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Will our feet eventually evolve into hands?

  • 11-12-2011 07:26PM
    #1
    IvaBigWun
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,368 ✭✭✭


    Has evolution got anything left to do with the human body?


«13

Comments

  • #2
    MyKeyG
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,282 ✭✭✭MyKeyG


    IvaBigWun wrote: »
    Have evolution got anything left to do with the human body?
    Wouldn't that sort of be going backwards? We had hands for feet as primates.


  • #3
    Doc Ruby
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,956 ✭✭✭Doc Ruby


    I wouldn't trust that evolution, look how it got rid of a perfectly serviceable tail. And now I can no longer hang upside down from a tree while clipping my toenails without a lot of discomfort/athletic buttocks.


  • #4
    kylith
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,745 ✭✭✭✭kylith


    No, our feet won't turn into hands.

    It's anyone's guess what's in store for us, evolutionarily. I seem to recall hearing that there's some evidence that we're evolving to cope with our high fat diets.


  • #5
    TeddyTedson
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,758 ✭✭✭✭TeddyTedson


    more fingers I'd say and taller and darker


  • #6
    MyKeyG
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,282 ✭✭✭MyKeyG


    kylith wrote: »
    No, our feet won't turn into hands.

    It's anyone's guess what's in store for us, evolutionarily. I seem to recall hearing that there's some evidence that we're evolving to cope with our high fat diets.
    We have to evolve instead of going on diets? That's just laziness:D


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  • #7
    Abi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,058 ✭✭✭✭Abi


    IvaBigWun wrote: »
    Has evolution got anything left to do with the human body?

    Does vodka have anything to do with this question? :pac:


  • #8
    seantorious
    Closed Accounts Posts: 193 ✭✭seantorious


    IvaBigWun wrote: »
    Has evolution got anything left to do with the human body?

    I looked at myself naked in the mirror.

    It really does. :(


  • #9
    Logical Fallacy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,933 ✭✭✭Logical Fallacy


    IvaBigWun wrote: »
    Has evolution got anything left to do with the human body?

    Nope, they might turn into leg cocks though.


  • #10
    Kevin Duffy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,439 ✭✭✭Kevin Duffy


    I don't know about feet becoming hands, but I've just measured and my hand is nearly a foot already.


  • #11
    stupidusername
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,762 ✭✭✭✭stupidusername


    it's an interesting thing to think about - how we can evolve. i don't think our feet will become hands. maybe they'll have less toes, as more and more people drive, we spend less time on our feet, and so need our balance a whole lot less.

    we'll probably lose our appendixes eventually.


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  • #12
    BEASTERLY
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,789 ✭✭✭BEASTERLY


    Because the weak are given more help than the abled bodied it blows natural selection out of the water. So the human living in the developed world will evolve no more.


  • #13
    Kevin Duffy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,439 ✭✭✭Kevin Duffy


    seantorious wrote: »
    I looked at myself naked in the mirror.

    It really does. :(


    Look on the bright side, your eyesight is fully evolved.


  • #14
    Dotrel
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,980 ✭✭✭Dotrel


    IvaBigWun wrote: »
    Has evolution got anything left to do with the human body?

    Males will grow a second cock in case one gets shot off in a war.


  • #15
    seantorious
    Closed Accounts Posts: 193 ✭✭seantorious


    Kevin Duffy wrote: »
    Look on the bright side, your eyesight is fully evolved.

    It won't be until I can see through the walls of the opposite sex bathroom.


  • #16
    Robdude
    Closed Accounts Posts: 709 ✭✭✭Robdude


    I thought modern medicine and society has pretty much halted human evolution?

    It's been a long time, but I though evolution only worked when certain traits increase or decrease someone's ability to procreate. That means in just about any first-world country - evolution is halted.

    You don't need to be successful in any sense of the world to have children. And your ability to provide for them does very little to impact their ability to survive.


  • #17
    Kanoe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,522 ✭✭✭Kanoe


    IvaBigWun wrote: »
    Has evolution got anything left to do with the human body?
    our brain..and our genes, constantly evolving to suit our environment/needs


  • #18
    Abi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,058 ✭✭✭✭Abi


    seantorious wrote: »
    It won't be until I can see through the walls of the opposite sex bathroom.

    Why would you wanna watch some bird havin' a shyte?


  • #19
    Nodin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 46,938 ✭✭✭✭Nodin


    IvaBigWun wrote: »
    Has evolution got anything left to do with the human body?

    You'll note the already long and hairy nature of many Irish womens toes. Of course whether this is evolution, devolution or a consistent state has not yet seen a consensus amonst the scientific community.


  • #20
    Kevin Duffy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,439 ✭✭✭Kevin Duffy


    Abi wrote: »
    Why would you wanna watch some bird havin' a shyte?

    PM se.....wait....hang on, eh, never mind....


  • #21
    im invisible
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,372 ✭✭✭im invisible


    We might evolve in a different direction, de-evolove wouldnt be the right word, but with all the 'bad' genes that would have been weeded out naturally staying in the gene pool, we might evolve in a direction that wouldnt exactly be 'survival of the fittest'


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  • #22
    Deus Ex Machina
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,556 ✭✭✭Deus Ex Machina


    MyKeyG wrote: »
    Wouldn't that sort of be going backwards? We had hands for feet as primates.

    Homo sapiens are primates...


  • #23
    mconigol
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,583 ✭✭✭mconigol


    Robdude wrote: »
    I thought modern medicine and society has pretty much halted human evolution?

    It's been a long time, but I though evolution only worked when certain traits increase or decrease someone's ability to procreate. That means in just about any first-world country - evolution is halted.

    You don't need to be successful in any sense of the world to have children. And your ability to provide for them does very little to impact their ability to survive.

    Evolution is the random mutation of genes. It hasn't and doesn't stop.

    It has nothing to do with environment or society etc....although the environment will influence which random genetic traits are more advantageous and are thus kept.


  • #24
    Archeron
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 6,820 ✭✭✭Archeron


    I can peel a banana with my feet, so yes.


  • #25
    stupidusername
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,762 ✭✭✭✭stupidusername


    mconigol wrote: »
    Evolution is the random mutation of genes. It hasn't and doesn't stop.

    It has nothing to do with environment or society etc....although the environment will influence which random genetic traits are more advantageous and are thus kept.

    what?! :confused: that's exactly what it's to do with.


  • #26
    dvpower
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,182 ✭✭✭dvpower


    stupidusername wrote: »
    what?! :confused: that's exactly what it's to do with.

    The mutations themselves have nothing to do with the environment. Which mutations are passed on have.

    mutations + natural selection = evolution


  • #27
    kfallon
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,775 ✭✭✭✭kfallon


    Has happened the other way round for this guy :p

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2068034/James-Byrne-thumb-replaced-big-toe-surgeons.html


  • #28
    galwayrush
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,816 ✭✭✭✭galwayrush


    Christie Brown is our future.


  • #29
    Robdude
    Closed Accounts Posts: 709 ✭✭✭Robdude


    mconigol wrote: »
    Evolution is the random mutation of genes. It hasn't and doesn't stop.

    It has nothing to do with environment or society etc....although the environment will influence which random genetic traits are more advantageous and are thus kept.

    I thought natural selection was at the foundation of evolution.

    From Wikipedia:
    The genetic variation within a population of organisms may cause some individuals to survive and reproduce more successfully than others. Factors that affect reproductive success are also important, an issue that Charles Darwin developed in his ideas on sexual selection.

    But in a modern society, only the most extreme genetic variations cause someone to be unable to reproduce or to die before they can reproduce.


  • #30
    Carverkid
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 55 ✭✭Carverkid


    Women will eventually have the ability to asexually reproduce, (apparently) as the the x chromosome (woman) is stronger than the y chromosome (man).


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  • #31
    Kevin Duffy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,439 ✭✭✭Kevin Duffy


    Carverkid wrote: »
    Women will eventually have the ability to asexually reproduce, (apparently) as the the x chromosome (woman) is stronger than the y chromosome (man).

    Is it possible to give a quick and dirty paraphrase of how this becomes that conclusion?


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