Hypothetically speaking: accepting that drinking (amounts that damage the liver over a life time) is a cultural practice embraced by most of Western society, would this mean that eventually, say in a million years (if we still exist as a race and still drink), we would have a race of people with super livers?
2006-07-02 21:21:12 · 12 answers · asked by alex_sublime 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
Well if what you are saying is true, the drinks would just be made stronger, so what the difference?
2006-07-02 21:25:07 · answer #1 · answered by classical_maniac101 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Corvis_9's answer is right on the money. Selection pressures can only weed out a group of organisms if they negatively impact reproduction. Any diseases/disorders that are developed later in life, after an organism is finished reproducing (like liver failure/disease), will not have any effect on reproductive success and thus do not constitute as a selection pressure within a population. That's why most diseases occur later in life... They have not been "weeded out" by evolution, since they occur after the normal reproductive age.
2006-07-03 05:12:36 · answer #2 · answered by Girl Biologist 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
probably not, the effects of excessive drink don't usually come to a head till after the reproductive years have long since passed.
The damage would have to happen early enough to impact fertility rates by knocking the sub-par livers out of the running.
Although I would add that cultural traditions of distilled liquor imbibement have already impacted human evolution. Given that people who descend from ethnicity's that haven't been sucking up massive quantities of the sauce frequently either don't have the digestive enzymes to deal with liquor (native Americans) or have odd physical reactions to it (Asian flush).
2006-07-02 23:22:36 · answer #3 · answered by corvis_9 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I belive so yes. Alcohol contains a lot of energy, so most probably the liver will evolve to deal with more amounts of this and use it as some sort of extra power supply.
2006-07-08 17:13:22 · answer #4 · answered by tetraedronico 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No.
Since not everyone drinks and most drinkers live to produce offspring, there should be no change.
There might be a change if drinking was allowed at a younger age and it cause more fatalities before reproduction.
2006-07-02 21:36:23 · answer #5 · answered by GGGunderson 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
based on the theory of use and disuse,ur assumption is correct.. however presently we follow what is known as synthetic theory of evolutin which means evolution can happen only due to a change in the DNA..which cannot be brought about by drinking...
gr8 question!!! good thinking!!!
2006-07-03 01:07:51 · answer #6 · answered by asdfgf;lkjhj 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. Modern medicine has thrown evolution all out of wack. Most likely we will have bionic livers.
2006-07-02 21:30:34 · answer #7 · answered by Jason H 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We have a sign hanging in my friends liquer store that says "beer is proof that god exists, and he wants us to be happy"
2006-07-02 21:27:03 · answer #8 · answered by lightningviper 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yup, you got it we're evolving. Cheers!
2006-07-02 21:49:24 · answer #9 · answered by Sam 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, but it would weed out the losers. AS they'd be dead.
2006-07-02 21:26:01 · answer #10 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋