Nature continues to mould human genes, shows study

479 genetic variants were favoured by natural selection in the past 10,000 years itself

- CARL ZIMMER

MANY SCIENTISTS HAVE contended that humans have evolved very little over the past 10,000 years.

A few hundred generations was just a blink of the evolutionary eye, it seemed. Besides, our cultural evolution — our technology, agriculture and the rest — must have overwhelmed our biological evolution by now. A vast study, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggests the opposite. Examining DNA from 15,836 ancient human remains, scientists found 479 genetic variants that appeared to have been favoured by natural selection in just the past 10,000 years. The researchers also concluded that thousands of additional genetic variants have probably experienced natural selection. Before the new study, scientists had identified only a few dozen variants.