If we assume that we are ever evolving, that would imply that right now our species should be representative..

Question

of different stages of evolution, inclusive of the last stage, the transition, and the next phase. All of them intermingling presently, if we assume genetics is as big a player as we assume, could this point to the possibility that the reason we haven't found a human transition, is because it still walks among us? Just curiosity, I am not a Biologist, and would like some thoughts on this.

Answer 1

Evolution is mostly just the change in frequency of alleles. In years past the human species and its ancestors were selected mostly for physical skills to survive as hunters, gatherers, etc. Most of our evolution today occurs with the brain. After we formed colonies and settled lands our social behavior changed drastically to the point it is at today. Societies allow the individuals who are not as well adapted to the environment to have the same reproductive success as well adapted individuals.

While we are evolving today it is quite slow due to the lack of stress from our environment. Our species has become so well adapted that it is growing exponentially. Some areas of the world have death rates higher than others. These areas usually evolve faster that areas with a low death rate.

One reason why evolution isn't very evident in humans is that evolution occurs in spurts. Species change drastically for few generations then change very little for many more. Also our long life cycles makes it hard to study evolution over long periods of time.

Answer 2

The problem with our evolution is that, we aren't really evolving physically.
We have the amazing ability to adapt to our changing environment by simply using our brains. That is both a blessing and a curse, though probably more of the latter.

While we have not really evolved physically, we are able to pass on knowledge from generation to generation and you can say that each generation surpasses the last in knowledge.

The deceiving thing about that is that we think we are getting smarter but actually we are quite as smart as we always were since the dawn of mankind.

I guess that it will be difficult for man to evolve physically, given that we will maintain the humanity in us, to sustain life with the tools and resources we have instead of letting nature take its course. In other words we will not let natural selection take place, in our world, not only the fittest or the best survive, everybody who has enough money to afford healthcare will.

Answer 3

some recent genetics studies have found that many people have some mild neanderthal DNA.. so they were bread out by the new species. and some people think autism is one of the next steps in evolution (though i lean towards a poison from the environment). another thing to consider is that evolution is helped along by survival of the fittest.. and in todays world a genetic mutation doesn't really give you an edge because we take care of our weak as a species, instead of the weak dieing out and not being able to breed... so we have in effect slowed our genetic evolution.