The Human Species is Rapidly Evolving

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The scientists believe humans are evolving faster than at any point in the past 250 years — with more babies coming out with shorter faces, smaller jaws and extra bones in their legs and feet. Humans are undergoing a “microevolution” resulting in babies being born without wisdom teeth and with an extra artery in their arm, according to Australian researchers. The stunning findings were part of a study in the Journal of Anatomy.

The extra artery is a median artery that’s first formed in the womb and serves as the main vessel that supplies blood to the forearm and hand, according to Sky News. The median artery vanishes once the radial and ulnal arteries develop, though now one in three people keep it for life.

Source: More humans born with an extra artery as part of ‘microevolution’ phenomenon

Well I guess that explains it. The world is going to pot. People are constantly at each other's throats. They have lost any sense of wisdom and are devolving into anarchy. The proof is manifest in physical form. No more wisdom teeth!

Wisdom teeth known in dentistry as “third molars”, they are often called “wisdom teeth” in society. These teeth arrive in the mouth sometime between the ages of 17 to 21 years – at a time when many parents believe that their kids need a bit more wisdom!

you're not "born" with wisdom teeth (as you said in your first post), but get them at about college age (ie at then end of childhood, and the beginning of adulthood), as you said in your second post. The time that you achieve maturity and therefore "wisdom". Hence the name. But apparently more and more folks never get them at all.

Ever since we branched off from the chimps eight million years ago we have been evolving progressively shorter muzzles. But apparently that trend is continuing even now, and is even noticeable on the tiny timescale of the last few generations. Which seems incredible to me if true. I would like to see the results of this study replicated elsewhere.

Having wisdom teeth doesnt kill you off before you have children. And lacking wisdom teeth doesnt AFAIK cause you to have more offspring. So its not obvious to me why this evolution would be happening now since classic Darwinian natural selection would not seem to be at work on the trait in question.

I have a physically small mouth. But got wisdom teeth. But had to have them pulled because ...essentially...lack of room in my little mouth.

Nope.....Never got my wisdom teeth.

Maybe I'm an example of "devolution"?

Neat thread! Thanks!

I am also confused about an absence of wisdom teeth becoming more common. Is there some reproductive advantage? Hmmm...I am a victim of the smaller mouth evolution (despite assertions to the contrary from my friends and family ). My teeth did not fit well into the available space and were therefore quite crooked. Having four teeth removed and orthodontics in the 1970s got me straight teeth for a few decades but they are now twisting around again. Maybe being born without wisdom teeth favors straighter teeth and that improves appearance and that is a reproductive advantage?

And I did not realize my "os noviculare" (extra bone in my right foot) meant I was more evolved. No idea what evolutionary advantage it would have, nor the bone spurs in the heel.

Bone spurs?????

You have bone spurs?

Well...there IS an obvious survival advantage to THAT.

You get out of serving in Vietnam. So you dont get killed by the Viet Cong, which means you get to live long enough to ...who knows?... maybe even become POTUS! And do live to reproduce and have kids, including one with your own name.

We-e-e-e-l-l, yes and no, and I apologize in advance for the following too-much-information:

(1) The bone spurs were discovered when I was in my 60's. I honestly have no idea if they were a recent development or if they had just waited that long to announce themselves.

(2) The bone spurs were discovered after they started bothering me and I finally got around to having my foot checked. The doctor just told me to ignore the bone spurs. (That worked, by the way!)

(3) If you can't beat them, join them. I dodged the Vietnam draft by going into the military. But, the way I did it, after each workday I slept in an apartment rather than in a hot, muddy jungle. The most dangerous things I faced were base guards and Nebraska winters.

(4) A few years ago I finally got around to seeing whether my draft number had been called. It wasn't. But the military was a really, really, really good deal for me and I am tremendously happy I was in it and very grateful for all of the good it did for me.

Thats awesome that you got the benifits of military service without having to become a casualty.

But back to the subject. Is the human mouth really evolving that fast? And if so why?

I think this is probably accurate considering our environment has changed rapidly during the past century.

We'll all be mutants soon enough.

Hmmmm.... mutants ...? Autism ? Advanced mutations ?

Apparently there are other theories.

I think Autism is a mixture of advanced mutations and things that aren't necessarily beneficial. But who knows right?

And yet at the same time human's brains must be devolving. Why else would so many people believe the world is flat, refuse to wear masks or get their children vaccinated, or treat celebrities that have nothing worth celebrating about them like gods? They think science is completely evil, but have unwavering faith in religion and force it on other people. They vote for and elect world leaders who are obviously blithering idiots. And everyone is still at least a little bit racist or xenophobic whether they admit it or not.

I even read that at least 25% of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth.

The article DoubleRetired links to is probably on the right track. It cant be that humans are genetically evolving that fast. Must be environmental.

I remember reading in anthropology textbooks about how hunter gatherers use their teeth as tools,like plyers, or how they chew leather to soften it. Eskimos have been seen to unscrew gasoline cans with their teeth. Cro Magnon and Neanderthals have wear on their teeth that reflects that.

The extra artery thing puzzles me. Does it have some adaptive benefit? Is it a byproduct of a gene that does something else more useful? Or is it a case of an irrelevant trait spreading through random genetic drift? I've heard that can happen.

(also, for some reason I have top wisdom teeth but not bottom ones. Maybe I'd make a wiser master than a servant....)