Pace of Human Evolution is Quickening

A massive study of human genetic variation has estimated the age of more than one million variants ~ or changes to our DNA code ~ found across human populations and found that the vast majority proved to be quite young.

These chronologies show that recent human history is characterized by both narrow reproductive genetic bottlenecks and sudden, enormous population growth. The evolutionary dynamics of these features have resulted in a flood of new genetic variation, accumulating so fast that natural selection hasn’t caught up yet.

As a species, we are freshly bursting with the raw material of evolution.

According to Wired.com:

“Most of the mutations that we found arose in the last 200 generations or so. There hasn’t been much time for random change or deterministic change through natural selection,” said geneticist Joshua Akey of the University of Washington, study co-author. “We have a repository of all this new variation for humanity to use as a substrate. In a way, we’re more evolvable now than at any time in our history.” 

 Akey specializes in what’s known as rare variation, or changes in DNA that are found in perhaps one in 100 people, or even fewer. For practical reasons, rare variants have only been studied in earnest for the last several years. Before then, it was simply too expensive. 

A conclusion of the new findings is that the genetic potential of our population is vastly different than what it was 10,000 years ago.

Image from Wired's Darwin Photoshop contest.

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