[ExI] People are the same?/was Re: No Moon Bases Needed

Stefano Vaj stefano.vaj at gmail.com
Fri Jul 29 17:07:16 UTC 2011


2011/7/29 Dan <dan_ust at yahoo.com>:
> Whilst I don't see much evidence for rapid evolution happening amongst
human
> in the last few centuries, it does seem to be the case that there was some
> amount of evolution from fifty thousand years ago. In particular, it seems
> that the ability to digest milk in adulthood arose and spread to most of
the
> species. Also, blondness seems to have arisen in the last six thousand
years
> ago. Granted, these are minor changes, but there are probably others that
> just haven't been uncovered as of yet.

Yes for the general picture, but I would object to a few details.

- Ability to digest comfortably lactose in adulthood seem only concern some
90%+ of Europoids and 50% of some populations of East Africa (because of
entirely different mutations!) so it is far from generalised in our species.

- Fair pigmentation (blond or red hair, blue or gray eyes) is a recessive
feature which but for albinism exists only in the Europoid race for our
species (it would appear that Neanderthals were red-headed), and should come
out from the genetic drift which affected the small groups of Sapiens which
survived the last Great Ice Age, sometime around 10-12000 bC

- It seems on the other hand that some mutation arisen in 6000 bC has spread
in our species, against from Europe, which may offer cognitive improvement
dividends.

See, inter alia, Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our
Ancestors<http://www.amazon.com/Before-Dawn-Recovering-History-Ancestors/dp/014303832X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311959172&sr=1-1>
by
Nicholas Wade<http://www.amazon.com/Nicholas-Wade/e/B001H6WF40/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1311959172&sr=1-1>
.

-- 
Stefano Vaj
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