Evolution ?

Question

This might sound stupid for some of you but ... some say that evolution is real and some otherwise ... anyways I'm wondering why did evolution stopped(if it ever existed) . I mean it did ... any difference between like 4000 years ago and now ? The only one i can see is techonologicaly improvement as well as increased knowledge amongst us. So I'm pretty sure that evolution does exists but I'm way to young and uninformed to confirm that.

*EDITED* Ye i also realised that ... evolution is progressing real slowly so 4000 years ago ... is a low amount of time for it to progress

Answer 1

Ok the timescales for evolution are incredibly long. As a direct result of contact with humans many creatures - particularly mega fauna (large animals) were made extinct, so Mamouths, saber-toothed tigers and - apparently - American camels were all made extinct over time, basically if you were either slow and tasty or just too freaking scary or dangerous we wiped you out, larger bears, larger birds also fell under the human spear.

But some notable events which occurred over the last few thousand years and which relate to us are.

1. The rise of highly virulent diseases - human populations used to be really sparse - just a few hundred people in small cities scattered across eurasia - with increased population density came the possibility of diseases being able to kill hosts quickly while still being able to spread to hosts that could carry the disease but not die immediately. Less deadly disease strains have most likely been with us for some time.

2. Superbugs - in the last 150 years - humans developed antibiotics, penecillin and other sulfa based drugs to cause micro-organisms to die.

However as antibiotics come into common use, the microbes adapt to these antibiotics and a few survive to become resistant, it's now (80 years later) the case that many common infections are resistant to all but a few medications. In the next 50 years, our current antibiotics will likely have to be replaced entirely with some other form of effective chemcical or biological process to eliminate them.

3. Food, humans have intentionally evolved fruits and vegetables and grains and even animals - through animal husbandry and through selective / eugenic breeding. This has made various grains different.

Wheat production something like 400 % more nutritous over tme and looks similar to it's original variant but is much larger in size.

Corn is completely unrecognizable and looked alot like asparagus stalks with just a couple of kernels of what we would call corn on each bud.

Apples - in their unaltered condition are not usually larger than a golf-ball are now commonly larger than a softball.

Citrus fruits - 800 years ago the closest relative to an orange was a greenish/yellow fruit which was ENTIRELY sour, and about 1/2 the size of a modern lemon or lime.

Our own species has also evolved slightly over the last 4000 years, these changes are largely based on our sexual preferences from a desirability perspective for a partner.

As a result,

We are taller by nearly 2 feet than our ancestors, everyone over 5" would be considered imposingly tall by the standards of the ancient Egyptians or Babylonians.

We are - probably - moderately less hairy and getting less hairer - body hair is generally considered undesirable and most human societies have grooming ritual/customs which involve the trimming of hair.

Smarter - we are probably about 5-10% smarter on average than our ancient compatriots, this would not be generally noticeable as there were still geniuses and still very dull people - even back in the day, but since the advent of mass literacy in the late 1830's we have been slowly getting slightly smarter.

Less violent - we are in all likelihood MUCH less impulsive than our ancient ancestors we have societal rules which simply did not exist - or need to exist in semi-nomadic peoples - this is not to say that we don't have people that "just go for it", it is to say that we also have rules for those who REALLY "just go for it".

So in some ancient cultures you could take the possessions of a man if you could kill him in combat, this would leave rich older men with trophy wives at a distinct disadvantage to someone who's willing to attack and kill them. Of course our ancient visitor would get brought up on murder charges and assault but that's another matter.

Less physically fit - as a collective whole - we are much less physically fit - despite increases in size and probably strength - the average nomadic tribesman was probably about 10-15 % stronger than the average office-worker - even though that office worker is probably nearly a foot taller.

Age - we live about 300% longer than our ancient relatives, this is again - not to say that there weren't old people in the ancient Egyptian, Chinese or Babylonian cultures, it is to say there were far fewer of them. Demographically speaking, if you lived in one of the ancient cities, adolecence as such didn't exist - or it did but not for nearly as long as it does today, for guys you were likely married by about 16-20 , with some sort of apprenticeship or a job as a soldier, by 14-19 most "girls" were women and mothers for probably the first time, and probably married to a much older man (much older being somewhere in his early 30's).

By the time you are in your late teens and early twenties you were considered a middle aged person by the time you were approaching 30 you were definitely long in the tooth - kind of like being a 45 or 50 year old today.

And in all likelyhood by the time you were in or approaching your mid 40's you were dead from either disease or injury in war or industry.

Two great books on the subject include


"Guns Germs and Steel" - AWESOME book, broadly speaking this author (Jarred Diamond's) will go down with the "Origin of Species" or "Cosmos" as being both approachable and powerfully educational.

"Superbug" - good explanation of how germs evolve.

Answer 2

evolution didn't stop.... it's an on-going process.... the peppered moth is a good one..... but another 'did/didn't' argument..... and that, because it happened so 'suddenly'....the quickest evolving I know of is that of viruses.... the main reason you need a different kind of vaccine each year so not to get the flu..... and that of the bacteria that cannot be wiped out with the same old antibiotics this year that they died from last year.... those are faster because they live/die/procreate so fast..... changes there show up a whole lot easier and faster than in us.... but we're changing, too.... it just happens slower with us... after all, we're kind of the 'end result' of a LOT of evolving..... there's not too much that needs changed on us nowadays... not for how we live at this time.....

I suspect that one of the next changes will be the muscles of the opposable thumb....it will become a more adept digit, since the kiddies are using it so much!!.. *smile*..........

Answer 3

biological evolution take millions of years for a visual change to occur. evolution hasnt stopped its just way too slow for anyone to see. 4000 years is not enough time for a physical change to occur on an evolutionary scale.
yes virginia, evolution does exist. (do you get it, it's a pun or something like that!!!)
dinosaurs evolved into birds. thats a massive evolutionary change that has occured over several million years.
if you ever see before the dinosaurs on discovery channel that will describe a lot of stuff that im too sure how to say.

Answer 4

It didn't stop. It takes hundreds of thousands of years for the changes you are looking for. In 4000 years, the changes are going to be very small in a gene pool. For example humans are now taller the they were 500 years ago. If you add up all the changes that take 500 years, over around 500,000 years, that is where the significant changes appear.

Answer 5

Every day is an evolution of yesterday. We have moved into many eras, from the Agricultural age, the Industrial age, the Technological age, the Information age and now we're moving into the age of subconscious awareness.

Study this in depth, my friend and you will be very wise when you are older. There's a lot of great websites and books on the subject.

Answer 6

4000 years is an extremely short time in relation to evolution or geology.

Evolution never stops.

A good example would be the Peppered Moth which developed darker wings in the middle of the nineteenth century in the Black Country (in England) in order to adapt to new soot-laden environments, and, interestingly, has reverted to dark grey in recent years.

Answer 7

It didn'stop. Life is evolving all the time. 4 thousand years is a short time in terms of evolution.

Answer 8

It hasn't stopped.