First, two evolutionary adaptations in humans, bipedalism and delicate muscle movements, resulted in the lack of a need for "hyperfocus". Second, a relatively safe and rich environment replaced "hyperfocus" with social cohesion. Third, a burgeoning social interaction ushered in natural selection, ...
Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace (1858) famously proposed that positive selection could explain the many marvelous adaptations that suit organisms to their environments and lifestyles, and this simple process remains the central explanation for all evolutionary adaptation yet today. Positive selection is ...
Nearly all genetic variants that influence disease risk have human-specific origins; however, the systems they influence have ancient roots that often trace back to evolutionary events long before the origin of humans. Here, we review how advances in our understanding of the genetic architectures of...
and the desire to raise children seems to be pervasive among modern humans. Despite these commonalities, patterns of adoption transactions vary greatly among contemporary human societies. This paper considers the origins and causes of cross-cultural variation in human adoptive behavior from an ...
These theoretically include goitro-gens in certain roots, vegetables, beans, and seeds. The notion that humans are strictly dependent on marine foods to meet requirements of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids still awaits solid evidence.Shifting the focus from general human characteristics to ethnic ...
"Stress" is a modern word for an ancient phenomenon, related to evolved adaptations that detect threats or damage to well-being and to mobilize responses to them. As such, it lies at the heart of adaptation at the phenotypic level, so that the study of stress has become a major venue fo...
While it is unlikely that completely new complex adaptations have arisen within this time frame, we cannot completely discount the possibility that new adaptations have occurred in this time frame, or (more likely) that the expression of existing adaptations has not been altered (Cochran and Har...
Drawing from evolutionary biology, behavioral ecology, cognitive psychology, and related fields, evolutionary psychologists hold that our ingrained mental processes—known as our cognitive architecture—have been formed through adaptations that aided our ancestors in surviving and procreating. While ...
research thus far represents just a first glimpse of a vast new landscape. In the years to come, new technologies and analytic methods will enable researchers to learn even more about the genetic basis of evolutionary adaptations that have allowed humans to withstand a wide variety of co...
We argue that these consequences of internal fertilization and gestation are responsible for many phenomena in humans, such as sexual coercion, commitment skepticism, sexual overperception, and a host of adaptations associated with sperm competition. (C) Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009. 展开 ...