Can organisms un-evolve features?

Question

For example if the environment changed dramatically and the need for body hair was done away with.

Answer 1

.......................... ABSOLOUTELY. ............................

If for example 20 black skinned african family's, move from africa to the very cold north of england for 10 or 20 generations,...... then every generation after about the 2nd or 3rd will become lighter and lighter, until by about the 18th 19th or 20th generation, they will virtually look nothing like their original forefathers.
So therefore,........ even if they marry from amongst their own national grouping,....... that time span would equate to some 4 or 500 years,......... producing africans who will have basically transformed from a very dark black,....... to a very light or even very pale almond colour.

The same would apply in reverse,........ if for example 20 fairskinned familys did the same by living for 20 generations in africa.

Another instance,........ is of people who live in developed western nations, eating a diet thats very soft, and very processed.
Less chewing has seen facial features change, and jaw sizes decrease,.......... meaning that with smaller jaws,...... teeth can no longer erupt properly.
Hence people from developed countrys, will often have their 2 rear teeth extracted to allow sufficient room for the others to grow, and to prevent impactation and overcrowding.
So yes,........ mans evolutionary physical features, certainly can be subjected to change.

Answer 2

This is very exciting times for the scientific community, particularly astro-physicists and anthropologists. Recently the Tyrannosaurus Rex has been found to be related to the family of birds. Perhaps this is an example of environment change dramatically changing features. Another interesting point of view would be Astronomy. The Human Race has become ambitious enough to match it's curiosity and intellect to machines. We have space probes that give us snapshots of weather patterns, dark holes and potentially habitable planets. In certain parts of the solar system our technology allows us to see evolution and if their is such a word de-evolution of stars and other planets. I believe it was Einstein who proposed to us a theoretical argument for a parallel universe. Increasingly, he is joined with good company. So yes, I would say organisms can un-evolve, after all, in space time goes backwards.

Answer 3

It would not be considered devolution, since the species has evolved and adapted to the environment. devolution is a concept that maybe can be applied to the degradation of human intelligence over time since we perceive our current intelligence to be of great capacity and from past experiences and history, expect our intelligence to increase and thus our level of ignorance about ourselves and our surroundings to decrease through the sciences. The term devolution should really not be applied as an opposite to evolution, since it's all evolution, regardless if it's loss or gain, since the change has been done for the proper adaptation and survival, thus evolution.

Answer 4

There is nothing called un-evolution. Even losing certain features of the body is termed as evolution. However, this process is not dynamic and occurs at a very very slow pace.

Answer 5

No, evolution cannot simply scrap anatomy. That's why you have vestigial organs - e.g. some snakes have rudimentary limbs. These features would only be removed if selection pressure was great enough.

Answer 6

Yes, it is possible to lose certain characteristics from a population if there is no selective pressure to keep them (see the web site below). However, more often they remain as vestigial remnants, like the appendix.

Answer 7

they cant evolve them either. animals only evolve slightly to adapt, not into other species, like a fish didn't become a salamander