Highly Evolved Facts About Evolution

Human faces evolved to take a punch better. Scientists once thought faces became tougher for eating different foods, but new research suggests faces got tougher to withstand a beating. Violence plays a bigger role in human evolution than anthropologists once believed.New research shows our faces got tougher to take better punches.The research shows violence plays a bigger role in human evolution than anthropologists thought.

The connection between man and his best friend is awhole lot tighterthan you might think. Scientists call it "parallel evolution." Dogs and humans shared environments for many centuries, so they evolved convergently. This means we share genes for diet and behavior (Cool!) but also share diseases (Gross!). Parallel evolution may not end with humans and dogs; other domestic animals like goats or horses mayhavealso evolved with us.

Everyone knows pandas love bamboo. Did you know they used to be carnivores?used to be carnivores? Before becoming vegetarian (with rare exceptions; one panda in China made headlines for eating goat), they ate meat. Their digestive tracts seem designed for meat. Their evolutionary ancestors were distant cousins of meat-loving hyenas and saber-toothed cats.

Human males evolved tonothave apenis covered in little spines. Over 700,000 years ago, our ancestors had small keratin pieces lining the outside of the penis. Scientists think a move toward monogamy helped this change. Modern domestic cats use spiny penises to break coagulated "copulatory plugs" placed inside female cats by other males. Yuck.

Scientists sayglobal warming is melting polar ice caps and speeding up evolution... butnot in a good way. Polar bears and grizzly bears used to be separate before global warming. Now they mate! This causes problems because these hybrid bears have weaker survival skills in extreme conditions. This means they could quickly push both species toward early evolution and endanger them. The hybrid "grolar bear" could thrive if climate change moved slower, but because it moves fast, scientists are pessimistic.

Penguins could not fly for ages, butrecentlyscientists figured out why. Swimming became the better way to travel, so their little wings turned into flippers. This lets them swim better. Swimming was better than flying for food. Swimming let penguins find food underwater, which proved the better choice (though flying away from predators likely helped too).

Next time you get hiccups,evolution caused hiccupsHumans came from creatures needing lungs and gills. Hiccups are the strange leftover effect of that change. We closed the lung opening to swim underwater. Hiccuping is just humans using "ancient muscles" to close that opening for no good reason.

Tibetans handle high altitudes better than non-Tibetans.Scientists think Tibetans show evolution at work.a gene controlling red blood cell production evolved, giving Tibetans a superpower. One professor states this is "the fastest change in the frequency of a mutation described in humans." Non-Tibetans visiting the Tibetan plateau often get headaches, fatigue, and lower birth rates.

A larger brain does not mean a smarter brain; scientists say this is also good.Our brains shrink as we evolve.Our brains began to get smaller around 20,000 years ago. Scientists disagree on whether this shrinking helps or hurts. The "good" side claims a smaller brain means increased tolerance. The "bad" side argues complex societies allow brains to shrink while still allowing survival, but the organ still undergoes evolutionary shrinking.

Humans possess a bone called the coccyx, which is a vestigial tail. If evolution took a different path, we might all have tails! So, don'tgive up hope.evolutionEvolution is reversible.reversible. A South American tree frog grew lower teeth after not having them for 200 million years. Mites that used to rely on animal hosts re-evolved independence. Birds are starting to regrow a bone from their dinosaur past.

Mammals may have developed better night vision to avoid dinosaurs.evolved to survive at night.Mammals evolved to survive at night. Cats, for instance, have excellent night vision and sharp hearing because their prehistoric cat ancestors needed to function well in dim light to survive. Ted Allen, a co-author of a genetics study, says mammals switched "their daytime vision in the cones to allow night-time vision using their rods." Your cat sees well at night because of dinosaurs.

Whales once had perfectly formed small hind legs, but they served no purpose. The fossil of an ancient whale, known asBasilosaurus whales used to have legs.Scientists found Basilosaurus had two hind legs, the size of a three-year-old's leg, sticking out from its flanks. This shows evolution is real; whales descend from land mammals that used those legs.

Human populations living in cities long-term haveevolved to be more immune.A 2010 study suggests evolution helps humans fight tuberculosis and leprosy. Ancient cities with bad sanitation became a tough place. Humans who survived that nastiness dominated and built resistance to sickness. Urban living steered humanity toward a future less prone to disease. Think: subway germs make us stronger.

Wisdom teeth removal is painful. Humans have them, but why?Evolution has the answer.Our ancestors used wisdom teeth to chew tough food like leaves and roots that are no longer popular. Humans may lose them as evolution continues. Some people never get them; others have one to four or more.

Humans evolve faster.Farming may be the reason.The last few thousand years show a much faster evolution than the millions before. Scientists believe growing crops and taming animals sped this up. A new diet caused cavities and iron deficiency. Living close together made diseases more severe. All these factors increased the mutation rate a lot.

Eight percent of our DNA comes from virus fragments. For instance, the protein syncytin is a gene from a virus.Cells in the placenta make syncytin alone.Chimpanzees, gorillas, and monkeys share the same virus gene. This suggests the gene performs a function natural selection favored. This is not just for primates; many mammals, like mice and rabbits, also have syncytin. Simply put: our ancestors might have gotten sick from a virus that ended up helping.