direction of evolutionary changes is the whale. It was a land dwelling creature that took to the sea, it is thought it was something like a deer. The creature it was had previously evolved from creatures that emerged from the sea.

So it goes like this, since whales are creatures that returned to the sea. Predicting what evolutionary path primates will follow is not as simple as you may think.

Answer 6

Humans are still evolving, just not in the same direction.  While it was survival of the fittest in the past.  It is now mass production of the morons who can't seem to think to put on a rubber before doing the nth chick for the night.

The stupid are getting more stupid and the smart of getting more smart.  But the ratio of stupid to smart is getting much more on the side of stupid.  Not only because they are breeding more but society is simply accomodating stupidity rather than frowning upon it.

Answer 7

Definitely, all life evolves to adapt to the ever-changing environment on the planet.

Answer 8

We evolve from our conception, what happens around us is merely time and there is plenty of that even though we are small living partners of that dimension.

Answer 9

It's still happening.

It's a naural process always present in the ongoing survival and reproduction of every species.

The population is gradually getting taller because taller people are perceived as more attractive, and thus have an edge in natural selection.

Could humans make a shift to encompass a whole new genetic mutation?

It'd be tough, since society discriminates against those who are different, and any major change in chromosomes would probably need some inbreeding between people who carried the gene to propogate itself.

Society as it stands is geared such that major changes are, almost be definition, going to reduce their carrier's chance of survival and successful reproduction.

Richard Dawkins - The Selfish Gene is an awesome book. If you've not read it I think you'd enjoy it.

Answer 10

You have a skewed view of evolution by natural selection. We and apes have common ancestry. Evolution has no direction and it is not progressive. We would have no idea of the mutation coupled with the proper selection pressure that would lead to speciation in humans. Evolution can tell you about the past and the present, but does not predict the future.

Answer 11

First, humans did NOT evolve from apes, but rather, humans and apes had a common ancestor in evolutionary history.  Second, evolution is still happening, happens continuously, however the rate at which it happens is incredibly slow compared to technological evolution.  The machines we are building will far out pace evolution in the near future.  Artificial Intelligence, medical technology, and nano-tech advances will propel our species a million times faster than biological evolution.  Read Kurzweil.

Answer 12

Evolution took a radical direction with humans, in that we developed complex languages.  Changes that may happen to the human race in the future may not even be physical, as we have adapted to every environment (including space) already.  It is likely that the human brain will begin to develop beyond it's current capacity.

Answer 13

i think that's is what the planet is doing too. all this global warming pish. they say things have not been like this i years so what was happening years ago when there were droughts and that

Answer 14

Humans did evolve from apes, they just didn't evolve from living apes.  They shared a common ancestor with chimps something like 6 million years ago.  New humans won't form from Chimps.  Chimps have evolved into a knucklewalker that is a specialist in a forest environment.   Humans may evolve but its direction is unclear.  Clearly, we are still evolving immunities to certain diseases such as AIDS.  Pretty soon our technology will advance to the point where we may control the direction of our evolution, though I am not so sure it is a good idea.

Answer 15

yes because if we apparantly evolved from apes then im sure that some superhuman will evolve from us as tecnology is getting more and more advanced our brains must be therefor we must be evolving.

Answer 16

There is no reason not to believe that the evolutionary process has ceased.

Look at the human appendix or earlobes, they serve no more useful function and are starting to go or evolve away.

Humans are becoming less and less hairy, but more and more brainy.  So evolution seems to be occuring right in front of our eyes.