{"id":24334,"date":"2019-09-16T09:34:48","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T09:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencesensei.com\/?p=24334"},"modified":"2023-11-01T12:35:36","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T16:35:36","slug":"35-ways-evolution-is-proven-all-around-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.sciencesensei.com\/35-ways-evolution-is-proven-all-around-us\/","title":{"rendered":"35 Ways Evolution Is Proven All Around Us"},"content":{"rendered":"
There is a song that starts out by saying “Evolution is a mystery, full of change that no one sees, the clock makes a fool of history.”<\/em> The song is called “Line in the Sand” by Motorhead. It actually was given to the WWE faction interestingly called “Evolution.” Funny enough, people do not think they can see evolutionary changes while they often can. In fact, there are several ways evolution is proven all around you. We should first state that people often confuse Evolution with Darwinism. While yes, Charles Darwin was among the first to propose what we know today as evolution, the Darwinism side of things is not exactly the same thing. The idea of Darwinism is based on evolution itself.<\/p>\n Essentially, Darwinism<\/a> is the theory of biological evolution, stating that species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual’s ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. Meanwhile, Evolution is defined as a cumulative inherited change in a population of organisms through time leading to the appearance of new forms. Of course, this still does have a lot to do with natural selection. The connection between the two is clearly confusing because they often do connect to the same subject matter at the end of the day. However, Darwinism remains a theory while evolution is a scientific fact. That is the biggest difference between the two.<\/p>\n Many like to argue that evolution isn’t real but tend to skip the fact that the evolutionary changes are all around them. That’s what our article is going to be about, showing you ways evolution is proven all around you. The article will cover both humans and animals. We feel, by the end, you’ll agree evolution is hard to argue against.<\/p>\n Isn’t it weird how humans have been around for thousands of years and still have an appendix? For the longest time, we assumed that it was some random human evolutionary issue. Most of the time, mammals are especially known for dropping anything that is actually a problem for our overall lifestyle. Why did this little weird thing remain inside of us the entire time?<\/p>\n Contrary to popular belief, the appendix does so much more than we first thought. The main role of it today is to store good bacteria<\/a>, which is then accessed by the colon and intestines for better overall health in the gastrointestinal tract. It helped to maintain gut flora as a result of this and even helps the immune system too. Seriously, it’s highly underrated.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While the Holy Bible has a different tale about how snakes lost their legs and arms, science actually has an interesting reason for it. A long time ago, snakes evolved from a land-based burrowing animal<\/a>. This animal did have legs and arms, yet when snakes evolved out of it, they actually had them too. The snakes ended up dropping them because of simple need.<\/p>\n Essentially, snakes were hunted and due to being so low to the ground and small, they needed to escape faster and fit into tighter places. Legs and arms got in the way of this, and slithering was actually quicker. It allowed them to move about easier too. We still have traces of legs and arms with snakes. Boas and Pythons<\/a> actually still have small stubs on their bodies to prove this.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Usually, when two different species mate, nothing comes out of it. In the instances it does occur, what comes out of it is typically weaker and is sadly infertile. Yet in the world of mice hybrids, 50% are sterile. This is why people were amazed when Europeans randomly found a way to get an Algerian Mouse and a common house mouse to mate.<\/p>\n Not only did the mating result in other mice being born but they survived and mated with each other. In addition to this fertility, the mice offspring also developed the ability to be immune to Warfarin (rat poison). The genes come from the Algerian mice who have this gene naturally due to their Vitamin-K diet. Apparently, the Algerian mice “got around” outside of labs and this has resulted in a rise in mice that cannot be killed<\/a> by most poison and pesticides currently on the market.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Everyone knows by now that Wolves, Dingos, and the common Dog all come from similar K-9 backgrounds. However, two of these groups are found in the wild routinely while the other could literally be sitting beside you right now or at your feet. We’ve been around dogs and even bred certain types for centuries. They have even become a massive asset to mankind overall. Yet before man took them on, they were wild and dangerous creatures.<\/p>\n Dogs can still be dangerous to this day. In fact, each year<\/a> dogs are responsible for more human deaths than Hippos, Alligators, Crocodiles, Sharks, and Lions combined! Most of the time, they’d never hurt humans yet stray dogs like wolves will at times attack humans. On top of this, strays hunt and kill other animals and have superior navigation skills. When left to fend for themselves, dogs go back to a primal state and become a nearly exact copy of their wolf ancestor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Likely one of the single most amazing evolutionary creatures on the planet, the jellyfish simply known to science as Turritopsis dohrnii, has figured out how to be immortal. This has resulted in the jellyfish getting the clever nickname “The Immortal Jellyfish<\/a>.” To be upfront about this creature though, it can die and many of them have done so. Most tend to die from attacks or injuries developed.<\/p>\n However, if they eat like normal, they’ll actually live for as long as they want. How do they do this, you ask? They turn themselves inside out and absorb their tentacles to transform from an adult form into a baby version. Any time they are hurt or stressed, they drop to the ocean floor to start this process. This can be done for an unlimited period of time. Crazier still, unlike other animals, does not show its age as a result of this process. Thus, we have no idea how old many actually are.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The HIV\/AIDS epidemic is horrible despite the amazing medications currently present for it. The disease originated in chimpanzees somewhere in Western Africa and ended up transferring to humans as we hunted these creatures down for meat and ate them. This is why HIV is transferable both sexually and via blood. Yet some happen to be resistant to it.<\/p>\n Studies went into this and found that a gene mutation known as “CCR5-delta 32” can be found in some human beings today and it makes them naturally resilient<\/a> to the HIV Virus. Without HIV, AIDS also cannot happen in these people either. Scientists were able to trace this back over 700 years to the time of the Black Plague. They were able to uncover that those with this gene could have likely survived the plague and passed on this gene to their offspring.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Somehow, certain animals ended up in areas where they were in total and complete darkness. They are often found in caves where they have no way of escaping. They had to make the most of their new home and showed us ways evolution is proven through them. There are two such creatures that ended up in this situation and are now completely blind. One is the Olm<\/a>, which is a completely aquatic salamander.<\/p>\n Due to the darkness, they’re in, their eyes are formed but never develop into eyesight, rendering them blind. They are able to use other traits to their advantage, such as increased hearing and even live incredibly long. The Mexican Cavefish<\/a> is also blind yet due to the lack of food it gets, the fish developed starvation resistance instead of proper eyesight. They do this with melanocortin too, which allows them to eat unlimited amounts of food when it is present. Almost like a beat before hibernation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There are numerous types of flatfish in the ocean. The types that fall under this are the flounder, halibut, sole, and many others. You’ll notice a key thing most possess, both eyes on one side of their body. The question is, why in the world would this even be useful to them? Technically, this seems like a drop where evolution went the wrong way.<\/p>\n Yet in one of the key ways evolution is proven to us here, flatfish actually use this development to their advantage. They evolved to have both eyes<\/a> on one side so that the other side could be on the ocean floor. This allows them to hide without predators seeing them with ease and even helps them surprise attack prey for food as a hunting technique. This eye transition of theirs actually begins while the flatfish is young. One eye slowly moves up and finally over the top of the head.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We all know and love Giraffes, right? They are some of the most incredible animals in the world. In fact, when a Giraffe is born, they literally fall out of a standing mother Giraffe. Seriously, they are dropped out upon birth. On top of this, the baby Giraffe will begin to take their first steps 30 minutes to an hour<\/a> after they’re born too! It’s absolutely incredible to observe. As the babies grow, their entire body grows into itself and their necks end up getting quite a bit longer.<\/p>\n They are born with a long neck in place. However, as they grow into their full size, the neck ends up getting longer and eventually thicker. The neck originally evolved to help Giraffes reach vegetation in high trees. Yet the necks were eventually used for combat purposes as well. Females grow up to 14 feet and 1,500lbs while males grow up to 18 feet and 3,000lbs. The male neck uses some of this extra weight and gets thicker, allowing it to be used as their key weapon.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In Australia, there are interesting lizards known as three-toed skinks. They are easy to mistake for a snake due to the way they often look, which is even similar to that of legless lizards. Both are part of the Anoles family but only one has dropped its arms and legs completely. The Skink<\/a> still has its arms and legs but they are incredibly small. The skink itself first started a process of change about 3.6 million years ago.<\/p>\n One of the ways evolution is proven through skinks is that their arms and legs were much larger and well-defined. They have gotten smaller and their overall lifestyle has made them useless to the skink. They spend a large portion of their time swimming through sand or soil. The thought is that it may just take a few more evolutionary cycles for them to rid themselves of their hindering arms and legs like their legless cousin.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s quite likely that you or someone you know has blue eyes. In fact, it’s relatively common to see eyes of all colors including some that have a mix of two colors. This is actually an evolutionary change that began around 6,000 to 10,000 years ago from one ancient ancestor. This gene mutation and abnormality originated in our ancestors and managed to pass on years later.<\/p>\n This means anyone with blue eyes<\/a> is likely related to this one person, in some way. The way it works is through a mutation affecting the OCA2 gene. This gene somehow codes the protein needed for producing melanin. For those unaware, melanin gives our skin, hair, and eyes their color. The mutation limited the melanin within the iris, effectively diluting the eye color from normal brown to blue.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You may not realize it, but wisdom teeth are used to serve a major purpose. The main asset they had was that they assisted us in chewing relatively tough food. However, no one really liked this so whenever we were able to get softer foods into our main diet, we did so. Sadly, this caused our jaw muscles to simply not grow to be as strong as they used to be. As a result, wisdom teeth stayed beneath the gums and increased our changed of a painful or even deadly infection from the teeth.<\/p>\n Yet one of the ways evolution is proven to us today is that we may not need a dentist to pull wisdom teeth out of our mouths much longer. A random mutation came about a few thousand years ago that prevented them from growing at all. Today, 1 in 4 people are born missing at least one or more wisdom teeth. Funny enough, Inuit people<\/a> in places like Greenland and Canada are the most common people to be missing one or all wisdom teeth. This is in spite of their often rougher diets.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Isn’t it weird how men have nipples when they have not served a purpose for any real reason in thousands of years? For women, they clearly make sense. They supply milk to their children, which obviously allows babies to get incredibly needed nutrients that help them stay alive. The question is, why do men still develop them if they serve no true purpose? Technically, Estrogen and babies are the major reason behind this.<\/p>\n During the early stages of development inside the mother’s womb, a male child will come in contact with Estrogen, causing nipples to form. It’s based completely on the activity of X chromosomes at this stage. Then the Y chromosome kicks in for the male genes to form within the child. This kills off the formation of breasts in the eventual male child. However, some males can lactate<\/a>. This technically means men still develop nipples to assist women in breastfeeding and the prevention of starvation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Isn’t it weird to see that little bit of pink flesh-like stuff in the corner of your eye? What the heck is that for anyway? Today, it seems to be one of the coolest ways evolution is proven. In humans, this particular part of our eyes remains with us from something we used to fully develop called “a nictitating membrane<\/a>.” Technically, it was like a third eyelid. Today, you see this eyelid develop in other mammals as well as birds, amphibians, and fish.<\/p>\n It essentially covers the eye horizontally, and it’s often clear or translucent. This allowed us to see underwater and even manage to see well in strong winds. Our eyes were covered with this membrane and it’s quite obvious that it would be of use to us today, so why don’t we form it like before? It still develops but the role merely changed. It stops growing completely around the eye and remains in the corner to prevent anything from getting inside the eye itself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Malaria is responsible for thousands of deaths in Africa annually. It’s one of mankind’s oldest diseases and one we simply cannot seem to eradicate, as hard as we try. Yet it does seem like we may one day be capable of doing this. During the 1940s and 50s<\/a>, scientists J.B.S. Haldane & A.C. Allison were able to find that the sickle-cell mutation known as Glu6Val in the beta hemoglobin gene, HBB, proved to be resistant to malaria.<\/p>\n More mutations in the HBB have come along showing resistance to malaria too. Populations play a part in this and show one of the ways evolution is proven in humans today. Some have a mutated Duffy antigen gene (FY). The FY is a membrane protein used by the Plasmodium Vivax malaria parasite to access the red blood cells. The FY mutation stops things at the access point, preventing malaria from starting up. This trait is seen in 100% of cases for people in Sub-Saharan Africa, but nowhere else.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We all have had Goosebumps pop up on our bodies at some point in our lives. Often, people get them due to being scared or excited but more often than not, they pop up when we’re cold. The way this happens is through something called the Arrector Pili flex<\/a>, a process our muscles start within the skin. This was actually something that remained throughout our evolutionary process. When we were growing into the humans we’d one day become, we were actually covered in a ton of body hair.<\/p>\n Both men and women had this issue. We eventually dropped a large part of this hair, but a lot still remains. Just look at your sink or tub drain, people! Goosebumps used to work in us as a protective device. They used to make our hair stand on end, making us look bigger to a possible predator. The hair would also serve to warm us when cold. This is why even our thinner hair still stands a bit while Goosebumps pop up. Yet we can see the bumps, proving they do not work like they used to.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Coccyx,<\/a> known today mostly as the tailbone, happens to be the end of your vertebrae. It’s actually the home of where our tails used to be too. Just about every mammal on Earth had a tail at some point in their evolutionary history. Even today, some humans actually grow a version of a tail. This ultimately proves that all humanoids had them at some point.<\/p>\n In fact, during the 14 to 22-week stages of human embryogenesis, you can actually view a child inside the mother’s womb and notice a tail-like formation. It’s eventually absorbed by most of us, except for those that were referred to earlier. To most, this is one of the coolest ways evolution is proven. This viewable formation of a child shows, somewhat, a process of humans from their ancestral state into their current form, all in nine months.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Have you ever wondered how some people seem to be capable of living on mountains? A few people stand out as genetic marvels when you consider this, and none of them has to do with those from Denver, Colorado. The two major groups of people are the Sherpas & overall Tibetans from the Himalayas. Both operate as guides for mountain climbers who wish to climb any of the mountains in the Himalayan region, especially Mount Everest.<\/p>\n These people have managed to operate without any issues in these mountains, despite low oxygen levels. In one of the ways evolution is proven, scientists found that the Tibetans<\/a> produce more oxygen-transporting hemoglobin protein than an average person. It’s actually a mutation within these people believed to have started around 3,000 years ago, possibly longer! Though being a guide up here is still the most dangerous job on the planet, regardless of how you handle breathing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our process of sweating may not seem like one of the ways evolution is proven to the world, but it actually is. For the longest time, this process was not actually part of our system. Today, we do! The question is, why do we sweat<\/a>? The quick answer is that we do it to regulate our body temperature. Usually, we sweat when we’re hot so water within us comes out to cool us down so we don’t overheat.<\/p>\n When we do not sweat despite the overheating, this can be the start of Heat Stroke. Sweating also dehydrates a person, so it’s best to wear long-sleeved clothing to catch all the water you’re losing. We can also breathe while running and sweating, unlike other animals that pant to cool down and cannot run during this process. This allows us to chase animals and kill them easier once they tire out. It’s an evolutionary edge we have over most creatures, only animals like horses can do this too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We often call dogs “man’s best friend.” The reason for this is pretty compelling and goes back around 10,000 years ago when humans first domesticated dogs. Man and Dog have been connected ever since, which could be why dog barking has become such an annoying yet also helpful thing for humans. Why is this? Dogs love their owners so much that they’ll often fight to keep them safe.<\/p>\n Some dogs have pulled people out of burning buildings while others even stay by an owner’s bedside as protectors while their human was sick or dying. While dogs don’t speak in an active language we can understand, we have learned the distinction between barks. Dogs know how to bark<\/a> at warning or danger points as well as communication barking. We’re then able to determine the difference. This is actually evolutionary and developed over the thousands of years we’ve been with them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While Sea Slugs may not stand out as massively evolving beings, they are animals that can show us several ways evolution is proven science. The way they are able to do this is through their absolutely amazing ability to adapt. When food is running short in the cold coastal waters they are native to, they steal DNA from the algae they consume. This allows them to develop genes that allow them to live off of only sunlight, along with the use of chloroplasts.<\/p>\n Their food is literally consumed and they take their DNA like it’s nothing and then pass it on to their offspring! While the next generation of slugs will come with this algae gene, they’ll just need chloroplasts to keep things working. This all happens through something known as Horizontal Gene Transfer<\/a>, which skates around normal evolutionary traits by up to millions of years. As of now, the Sea Slugs are the only multicellular organisms capable of this… that we know of.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n35. The Human Appendix<\/strong><\/h2>\n
34. Snakes once had legs but now don’t for good reason<\/strong><\/h2>\n
33. Some Mice are Becoming immune to Pesticides<\/strong><\/h2>\n
32. Stray Dogs develop Wolf-Like traits<\/strong><\/h2>\n
31. The Balad of the Immortal Jellyfish<\/strong><\/h2>\n
30. HIV-resistant gene mutation<\/strong><\/h2>\n
29. Some animals evolve to be blind in order to develop other key traits<\/strong><\/h2>\n
28. Flatfish one-sided eyes<\/strong><\/h2>\n
27. The long neck of Giraffes<\/strong><\/h2>\n
26. Are Skinks becoming more like their Snake Cousin?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
25. Development of Blue Eyes<\/strong><\/h2>\n
24. Missing the Wisdom Teeth<\/strong><\/h2>\n
23. Male Nipples<\/strong><\/h2>\n
22. Plica Semilunaris use in humans today<\/strong><\/h2>\n
21. Malaria Resistance gene<\/strong><\/h2>\n
20. Look at those Goosebumps!<\/strong><\/h2>\n
19. The Coccyx formation is an odd one<\/strong><\/h2>\n
18. Breathing in High-Altitude<\/strong><\/h2>\n
17. Sweating Process<\/strong><\/h2>\n
16. Dog Barks<\/strong><\/h2>\n
15. Sea Slugs steal to add to their DNA<\/strong><\/h2>\n