Evolution Didn't Stop With Out-Of-Africa
04/05/2022
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It’s common to argue that racial differences due to genetic differences can’t exist because the division of humanity into two major groups, sub-Saharans and non-sub-Saharans, only began 50,000 to 100,000 years ago with the Out-of-Africa event, and that’s Just Not Long Enough for any differences to evolve except for skin-deep ones like pigmentation.

On the other hand, nah.

From Nature Human Behavior:

A selection pressure landscape for 870 human polygenic traits

Article
Published: 15 November 2021
Weichen Song, Yueqi Shi, Weidi Wang, Weihao Pan, Wei Qian, Shunying Yu, Min Zhao & Guan Ning Lin

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Abstract
Characterizing the natural selection of complex traits is important for understanding human evolution and both biological and pathological mechanisms. We leveraged genome-wide summary statistics for 870 polygenic traits and attempted to quantify signals of selection on traits of different forms in European ancestry across four periods in human history and evolution. We found that 88% of these traits underwent polygenic change in the past 2,000–3,000 years. Recent selection was associated with ancient selection signals in the same trait. Traits related to pigmentation, body measurement and nutritional intake exhibited strong selection signals across different time scales. Our findings are limited by our use of exclusively European data

So this is just showing continuing evolution among Europeans.

and the use of genome-wide association study data, which identify associations between genetic variants and phenotypes that may not be causal. In sum, we provide an overview of signals of selection on human polygenic traits and their characteristics across human evolution, based on a European subset of human genetic diversity. These findings could serve as a foundation for further populational and medical genetic studies.

As Cochran and Harpending pointed out in their 2009 book The 10,000 Year Explosion, evolution has been carrying on into modern times. Indeed, it may sometimes speed up in recent millennia because the larger the population the more likely a favorable mutation (e.g., lactase-tolerance) is to arrive by accident.

[Comment at Unz.com]
 
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