Questions tagged [evolution]

Evolution is the process of change in all forms of life over generations, and evolutionary biology is the study of how evolution occurs. The biodiversity of life evolves by means of mutations, genetic drift and natural selection.

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Does homosexuality preserve the species?

From The Huffington Post: For even without a causal link established between homosexuality and population management, the obvious reduction in population growth attributable to homosexuality by ...
Carlo Alterego's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
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Are most people right handed, because they had to protect their heart?

In this thesis, the following explanation was given for why the majority of people are right handed: Primitive hunters needed to protect their most vital organ of the body (the heart), so their left ...
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Is the rate of Human Evolution Slowing down? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Is human evolution slowing down? I know that this question already exists and have read through. Is human evolution slowing down? Mutations have to happen agreed, but natural ...
Ishan's user avatar
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Is intelligence declining due to the lack of selection pressure?

I have read lately that human intelligence has already peaked and that it will slowly decline over time because humans are no longer naturally selected for intelligence (Darwin award winners aside). ...
Brian M. Hunt's user avatar
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1 answer
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Are women more sensitive to high-pitched noises than men?

On Season 1, Episode 2 of The Big Bang Theory, characters Sheldon and Leonard are sneaking around in Penny's room. In order not to wake her, Sheldon warns Leonard to be careful to make pitched noises. ...
isJustMe's user avatar
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Evidence for early Earth's atmosphere

What best evidences there are that demonstrate what Earth was like in its early years? According to this video Earth started out with no oxygen in its atmosphere. And according to this link the Earth'...
supertonsky's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
4k views

Is the theory of evolution disproved by bats?

For some species, the Darwin's theory of evolution makes perfect sense to me. I can easily imagine how, for example, the giraffe has evolved to its current appearance: the natural selection was ...
Desmond Hume's user avatar
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3 answers
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Is the fossil KNM-ER 1470 evidence that other dating methods other than the fossil record are inaccurate?

The skull was originally dated to be almost 3 million years old. This led Richard Leakey, the son of famed archeologist Louis Leakey to comment, "Either We toss out this skull or we toss out our ...
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Is physical beauty correlated with health?

There is a widespread claim that we use beauty in the selection of a partner as a proxy to their overall health. The idea is that this is an evolutionary adaptation. Are there any studies to confirm ...
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Did humans used to be a lot smaller on average? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Were people shorter in the middle ages? When talking about human evolution, I've heard several people comment that humans used to be a lot smaller, and that we can tell this ...
Curtis's user avatar
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Is there legitimate scientific debate about evolution? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicates: Demonstrable and repeatable examples of evolution Does "The Fossil Record" evidence sufficiently support evolution? Have we observed evolution through natural selection in ...
Casey Patton's user avatar
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Has natural occuring genetic insertion ever been observed in direct offspring of some organism?

Maybe this is somewhat of an ignorant question of me, and in all honesty I haven't tried very hard to find what I'm looking for1, but I keep hearing the argument that "information" can never be added ...
Decent Dabbler's user avatar
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Do we know why animals have evolved to have sex for reproduction?

I've been reading 13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Intriguing Scientific Mysteries of Our Time (2010) and Chapter 10 concentrates on the subject of Sex. The author argues that we do not know ...
Chris S's user avatar
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Is Lamarckian evolution still considered credible?

I had thought that Lamarckian evolution had been essentially dismissed in favour of Darwinian evolution. Lamarckian evolution as I understand it is essentially the idea that the traits an organism ...
Sonny Ordell's user avatar
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Does evolutionary psychology predict that humans will be more altruistic to those who are similar?

I read that in "The Red Queen" by Matt Ridley. Racism and xenophobes are samples of these behavior. Is this true? And if it's true, how does that work? For example. Evolutionary psychology predict ...
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Do bacteria become immune to antibiotics if you don't complete your course of them?

Every time a doctor gives you antibiotics, they ask you to finish all of them, even if you might feel fine after taking only part of the package. Most searches on Google says that if I don't finish ...
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Did Lucretius write about evolution and natural selection?

Robert Krulwich of NPR claims that Professor Stephen Greenblatt claims that Lucretius (around 99-55BC) said: ... moving randomly through space, like dust motes in a sunbeam, colliding, hooking ...
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Are apes our ancestors?

I've heard that apes are our ancestors (ranging from chimpanzee to bonobo to gorilla). Is this true? Can we live side-by-side with our ancestors? I always thought we used to have a common ancestor ...
Jim's user avatar
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Have any transitional fossils (missing links) been found?

When animals evolve, they go into transitional states, when they were still in the process of evolving and haven't reached its complete change. There are bound to be organisms in the transitional ...
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10 votes
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Do prions qualify as living and, if so, do they argue for a second origin of life? [closed]

Not sure if there's a better Stack Exchange for this, but How could Darwin be sure all life has a common origin triggered this question. As I understand it, prions are pretty much protein-based ...
Larry OBrien's user avatar
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How could Darwin be sure all life has a common origin

I don't recall exactly the words he used, but to the best of my recollection Darwin was quite certain that all living things share a common ancestor. First of all, is this correct? Second, and more ...
FumbleFingers's user avatar
20 votes
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Why do cats and dogs fight?

From our daily experience we know that most of the time cats and dogs are involved in fights rather than in expressions of affection. Is there an evolutionary basis(justification) for this? Why would ...
AIB's user avatar
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16 votes
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Does the theory of evolution contradict the second law of thermodynamics?

I was reading about the Law of Thermodynamics, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics really interested me because the Law apparently stated that in any isolated system, the entropy of that system will ...
Thursagen's user avatar
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Are evolutionary explanations "Just so stories" [closed]

There's a claim that evolutionary explanations are nothin more then "just so stories", that is, for any trait we can find in nature, one could find a way to explain why it's adaptive. For example: ...
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51 votes
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Demonstrable and repeatable examples of evolution

Are there examples of evolution that can be demonstrated as proof that evolution occurs and is a useful mechanism for making predictions? Some examples that come to mind include: Animal husbandry (e....
Brian M. Hunt's user avatar
18 votes
3 answers
5k views

Is human evolution slowing down?

It has been said that the human race has basically hit a point where any further evolution is essentially unnecessary: protection from most harmful diseases is provided by medicine, we have very few ...
Thomas O's user avatar
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14 votes
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Have we observed evolution through natural selection in areas of high child/youth mortality?

It has been suggested to me that human evolution has slowed or halted because natural selection no longer "weeds out the weak" before they get a chance to reproduce. However, there are still places ...
jl6's user avatar
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34 votes
5 answers
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Does DNA add credibility to the theory of evolution?

I have yet to make up my mind regarding the theory of evolution. Whilst doing some reading on dnafish I read that DNA itself provides evidence for the theory of evolution: Yeast, trees, flowers, ...
mulllhausen's user avatar
31 votes
4 answers
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What is the commonly accepted mechanism that causes people to experience pareidolia?

I often see cases of pareidolia reported in the news, on blogs, and even here. I think remember reading in Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan that this had an evolutionary origin (i.e. if you see a ...
Larian LeQuella's user avatar
77 votes
5 answers
17k views

Were people shorter in the middle ages?

In many castles or museums you'll find medieval armor, belonging to a knight. Those are often very small compared to the average human nowadays. I've heard this explained multiple times as being due ...
Mad Scientist's user avatar
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59 votes
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Does "The Fossil Record" evidence sufficiently support evolution?

According to Darwin, the absence of intermediate fossil forms “is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory.” What new fossil finds, if any, have occurred since ...
Richard Stelling's user avatar

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