Two new studies reveal that the impacts of societal development can lead to profound changes in humans, affecting everything from external appearance to internal body functions.
The first study, recently published in the journal Frontiers in Genetics, discloses that humans living in Europe during the Neolithic period (approximately 10,000 BC to 4,500 BC) underwent remarkable changes in stature, skin color, disease risk, and intelligence.
Could humans have undergone extreme transformations in the past? – (Photo: Gorodenkoff)
According to Ancient Origins, a group of genetic researchers from Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen (Netherlands) and the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (Germany) studied the genetic profiles of over 800 ancient Europeans, compiled from DNA samples taken from skeletons excavated from various archaeological sites.
When compared to the DNA of modern Europeans, they discovered astonishing changes in gene clusters related to skin pigmentation, body weight, body mass index, metabolism, cholesterol levels, and brain activity.
Clearly, over the thousands of years of the Neolithic era, it seems that advancements in tool production technology and labor methods had a profound impact on these ancient individuals.
They became taller, had lighter skin, were more intelligent, but were also more prone to cardiovascular diseases.
Notably, the changes that made Europeans more modern also increased their susceptibility to high levels of bad cholesterol and heart disease: this is because the genes associated with these risks were beneficial for brain function. Therefore, humans effectively made an “exchange” to obtain a more intelligent mind.
In contrast, a study led by Associate Professor Stephanie Marciniak from the Department of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University (USA), recently published in the journal PNAS, asserts that around 10,000 BC, humans also… shrank by 3.8 cm.
According to Daily Mail, the transition from a hunter-gatherer society to an early agricultural society resulted in a period of poor nutrition and increased disease burden, leading to changes in stature.
This research was also based on DNA analysis from 167 individuals found throughout Europe, who lived from about 38,000 years ago to 2,400 years ago.
Experts suggest that it is likely that sophisticated societal changes had different impacts on various groups of people, each with distinct adaptive capacities to environmental changes. It is also possible that humans overcame the hardships at the onset of the Neolithic era, allowing for an immediate reversal of seemingly “regressive” changes.
