I have a crazy theory that during the last ice age a small group of eary humans where taken from earth by a group of aliens that thought that this race of self aware beings would become extinct by this hostile environment, so they transplanted them on a world suited to there physiology and left them to there own path on this new world. How would a slight change in the gravity of the planet make a differents in there evolution, say the gravity was 1.37 G's compaired to that of earth's 1.0 G environment, would a Parallel evolution happen or would it be a Convergent evolution or would evolution happen at all, i mean 10,000 years since the last ice age isn't a long time in the grand scale of things, would this be enough time for any physiological developments to appear in these early human cousins.?
2006-08-22 10:02:07 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Sorry about the miscommunication about early humans, what i meant was cro-magnon man. If you would like to know more about them see this site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cro-Magnon
2006-08-22 10:33:01 · update #1
Hard to say, really. We're running under the assumption that your aliens set them on a world that wasn't too challenging for them to survive, other than the increased gravity. 1.37 gees isn't too much higher, so they might develop mildly beefier musculatures than the average human on Earth (well, assuming they keep themselves healthy, they'd probably have TWICE the muscles of your average American, but I digress) Evolution occurs only when the environment places pressure on a species to change or die -- if the environment doesn't select for a particular form (or phenotype) over another, one of two things can happen: either no evolution occurs because there isn't an advantage to change at all, or speciation occurs -- the tree branches, and you have different varieties of humans wandering around, filling different niches. It's the same way you get all sorts of marsupials in Australia, when some proto-mammal branches out into all the different ecological niches. Assuming your "early humans" are still **** sapiens, they still have the brains we have, just not the education, so over time, they'd still develop language, tool use, and some form of social structure, and then begin to innovate and progress as a civilization. After tens of thousands of years, they'd invent TV and politics, and begin their slow decline until apathy and senescence completely destroyed them... oh wait... ummm...
2006-08-22 10:24:39 · answer #1 · answered by theyuks 4 · 4⤊ 1⤋
Well I'm not a scientist but, even the slightest change in gravity would make a huge difference in the way they would adapt to there new environment, just look at what happen when you go on a carnival ride like the gravitron, you can hardly move but when you get out you feel as light as a feather, this is what would be happening to the early humans but over a much longer time span so they would have to change to match there environment, however i don't think that there height would be significantly changed very much, i just think that maybe there bone and muscle density would be increased of time. Of course there would still be a small change like maybe 1 or 2 centimetres.
2006-08-22 22:39:55 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Humans (modern humans, not just Neaders) did live in Europe during the ice age.
Bet lets get back to the main point "a small group of eary humans where taken from earth by a group of aliens ".
Right. They would probably be shorter, with much better developed leg muscles, and lungs.
2006-08-22 17:31:23 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Heavier G would, like someone else said, result in people being shorter and have denser bones.
I may be wrong but I think modern man has only been around for 30,000 years, which is a snip, so maybe 10,00 could matter. It would depend upon the environment of the planet - climate, distribution of land masses and wild life e.t.c. I think the people would migrate to a part of the planet that was most suitable for living, if they had a choice like we had. If there is no choice I think it would cause more rapid evolution.
What a good question. I hope you get some informed and imaginative answers.
2006-08-22 19:10:31 · answer #4 · answered by cobra 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
It would take just a few generations for a transplanted race to start to change to fit their environment. In a 1.37g environment they would begin to develop heavier bones and stronger muscles.
There would be other changes based on length of day, temperature, atmosphere and other factors.
2006-08-22 19:31:58 · answer #5 · answered by SPLATT 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Shorter, or at least broader. More muscular. Bone marrow in areas of high shock will develop a somewhat more spongy look.
2006-08-22 17:53:26 · answer #6 · answered by slatibartfast 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
If aliens exist they would colonize the Earth by now if they had the technology since the ice age.. *sighs*
2006-08-22 17:19:11 · answer #7 · answered by MyStIcTrE3 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Just so you know, early humans weren't in the ice age (they did exist in that time), modern humans were in Africa fighting intense heat.
Neanderthals were in the ice age, and of course they went extinct.
2006-08-22 17:26:19 · answer #8 · answered by dinizle26 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Wow...you have really put a lot of thought into this eh? I wish I had that kind of time! ;)
2006-08-22 17:15:52 · answer #9 · answered by LindaLou 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋