Evolution question?

Question

Why (besides height) have humans not changed for thousands of years. No tail, no seeing at night, no horns, no physical changes at all

Answer 1

Excellent observation... you would think we would see people and other living things in various stages of evolution but we don't.

Answer 2

The changes do not exceed variation within the current population, and environmental factors play an even larger part. Different races have distinct morphometric differences in the small bones of the skull. Transportation will result in some homogenization, but it takes a strong environmental challenge or geographic isolation to create a population bottleneck where specific traits are left in the population. With so large and growing a population, there is little pressure for change.

Answer 3

Firstly, human evolution has slowed because rather than adapting to their evironment, humans adapt their environment to themselves.

Secondly, humans ARE evolving. Aside from the height issue already mentioned, human lifespans have increased, and humans go through puberty much earlier than they used to. Human ears are also evolving. Within the last 100 years, human earlobes have gotten noticibly smaller and the pinnae has changed shape to adapt to a world that is full of amplified sound.

It has been projected that within a few more generations, the human earlobe will continue to shrink until it becomes almost non-existent.

Answer 4

You said "thousands of years" which is nothing by evolutionary standards, but I think I see what you mean.

The reason we have seemingly "stopped" evolving is because we adapted to survive by using our higher intelligence (problem solving, adaptive thinking etc..), so we utilize tools and clothing to protect us from the elements. This prevents our bodies from adapting to changes in the environment and temperature.

Also, because of modern medicine, anyone who would be dead in the wild would can survive long enough to reproduce, meaning positive adaptive characteristics would get passed down the gene pool just as much as negative characteristics. 100000 years ago, if you were born crippled or dwarfed, good luck finding a mate.

Also, if you look at humans on a microscopic scale, we have evolved quite a bit. That is why penicillin doesn't work on us anymore, among other examples.

Answer 5

Considering that we only have detailed records of humans for about the past 5,000 years, there has been change. Small physical changes (like height) are all that is expected.

Answer 6

because humans have the unique ability to change their enviroment to suit their needs. we can survive almost anywhere.

evolution is a line of discent with adaptation.

well if we adapt out environment to suit us then our bodies do not need to change to suit our enviroment.

we build shelters to keep out the cold/ or heat in some cases.

we fashion cloths that keep us warm and protected from the elements.

therefore any human evolution will be almost impossible to detect.

BUT.

some humans have been shown to have developed immunities to different diseases. durring the middle ages several people became immune to the black plague.

and let us not forget the different races of man. all from different areas of the world. why is the man from Africa Black with high stanima and large eyes. . the man from europe White with rounded eyes. the man from Asia Yellow with slanted eyes. and the man from america red with large nose and big eyes.

do you think that these adaptations are not the end result of living in that area for millions of years.

Answer 7

takes longer than just a few years for a process like that to work

the changes, even after a few thousand years, will be subtle

height is the least subtle of these, as far as i know, and it may have more to do with diet and other things as far as i know

Answer 8

I my god I am laughing so hard right now. What in the last 1000 years would make us need horns. Evolution isn't a process of accessorizing.

Answer 9

Visible changes take millions of years silly.

And why do you say "besides height"? That is a change in itself. You can't just exclude evidence and then ask why there is none...

It's like saying, "why are there no doughnuts in this box except for those six jelly doughnuts?"

Answer 10

we already had a tail, its called pupil getting bigger in lower light, why in the world would we need horns?

height is physical.

Answer 11

Because 1000's of years are a drop in the bucket. And maybe we don't evolve much beyond what we are now... I don't know. But we have evolved in ways other than "height".