Human 'microevolution' sees more people born without wisdom teeth and an extra artery

[octoberlib]

More people are being born without wisdom teeth and an extra artery in their arm as a result of a human "microevolution" in recent years, a study has found.

Babies now have shorter faces, smaller jaws and extra bones in their legs and feet, a study in the Journal of Anatomy found.



Australian researchers who worked on the paper claim the human race is evolving faster than it has done at any point in the past 250 years.

Over time, human faces have got shorter, which has seen our mouths get smaller, with less room for as many teeth.








https://news.sky.com/story/human-microevolution-sees-more-people-born-without-wisdom-teeth-and-an-extra-artery-12099689

[North Shore Chicago]

1. Interesting article. Thank you

[TexasTowelie]

2. Terrible news

for dentists and oral surgeons.

[ananda]

3. I wonder what the extra artery..

and the extra bones in the legs and feet are for.

[tblue37]

4. The article explains the artery but not the extra bones.

[tavernier]

5. As a home health nurse, a majority of my patients

need aftercare for hip and knee replacements. Perhaps an extra bone or two would provide more stability in the future?

[WyattKansas]

26. I really didn't have any problem after my hip replacement and drove within 2 days...

My home health nurse manager said, 'You did what?' with a horrified look on her face as she tried to tell me to be careful about pushing it. The doctor didn't have any limits on me, except for the 'no driving' part, but I never had a problem driving right after my quad bypass seven years ago either... Quickest way to get me to do something is to tell me not to do it, because I just have to prove it wrong.

Then the bruising and swelling hit me around the hip and upper leg by the 3rd and 4th day, so it became more challenging and harder to move with flexibility.

[meadowlander]

22. Increased blood flow for writing/typing all day?

200 years ago most jobs would use gross motor skills and now most jobs use fine motor skills?

[Le Roi de Pot]

6. That is not evolution..

It would be if it gave them some survival advantage over other members of their species.

[ananda]

7. What is it then?

Is it natural selection?

[edhopper]

8. It is a mutation that has held across generations.

Sometimes traits evolve as a side effect of other evolved traits. Also this might be part of what people have decided was attractive, a major mover in evolution.

[Drahthaardogs]

9. It's still evolution

If a mutation ups breeding success, thus making the gene frequencies more prevalent, it’s still evolution

[edhopper]

12. I thought I said that

[Drahthaardogs]

15. I replied to wrong thread

You did say that

[edhopper]

16. OK

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. As pointed out, evolution does not have to involve breeding advantage

See genetic drift: https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_24

However, a lack of wisdom teeth may have some small survival advantage; it could mean fewer problems with them, which may outweigh having few molars to chew with, with our modern diet.

[edhopper]

13. It could just be more attractive

therefore chosen as a mate and passed on.

[Captain Zero]

14. People with wisdom teeth are being selected against

Impactions? Infections taking them out of the gene pool sooner?

[Mariana]

11. I think you're confusing natural selection with evolution.

Evolution is simply the change in the genes in a population over time. This is often driven by natural selection, but natural selection is not required for evolution to take place.

[myccrider]

17. It's still evolution,

which is defined as a change of allele frequencies in a population.

Whether or not alleles are retained by selection or not is also an aspect of evolution, just not the whole.

A trait that helped a species survive for many generations could become a liability if the environment changes, for example animals with white fur for camouflage in a snowy environment would become detrimental if the climate warmed and there was little or no snow. OTOH, traits that are neutral or even slightly deleterious can survive in a population for generations, more or less at random, when an environmental change then makes such traits a survival advantage. Or not, such traits just stay in the population without a large impact on survival of the species.

It’s all part of evolution.

[myccrider]

18. Interesting

Last edited Fri Oct 9, 2020, 07:45 PM - Edit history (1)

I only developed 3 wisdom teeth (the rest of my immediate family all had 4), my son only developed 2. One of his kids only has 2, the other has all 4. All of them ended up impacted, though.

On edit: Oops, grandchild with 2 wisdoms are not impacted.

Evolution is fascinating!

Spencer Wells [geneticist, anthropologist, NatGeo explorer] said back in the 2000s that human evolution is actually accelerating because there so many of us and because we are rapidly changing our own environment.

[octoberlib]

19. I only developed 2 . One was impacted and one broke the gum

and got infected , so had them removed. Wisdom teeth are a mess . Agree about evolution.

[myccrider]

20. WooHoo!

How old were you?

Granddaughter with all 4 wisdoms had to have all removed preemptively at around 15 because x-rays showed her jaws were just not going to be big enough and they were putting her in braces.

All 3 of mine were impacted and removed around age 24. I’d had braces from 12-14 yo and my wisdoms messed up the straightening on the bottom row (2 wisdoms on bottom, 1 on top).

My son’s 2 were impacted and were removed in his early 30s. (He’s such a baby about doctors, dentists, needles, etc that he probably should have had them out by mid-20s!)

Grandson with only 2 have recently erupted, are ok so far.

Go us microevolved humans! Who have to have our teeth removed because our jaws are too small!

[octoberlib]

24. I was in my thirties. I also have a small jaw.

I guess I’m one of those that were starting to evolve.

[Nevilledog]

25. I beat you...had mine removed at 42.

Of course, I also got chicken pox at 37. I'm a late bloomer apparently!

[MissB]

21. I had zero wisdom teeth.

I’ve always joked that I’ve evolved

One of my kids has two of four and the other one had all four but two needed to come out because his mouth wasn’t big enough. The one with just two has enough room to keep them.

Teeth are weird.

[myccrider]

23. Some of us are only 1/4 to 1/2 evolved.

I bow to the more evolved human!

[Blue_true]

28. I have known that I had a small mouth all my life.

None of my wisdom teeth came in right, all had to be removed due to infections. I also found out recently that my face from the nose bridge down is considered small.

[Blue_true]

27. Okaaaaay.

Now I know why I had such a hellacious time with my wisdom teeth. My body was working on the new evolution standard and the gene for growing teeth was working on the old standard. Well, after constant infections, all those suckers were removed when I was in my twenties and thirties.