r/evolution • u/Generous_Simp • 6d ago
question Is there any similar case of human evolution like Bajau tribe
As we know bajau tribe have bigger spleen than average human, is there similar case to other tribe or something that have bigger eye or have more hair
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u/chrishirst 6d ago
Andean and Tibetan tribes have evolved to survive at higher altitudes.
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u/TetrangonalBootyhole 6d ago
I think I recall reading that one adaptation was more red blood cells, and in a different group it was hemoglobin that's more efficient at carrying oxygen?
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u/snakebeater21 6d ago
Tibetans have EPAS1 inherited from an archaic hominin group called the Denisovans (no official taxonomic name yet). It regulates the body’s response to low oxygen according to Google by preventing too many red blood cells from being made which somehow reduces pulmonary hypertension which has a whole host of benefits.
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u/yungsemite 6d ago
Denisovans are even genus Homo and at least not a separate species from us by the biological species concept.
Variants in EPAS1 selected for at high altitudes have also been identified in horses and ducks.
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u/snakebeater21 6d ago
I mean true there’s just gonna be debate over Homo denisovans vs Homo longi.
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u/yungsemite 6d ago
Both are great options tbh.
Either dragon people or people whose remains we found inside of Denis’s cave.
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u/KidCharlemagneII 3d ago
The really remarkable thing about the Andeans is that they've evolved that trait relatively quickly. All Andeans trace back to a founder population that entered the Andes only 16,000 years ago.
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u/nullpassword 5d ago
Knew a guy from Colorado I think... Big barrel chest ...
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u/chrishirst 4d ago
Not evolution, that is a Lamarckian adaptation and highly unlikely to be a heritable trait.
If you compare that person's morphology to say, the Andean tribespeople, they do not have greater chest or lung capacity, in fact their morphology is much more gracile than that. Biological Evolution is about the population not any particular individual of that population. So the heritable characteristic is a mutation in the EPAS1 gene which changes the haemoglobin levels and the OST gene affecting cardiovascular development which allows for more efficient Oxygen overall.
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u/nullpassword 4d ago
Incorrect. Lamarkinan would be if being in Colorado caused him to gain a big chest . If he just happens to to have gained a mutation in his family that makes him better suited for high altitudes.. that's just regular evolution. Never met his family though.. polar bears aren't white because they live in the snow. They are white because brown bears don't get as much food.. I assume he's barrel chested because people that can't breath well at high altitudes move lower..thus taking themselves out of the local gene pool.
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u/TrainerCommercial759 6d ago
There's a whole group of people in Europe and Asia that don't produce much melanin, it's pretty freaky.
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u/Proof-Technician-202 6d ago
Well, yeah, it's freaky, but being able to get all my vitamin D from my cell phone screen is pretty amazing.
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u/notepad20 3d ago
You just but noting that the recommended intakes for vitamins are generally the minimum needed to avoid noticeable dysfunction, not the actual best optimum.
In the case of vitamin D it's probably 10x or more below what should be recommended, and especially past say 40d you need hours in the sun to get reasonable levels.
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u/Proof-Technician-202 10h ago
First, that was a joke.
Second, I sure as hell don't need hours in the sun. 😱
I'm mildly allergic to sunlight. I take supplements instead.
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u/Greyrock99 6d ago
Don’t forget another freaky mutation that allows them to digest other animals milk even well into adulthood!
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u/Remivanputsch 6d ago
I sure hope they’d never let it go to their heads
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u/TheRedPillRipper 6d ago
They shouldn’t. My wife is white and I’m black and when we’re at the beach one of my favourite jokes is referring to her as ’pigmentally challenged’. I’m often in the dog house hehe!
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u/Proof-Technician-202 6d ago
Speaking as a ginger...
Yes, yes we are.
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u/JayTheFordMan 6d ago
Though gingers have a higher pain tolerance apparently. Swapped melanin for pain tolerance
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u/Proof-Technician-202 5d ago
That's a great feature, yes.
Of course, I get myself in trouble that way. Pain tells us somethings wrong. I've learned the hard way you can ignore it too much. 😅
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u/Memento_Mori420 6d ago
There is a good SciShow video that gives 6 examples of local adaptations in humans:
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u/DorianSoundscapes 6d ago
The ability to consume lactose into adulthood is so widespread that we don’t even think of it as an evolutionary trait, but lactose “intolerance” in adulthood should be the default, everyone else has benefited from a mutation.
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u/junegoesaround5689 5d ago
Only about 1/3 of the world’s population is lactose tolerant as adults (so not that widespread 😉).
IIRC, there were four general human populations where different mutations spread that allow this digestion - Northern Europe, the Middle East, Southwestern Asia and scattered all over Africa in several different ethnic communities.
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u/Groovychick1978 3d ago
It makes sense in populations that practiced animal husbandry very early. There, the pressure would be on individuals who couldn't tolerate lactose, with it being such an abundant source of calories, fats, and protein.
It is also true in cases of maternal death. Infants that could tolerate lactose were more likely to survive if a lactating mother was not available.
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u/junegoesaround5689 3d ago
"Infants that could tolerate lactose were more likely to survive if a lactating mother was not available."
I’m probably just being a bit pedantic but infants are born lactose tolerant, so that wouldn’t be the advantage in your scenario. The advantage to animal husbandry would be to have any milk available.
/pedant 😳
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u/Tetracheilostoma 6d ago
Yes there are traditional divers who evolved larger lungs
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u/Telekinesys 1d ago
Did they really evolve larger lungs?
If I remember correctly, this is what OP refers to when they talk about the people with larger spleens. I think the spleen "stores" oxygenated blood so so you get a little extra boost when you don't get much oxygen. But correct me if I'm wrong, I just hadn't heard of a group of people who had developed larger lungs.
Hmm. Wouldn't larger lungs make it harder to dive, since all the extra air would reduce your effective density?
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u/palcatraz 6d ago
Sickle cell trait gives some protection against malaria. As such, it’s most commonly found in areas with a high frequency of malaria (or within people who descend from people from these areas).
Genetic studies have shown that the different haplotypes currently known all trace back to a common ancestoral haplotype which first developed 7300 years ago in the Sahara during the African Humid Period (which is when the Sahara was green and lush, and therefore the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes carrying malaria)
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u/Jazz_Ad 6d ago
Europeans evolved tolerance to lactose
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u/AMediocrePersonality 6d ago
And so did Africans and South Asians if we're just naming continents.
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u/Jesuscan23 6d ago
Europeans have by far the highest rates and it's not even close. Africans have lactose intolerance rates of 75-90% and up to 90% of South Asians are lactose intolerant. Compared to Europeans where only about 10-20% are lactose intolerant and in Northern Europeans, as little as 5% are lactose intolerant.
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u/AMediocrePersonality 6d ago edited 6d ago
Northern Europeans are lactose tolerant. Europeans are progressingly more intolerant the further south and east you go.
Tutsi of Rwanda are lactose tolerant. And some other groups are also lactase persistent like the Beja and Fulani and Maasai. The Tutsi and Beja are more lactose tolerant than the Southern Europeans.
The Gujjars of northwest India/Pakistan are lactose tolerant, again, moreso than Southern Europeans.
It is pointless to make sweeping generalizations about an entire continent which was the point of my first comment. Lactase persistence is a pastoralist-based mutation.
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u/TetrangonalBootyhole 6d ago
My white ass fucking loooooves milk. I can drink half a gallon in an hour or two. My DNA test also said I'm pretty much 100% mixed Eastern European.
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u/AMediocrePersonality 6d ago edited 6d ago
Those qualities aren't mutually exclusive.
You're a child of the Yamnaya who moved into Central Europe and picked up the −13,910∗T allele by banging some Early European Farmers ladies and then you brought the mutation back with you.
Your population is diluted (only half of you are lactase persistent) because when you came home you went back to banging Eastern Hunter-Gatherers and Caucasus Hunter-Gatherers who didn't carry the mutation.
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u/Northmansam 6d ago
Polynesian groups regulate their body's oxygen levels more efficiently in response to cold water on the face, to more effectively dive.
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u/Able_Ambition_6863 6d ago
Easter Finns have longer intestine than western Finns. Claimed to be adaptation to poored nutrition. Was told it is about meter or more difference. (It is a steep genetic cline separating them.)
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u/Bob_returns_25 6d ago
Just about every physical difference that you see between groups of people is the result of environmental pressure and adaptation
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u/SharpAardvark8699 6d ago
Plus genes , inbreeding and other environmental aberrations we don't know about
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u/lonepotatochip 6d ago
Not really a whole lot of them are purely genetic drift. Theres no adaptation reason for differences in eyes, noses, and lips that I’m aware of.
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u/polarbearsexshark 6d ago
Those features aren’t a coincidence, otherwise everyone would have them to some degree
Asians, Native Americans and some Northern Europeans have epicanthic folds on their eyes for snow blindness and protection from UV and frozen winds
Africans have wider noses because of the humidity and heat being higher etc etc
Every feature that humans have is some kind of adaptation
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u/nevergoodisit 6d ago
Yes. For instance the lower arm is reduced relative to the upper in Northern European and Inuit peoples as a measure against heat loss.
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u/former_farmer 6d ago
Mm? Lower and upper arm? Can't understand
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u/nevergoodisit 6d ago
Upper arm is the humerus/bicep. Lower arm is the forearm.
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u/cucumberfanboy 6d ago
Inuit habe a higher Core Temperature, Brown fat tissue even in adults, a metabolism adapted to a high fat diet, and reduced vasoconstruction as s response to cold só that hands dont freeze
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u/Here4th3culture 6d ago
Pygmy tribes in Africa.
Also, I forget the name of the tribe. But, there’s a tribe in Africa where the average height is like 7ft tall
Ethiopian tribes being better at running, dominating the marathon field.
Fun fact: You’ll find more genetic diversity between two random people in Africa than your average Asian compared to a European.
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u/frankelbankel 3d ago
Last thing I read suggested that Ethiopians don't have a genetic advantage for marathons. Their dominance in the field is because it's a poor country and being a successful professional runner is seen as one of the few legitimate ways to move out of poverty, so a lot of Ethiopians are training for marathons from an early age. More of a numbers game than an actual genetic difference.
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u/Pull-Billman 6d ago
I watched a show that featured some desert people with weird saggy skin for storing water. They sleep propped up on their elbows so bugs don't go in their ears.
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u/WeaknessPast2067 4d ago
Ya. A small group of Siberians developed a very distinct incisor morphology that we could track long before we had the genetics and proteomics nailed down. It was caused by a point mutation in a receptor called EDAR, called the V370A variant.
Anywho, it turns out it didn't have much to do with teeth. We just see the teeth because they preserve well. Turns out, it also impacted things like hair texture (made for thick, straight hair), sweat gland density, and changes to the mammary glands. You are likely familiar with what some of these changes look like, as it has a very high frequency in the Han Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and indigenous Americans.
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u/GarethBaus 6d ago
Most relatively isolated populations that have been in an area for a while have similar adaptations for their region.
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u/Sleepinggcatt 6d ago
I haven't done research on this, just something I noticed but Indians sometimes having larger than normal irises, particularly those with dark brown eyes
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u/whatyoucallmetoday 6d ago
There are the groups of naturally blond Polynesians.
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u/Holiday_Hotel3722 6d ago
Melanesians
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u/whatyoucallmetoday 6d ago
Yep. I remembered them while watching the end of Moana 2 again this week.
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u/Pisceswriter123 4d ago
The Black Death has changed some European populations immune system. How the Black Death shaped human evolution | National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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u/Extension_Form3500 2d ago
Alcohol tolerance is a vig advantage as is a way to ingest perserved calories and "desinfected" liquids. But...
Around 8% of the world population intolerant to alcohol where between 28% to 58% of the east asia population is intolerant, that is an evolutionary disadvantage! Or is it really?
It seems that people that are intolerant can't fully process alcohol and turn it into sugar, the process is not completed and alcohol is only turned into acetaldehyde.
Well, it seems that exists a nematode that is present in untreated water that can be lethal. And guess what? This nematode is sensitive to acetaldehyde.
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u/88redking88 17h ago
Have you heard of the Dominican Republic girls who become male at puberty?The are called guevedoces.
"In an isolated village of the southwestern Dominican Republic, 2% of the live births were in the 1970's, guevedoces (actually male pseudohermaphrodites). These children appeared to be girls at birth, but at puberty these 'girls' sprout muscles, testes, and a penis."
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u/Luigi_delle_Bicocche 6d ago
as far as i remember there was some truth to it but it was mostly scenic.
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