Myths and Misconceptions

-

    One evolutionary misconception I used to hold when I was younger was that humans had stopped evolving. I was interested in looking into this myth to help show others just how prevalent evolution is, even in complex and advanced creatures such as humans. I used to believe that our technological and medical advancements caused us to no longer need to evolve. However, this is simply a myth, as evolution is a slow process that takes many generations to become visible. Organisms that reproduce quicker show the effects of evolution much faster than we do as humans, since we have a much longer life span. For example, a bacteria that only lives for a day will reproduce much quicker, resulting in many generations in just a week. This results in quick evident genetic changes that cannot be seen in humans. Every organism is constantly evolving, and there is no way to halt that process. 

    A somewhat recent evolutionary change we can see in humans to prove that we are still subject to mutations is the ability of adults to consume and digest the milk of other animals. A genetic mutation allowed our bodies to produce lactase even into adulthood, which is an enzyme that breaks down milk. Before this mutation, the production of lactase would be switched off once a person reached adulthood, resulting in most people being lactose intolerant. 





Comments

  1. KelleySeptember 6, 2024 at 2:14 PM

    Hi Rin! I enjoyed your blog post this week! I think it is a common misconception that humans aren't evolving because we cannot necessarily see evolutionary changes occurring in our own species but you provided a great example with the lactose intolerance!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AngeliqueSeptember 7, 2024 at 9:03 PM

    Hi Rin! You did a wonderful job of illustrating your chosen myth through lactose intolerance. Evolution being a continuous and random journey was a matter I had to grasp myself. I used to believe evolution had an "end goal" and once the species achieved that end goal, that was it! Your post did a great job of showing just how wrong that assumption is as well!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is sexual selection?

-
Image
 Sexual selection is a type of natural selection and a mechanism of evolution where individuals compete for access to mates and fertilization. However, a difference I found to easily distinguish the two is that natural selection favors traits that improve survival, but sexual selection focuses on traits that enhance the chances of mating. This concept explains how traits that normally might be disadvantageous -- such as bright feathers in birds -- can still be seen within a species.      There are two types of sexual selection: intersexual and intrasexual. Intersexual selection occurs when one sex competes to be chosen by the opposite sex for mating. An example of this can be seen in peacocks. Male peacocks have large and colorful tails, and these tails are seen as a sign of good health and genetic fitness, meaning the better the tails, the more likely they are to be chosen by females.      Intrasexual selection occurs when one sex competes directly wi...
Read more

Advantages of Sexual Reproduction

-
Image
     There are both sexual and asexual forms of reproduction. Asexual reproduction is actually more straightforward and energy-efficient, while sexual is much more complex and energy-demanding. However, despite the apparent efficiency of asexual reproduction, sexual reproduction remains the most dominant and widely used. This is due to several evolutionary advantages that help a species adapt to changing environments.       The Red Queen Hypothesis states that a species must constantly evolve and adapt to survive in the biological arms race. With sexual reproduction there is shuffling of genetic materials, leading to offspring with a combination of traits and the chance of mutations leading to more advantageous ones. On the other hand, asexual reproduction leads to genetically identical offspring. While this is okay in stable environments, it leaves the population vulnerable to new threats and changes in their environment. Namely, pathogens and parasit...
Read more

Genetic Drift

-
Image
 Genetic drift is a random change in allele frequencies within a population. This change is often due to chance events like the bottleneck or the founder effect. The bottleneck effect occurs when a population's size is dramatically reduced, leading to a loss of genetic variation. This can happen as a result of things such as natural disasters, habitat loss, or overhunting. However, in the founder effect, a small subset of a larger population breaks off and establishes a new population, bringing only a fraction of the original genetic diversity.      Genetic drift is often confused with gene flow. In gene flow, we can see the transmission and introduction of genes across populations, but in genetic drift, it is simply the changing of allele frequencies. Genetic drift is also not natural selection, as it does not favor traits that enhance survivability. 
Read more