People will suffer from congenital blood diseases, but become resistant to malaria. The development of computer technology will significantly reduce the human brain, and men will disappear due to mutations in the Y chromosome. These are the possible scenarios for human evolution for the next few million years. The RIA Novosti correspondent reviewed several dozen studies and identified five signs that are highly likely to appear in people in the future.
Hooves
Evolution reinforces useful features and discards unnecessary ones. A good illustration of this is the human foot. Of course, our legs are different from the limbs of great apes, but they still give us arboreal animals, although millions of years have passed since the human ancestors changed their way of life.
Starting with the Afar Australopithecus (3.5 - 2.5 million years ago), which can be considered practically land animals, and up to modern man, our main point of support and movement has become more and more compact. The toes were constantly shortened at the expense of the middle phalanges. This is clearly visible on the little finger, the phalanges of which in many people are completely shapeless and fused from birth.
“It is clear that the future of our foot is in the disappearance of the toes. Land animals always end up with fewer fingers. The record holder here, no doubt, is the horse. But a person has the opportunity to surpass it: the development of transport will make it possible to do without legs at all. But the problems of varicose veins and fungus on the nails will disappear,”writes Stanislav Drobyshevsky, associate professor of the Anthropology Department of the Biological Faculty of Moscow State University, in the book“The Reaching Link”.
A sixth finger will appear on the hands
Promotional video:
The changes in the shape of the feet led to the evolution of the upper limbs, according to the work of American and Canadian scientists. Having collected a huge amount of data on the size of the hands and feet of humans and chimpanzees, scientists have created a mathematical model proving that the slightest changes in the shape of the feet lead to transformation of the hands.
But if with the further evolution of the foot, everything is more or less clear - shortening and splicing of the toes, the disappearance of the arch of the foot, then the scenarios for changing the shape of the hands can be different, and their implementation will, among other things, be influenced by the further development of technologies.
“Now our hand is incredibly primitive, it stubbornly maintains the plan of the structure of carbon 'stegocephals'. But this cannot go on forever. Gradualization has already weakened our hand, but this is not the end. Like any extreme element of the skeleton, the little finger is especially at risk. On the one hand, it is convenient for them to poke at the extreme buttons on the keyboard, but new data entry technologies already now allow them to do without fingers. On the other hand, if the keyboards continue their evolution, then the sixth finger will not hurt. Polydactyly regularly occurs on its own. Why not gain a foothold in a useful trait - a post-mite,”notes Drobyshevsky.
The brain will shrink, intelligence will deteriorate
Man has the largest brain among primates, its size has steadily increased in the last seven million years - from 300 to 1500 cubic centimeters. About 25 thousand years ago, the trend changed to the opposite: the brain is gradually drying out, scientists believe. To date, the main human organ has lost about five percent in size (from 1500 to 1425 cubic centimeters in males).
As anthropologists from the University of Chicago have found out, mutations in the ASPM gene that arose in people in the Middle East and Europe about six thousand years ago are to blame for this. Today, most of the human population is carriers of this mutation, so the brain will continue to shrink.
Given the rapid development of technology and human dependence on them, a decrease in the brain is likely to be accompanied by a drop in intelligence. And the widespread use of gadgets will lead to enlargement of the lacrimal glands, which are necessary for sufficient eye hydration. Thus, a group of scientists from Columbia University (USA) found that the constant use of the Internet is very harmful to memory.
“People do not try to memorize something if they know that they can then find this information using a search engine,” the authors of the work indicate.
Scientists believe that the brain of the Neanderthals was larger than the brain of our immediate ancestors - Cro-Magnons. / Illustration by RIA Novosti. Source: Gunz, Philipp et al. Current Biology, Volume 20, Issue 21, R921 - R922.
Spider-like digestion
The brain accounts for about two percent of body weight, and it consumes 20 percent of all energy produced by the body. In other words, a large brain requires a powerful metabolism. But our digestive system was never very large, and after the human ancestors left the forest for the savannah, began to use tools and eat a lot of meat, it began to gradually shrink.
Mastering the fire and preparing food in a variety of ways have further reduced the digestive system. Following the intestines, the jaws tightened. Since the days of the Afar Australopithecines, the size of the teeth, and therefore the jaws, has decreased by about ten percent. And this process continues to this day.
However, American researchers warn that the transition to external digestion (and cooking can be classified as such) has already brought a lot of harm to humans. Diabetes, hypertension and cancer are the result of changing dietary habits of our ancestors. Therefore, it is possible that a further reduction in the digestive system is fraught with new metabolic problems.
Malaria and beauty
Part of humanity will get congenital blood diseases. This is how people will be able to adapt to the malaria virus and HIV, according to researchers from the University of California at Berkeley (USA). Among the inhabitants of Africa, there is now a selection for mutations that will allow their carriers to resist diseases, live to reproductive age, but these mutations are associated with blood diseases - in particular thalassemia.
In the future, women will become more beautiful. As found by researchers from the University of Helsinki, more attractive women give birth more. Moreover, among their offspring, girls predominate, who also grow into beautiful women. And over time, this trend is only getting stronger.
However, the American anthropologist Ian Tattersall is skeptical about claims of continued human evolution. There are many people on Earth (almost seven billion), they often move from place to place, constantly mix - there are no more isolated marriages. Therefore, there is simply no time and opportunity to consolidate beneficial mutations. Therefore, a person cannot evolve - this is the conclusion he makes in the book Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness.
Alfiya Enikeeva