Sprinting down the evolutionary highway

Lynda Hurst / Feature Writer
TheStar (Toronto)

Far from having stopped, the pace of 'advantageous mutation' is moving much faster than we thought, a new study discovers

Think that we humans are a fait accompli, a done deal that hasn't changed over the eons?

Think again.

Evidence is accumulating that the species is still evolving, and doing so at an unprecedented rate.

A major new study says that in the past 5,000 years, natural selection – gene mutations that spread because they're beneficial – has occurred 100 times faster than at any other period in human history.

American researchers have found evidence of recent mutations on about 1,800 genes, or 7 per cent of the human genome; traits such as lighter skin and blue eyes in northern Europeans and partial resistance to certain diseases in areas of Africa.

"We are more different genetically from people living 5,000 years ago than they were different from Neanderthals," said one of the study's co-authors, anthropologist John Hawks, at a presentation recently.

More after the click ...

My comment:

Somebody, quick, call Huckabee!!! I think you'll find him in the shallow end of the gene pool ...