OROGOLD Cosmetics recently came across a study which showed that despite our massive lifestyle changes, humans are still evolving as a species. Even though the human society now enjoys modern housing, better sanitation, advanced medical science, a varied diet and an insulated population, humans are still evolving, according to this study. The study was published in the Evolution Journal and it showed that the genetic influence on when a person is likely to start a family and the overall size of the family has risen in the recent past when compared to the 18^th and the 19^th centuries.

The authors of the study mention that the decrease in family sizes and the fall in death rates haven’t prevented the Darwinian theory of evolution from exerting its effect on the gene pool. They studied church records of deaths, births and marriages for a total of 10000 inhabitants who lived in Finland since the beginning of the 18^th century. They concluded that evolution is still taking place, despite the dramatic cultural change that came about in the same period. Dr. Elisabeth Bolund, a researcher working for the Uppsala University, mentions that as long as some people have more children and some people have less children, there shall always be a potential for human evolution. She further said that the variation in population in terms of reproduction leads to a difference in reproductive success, which means that natural selection has something to work with.

Scientists have always maintained that one of the main reasons why human evolution has slowed down is because the advent of agriculture, modern technology and medical science has cushioned most of the population from the “survival of the fittest” theory.

In this study, the researchers found that about 2/3rds of the children who were born in the 1860s managed to survive till adulthood. The same study also determined that survival rates had increased by 94%. At the same time, the population went from having 5 children to 1.6 children because of a shift in culture.

However, Dr. Bolund and her team discovered that cultural influences were not the only determinants because a significant portion could be attributed to genetic inheritance. Researchers determined that about 4% – 18% of variations in the lifespan, ages and family size were influenced by genes. Dr. Bolund finds findings to be very exciting. She says that if genes could be affected by differences between individuals, they could also be affected by natural selection.

Dr. Bolund further explained that the researchers were aware of the complex and dramatic changes that have taken place in the environment. As a result, they investigated the genetic basis of these complex traits and the ability of such traits to continue changing through evolution. The researchers state that it might be possible that people have more freedom to express their genetic predispositions because of relaxed social influences and that this led to genetic differences. They also mention that it might be possible to see shifts where women reproduce at a later stage, but this shift would take hundreds of years.