Thus, I decided to show you guys a couple of them, in case you were still wondering. And I shall start with us, humans - since I already mentioned it.
Soooo... Humans.
I used Mentalfloss' article for reference in this one, so if you want to read he whole story, head over there. I'll just give you the short version. Number one reason is that we drink milk - apparently the gene that regulated our ability to digest it should have shut off after breast feeding. But then we started domesticating cows, so we adapted. Then, there is the fact that we are losing our wisdom teeth (the topic is close to me, since I'm currently in war with mine). 35 percent of all humans right now will never have wisdom teeth, and the percentage will grow, until no humans will have one (why can't I be one of them?).
We are developing genes to fight new diseases (1800 new genes in the last 40000 years) - after all there aren't many people around right now who die from tuberculosis or leprosy.
Apparently our brains are getting smaller (and not because we are dumber, but because they are a lot more efficient - they are apparently rewired to work faster this way).
Oh, and then there is the part where there are many human beings out there with blue (or other mutant colored) eyes- because originally we all came in simple brown format.
Okay, other things...
Humans used to get goose bumps not because they were cold or in awe of something, but because back in the times when they didn't wear any clothes they made humans look larger and more dangerous to prey. Back in those days goose bumps were a lot larger than nowadays (and there are some people who never even get them).
Humans also used to have something called the Jacobson's organ, which was located in the nose and it was used to detect pheromones. Now people are born with it, but they are useless.
There is also a muscle in our body that was supposed to help us lift things with our feet. Since we don't really use it anymore, people are starting to be born without it - approximately 9% of us don't have it.
Oh, and to introduce another interesting story, apparently humans are starting to also adapt to radiations (which shouldn't be a huge surprise since we all know that certain people actually live in places with higher background radiation than others without problems). This story is about doctors who work with x-rays all the time. Apparently they have high hydrogen peroxide in their blood, which triggers a production of glutathione, which is a protector of cells.
All right on to other topics...
That, ladies and gentlemen is the stickleback fish. They all all around in fresh waters of Europe, Asian and North America. These fishes have no scales, instead they are protected by bony armor plates.
The fun part in them is that there are several different kinds of this fish - the original stickleback actually lives in oceans, but when they got trapped in freshwater lakes, they stared evolving to have different features. For example the fishes that live in the oceans have a lot more armor than the ones in the lakes. Why? Well, those that have less armor can grow faster, and they become too big for predators, they reach sexual maturity faster and they can store more energy, so they can survive winters.
Another one that's probably well know by many of you... peppered moths.
The original moths were the white ones, but then industrial revolution came, and changed everything. The dark moths started to be a lot more popular, until about 95% of peppered moths were all of this color. Why did this happen? Because surfaces slowly turned dark with all the pollution, and the white ones were better spotted by predators.
The yellow bellied three-toed skink:
They live in Australia, and they are evolving to have live birth in their species instead of laying eggs. So why the change? First off the skinks that live on the coast mostly lay eggs, because the temperature is predictable for it. The babies also get their calcium from the eggs. The skinks that live in cooler places give birth to live young, because the mother's body has a stable temperature, and in this case the mother also developes enough calcium in their body to be sufficient for the babies. Scientists are predicting that these two populations will soon become two different species.
Okay, on to something bigger.
Elephants!
Yes, elephants are actually evolving right now... How, you want to know?
Well, they are evolving to not have any tusks, because of so many of them dying for actually having them. Until 2005 there were only about 2 to 5 percent of male elephants that didn't grow a tusk, and since then this percentage grew up to 38 percent!
Thank god that poachers soon will be out of a job.
Killer whales are also seemingly evolving in two different species. The difference between them is that one of them likes to eat dolphins and smaller whales, while the other type sticks to a combination of seals and fish.
This, first of all, means that their teeth are changing - the ones that eat dolphins have longer ones that wore down quicker than the other ones. Who knows what else this will bring along with it? One thing is sure tho, scientists will soon have to have two different teams looking after the two different species.
Mice are on board for evolution too (and why wouldn't they be?)!
There is a new hybrid mouse species that came to be after two different kinds of mice met and had babies - and this one won't be easily eradicated. The new species is apparently immune to mouse poison, so we shall have to rely on the old "cheese on a trap" trick (which shouldn't be cheese at all but a big fat piece of chocolate).
And now, the final thing on the list... dogs!
Dogs are freaking awesome, but did you ever notice that in the wild, dogs never really bark? Sure, they snarl and howl and make other sounds, but you won't really hear them barking.
So what's happening here, then?
There's a guy, Molnár Csaba, who made some studies about this, and he came to the conclusion that dogs bark because humans can understand the information that's in a bark.
We can clearly distinguish between the sound of "happy" barks and "alarm" barks, which will help us in many ways.
Also, apparently back in the days when people first started to breed dogs, they actually selected the animals that had the willingness to bark.
So this is where we are right now, people. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. If you still refuse to "believe" (although science isn't something that you believe in - it is a fact), I don't know what else can be done.
