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With global warming causing sea level rise, is it possible that a special set of human beings could evolve flippers and end up adapted for life in the water over the next couple million years ? It is said that the whale has evolved from a Wolf like mammal 50 million years ago, to an ocean dwelling giant 35 million years ago. Could something similar happen to humans ? What would that do to our marine ecosystem ? Will we become shark food ?
With global warming causing sea level rise, is it possible that a special set of human beings could evolve flippers and end up adapted for life in the water over the next couple million years ? It is said that the whale has evolved from a Wolf like mammal 50 million years ago, to an ocean dwelling giant 35 million years ago. Could something similar happen to humans ? What would that do to our marine ecosystem ? Will we become shark food ?
Yes, I think it could happen. I believe that evolution is real and things and people are evolving constantly.
Probably this...because sea level rise is happening a lot faster than evolution. So is the change in climate as it affects agriculture and availability of drinkable fresh water. We're going to see massive changes in drought patterns that reduce our ability to produce food too. It will take more than the ability to swim or extract oxygen from water, it will also require an ability to metabolize the mineral salts in the water. Unless humans started that long progression of breeding now, we won't make it. At that point, then the planet will reach a new ecological balance without humans...and will probably breathe a sigh of relief.
Probably this...because sea level rise is happening a lot faster than evolution. So is the change in climate as it affects agriculture and availability of drinkable fresh water. We're going to see massive changes in drought patterns that reduce our ability to produce food too. It will take more than the ability to swim or extract oxygen from water, it will also require an ability to metabolize the mineral salts in the water. Unless humans started that long progression of breeding now, we won't make it. At that point, then the planet will reach a new ecological balance without humans...and will probably breathe a sigh of relief.
I agree with all of this. ^
The only way I can see humans adapting to living in water would be due to scientific medical intervention, not natural evolution.
That would be DEVOLVE! Since they say ALL animals came from the sea... even us Humans!
Not always. Some marine mammals that originally evolved in the sea became terrestrial, then returned to the sea again. Devolve, evolve, doesn't really matter which word you use.
Actually, I believe I am correct in saying that our current evolution has gaps in it where we supposedly evolved from apes to humans. There are supposed differences in physiology between the last ape fossil and the next human fossil. This includes a heavier skeleton, particularly the wrist, and apes apparently do not have a voicebox like we do, which means they cannot speak a language. Those differences suggest to some people that the two lines cannot join. Now, what we believe is in there in that part of our evolutionary tree or whether the two lines never will join is up the the individuals belief system.
Personally, I believe our DNA was manipulated from some kind of ancient 'man' by aliens to become the homo sapiens we have become and we are some kind of experiment of theirs. This accounts for the jumps and the gaps in the fossil records.
With global warming causing sea level rise, is it possible that a special set of human beings could evolve flippers and end up adapted for life in the water over the next couple million years ? It is said that the whale has evolved from a Wolf like mammal 50 million years ago, to an ocean dwelling giant 35 million years ago. Could something similar happen to humans ? What would that do to our marine ecosystem ? Will we become shark food ?
No.
Well, it's not impossible, but there's no reason for sea-level rise to cause a terrestrial animal to adapt to an aquatic lifestyle. What would be the point? There's not nearly enough water current sequestered in glaciers and icecaps for the oceans to cover all land. Indeed, the melting of all ice would allow the oceans to rise by about 70 meters. I don't have the data for 70m, but 85% of all inhabited land and 66% of all people already live at elevations of 100m and higher. Think about it. 71% of the world's surface is currently water (salt or fresh) and we aren't aquatic. During the time the our genus - Homo - has existed, there have been numerous interglacial periods which saw significant sea-level rise, yet none of the human species, nor any of the hundreds of other species of primates, evolved to accommodate an aquatic lifestyle.
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Originally Posted by Katie1
That would be DEVOLVE! Since they say ALL animals came from the sea... even us Humans!
There's no such thing as 'devolving' in terms of evolution. That idea comes from the incorrect idea that evolution is directed at some specific goal of complexity. This is not so. Dolphins and whales, for example, are not 'devolved'. Penguins, which left both the land and lost their ability to fly, are not 'double devolved'.
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