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Human Evolution Has Accelerated to Favour Traits Like Red Hair, Lower Body Fat: Study
Ground News • • health
Key Points:
- A large-scale ancient DNA study analyzing nearly 16,000 individuals over 10,000 years in West Eurasia reveals that natural selection has played a more significant role in shaping modern human genomes than previously understood.
- Researchers identified 500 gene variants that have notably increased or decreased in frequency during the last 10,000 years, indicating accelerated human evolution in recent history.
- Traits such as red hair, susceptibility to coeliac disease, and narrow waists have become more common, suggesting these features may have been favored by natural selection.
- Scientists propose that the rise in red hair genes around 4,000 years ago could have been beneficial, though the exact reasons remain unclear.
- These genetic adaptations have important implications for understanding the health and biology of contemporary human populations worldwide.
