Do you think if every one on the planet moved to the same place but still only married their race....?

Question

that within a couple of million years or whatnot their descendents would all start to look the same?

Answer 1

When you talk about a couple of million years I would say yes. Differing races are the result of slight variations in the evolutionary process. Humans essentially adapted to their environment. With a lack of environmental variation, over the course of that much time humans would follow a similar evolutionary process creating what we would deem a single race.

OK I have given this question a little more thought and wanted to return and add to my above response. When you say that the two seperate races will only breed among their own lines after several million years it is likely that the two races would look very different indeed. In fact its likely they could become completly different species. Different types of Finches for instance that share common ancestors but live on different islands in the pacific have evolved so far away from their common ancestor that they can no longer breed with each other. Evolution works through random mutations that increase a species chances of survival. Random mutations are sometimes bad, for instance if a human was born with larger than normal ears, that person would find it more difficult to find a mate and procreate, and in turn pass on the big ears gene, so to speak. However a human born taller than usual or with higher athleticism would be more likely to find a mate and pass on his genetic code. After millions of years Its likely that the progression of these two seperate groups would move in different directions. After all we are talking about millions of years here. It was just a few million years ago that homosapiens didnt even exist, we were basicly a common ancestor of ourselves and neanderthals...

Answer 2

Maybe, maybe not. The different races evolved because of their environment. Africans who had a "natural" suntan survived longer then those who didn't. Pale Norwegians could make more vitamin D than dark ones, so they survived longer up where the sun was weak. The longer an individual survived, all other things being equal, the more offspring they had, so eventually the Scandinavians were pale-skinned blonds and the Africans were dark-skinned brunettes.

If everyone moved to Australia, but the Norwegians used a lot of sun-block and the Africans took vitamin D pills, they could live side by side forever.

To take another extreme example, (VERY extreme) if every man in the world decided natural redheads were the most beautiful women in the world, and yearned after them so hard that the men who didn't get to marry one became monks, after a couple of generations the whole human race would be redheads.

Answer 3

If they lived in a society like today's, and if they adhered strictly to the not inter-marrying rule, then the chances of them looking the same are slim: evolution only works in a competitive environment (those unsuited to the environment die before attaining puberty) so Darwin 'survival of the fittest' would not apply.

This would mean that any variation in appearance would be purely random, and unlikly to change quickly (even by evolutionary standards), and very unlikely (though not entirely impossible) to converge.

So I would say highly unlikely..

Answer 4

Wow, never thought of that before. If they're all in the same place, they would start to evolve to look alike, after MANY, MANY years. Besides, that's why we look different, now. Because we were in/under different circumstances/places. Very interesting question, by the way.

Answer 5

Who knows....there are so many genetic "anomolies" and recessive genes that sometimes you don't know how people will turn out. But the climate does have an influence on evolution, so you'd have to factor that in as well...I think someone else touched on that in their answer

Answer 6

the problem with that is people nowadays are at least 2 different races, so they would have to choose what race out of their own races they would like to be with, thus still keeping it mixed

Answer 7

after awhile they prob would but not at 1st cause we are all different in soo mant ways.