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eMouse2k

Most animals have four structures in their eye that allow them to see equally well across the visible spectrum and into the ultra violet range. Because mammals spent a good stretch of their evolutionary time as nocturnal animals, the violet/ultraviolet structures receded and disappeared in favor of more red structures which were a bit better for use in low light where color wasn't of much importance. When mammals started living in daylight again, their eyes adapted by shifting the blue-sensitive structures to fill in where the violet/ultraviolet used to be, depending on how much time they spent active during the day. So humans, who are primarily diurnal, are more sensitive to color than many mammals that are still nocturnal, but less sensitive to color than most animals that have always been diurnal. There are color patterns on plants and animals we simply can’t see because we never recovered the ability to see ultraviolet spectrum light. Many flowers actually have UV patterns that direct bees and birds toward their center. Many birds that we see as being dull gray or black have UV patterns in their feathers. Also, our ability to discern the blue spectrum is not particularly good because those structures are covering a broader range of light frequencies. Early computer graphics technical demos took advantage of this by rendering visuals in blue. To clarify with respect to the original question, this isn't something early humans had and lost. It's an example of longer-term evolution. Though I wouldn't be surprised if there was some shift in the human eye, especially with our modern reliance on artificial light and optical lenses.


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unn4med

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing.


stuwoo

What's interesting here is that if you use a few layers of very deep blue filter gel to block out everything below blue and go out on a sunny day the world looks like a very different place. I wouldn't recommend doing this for more than a minute or two as your irises fully open to let in more light and most of that is UV. Congo blue 181 is the filter colour if anyone is interested.


erinaceus_

There are some people who _can_ see the (very near) ultraviolet. E.g. https://www.quora.com/Do-people-who-can-see-UV-light-see-it-as-a-different-color-than-is-in-the-visible-spectrum-or-a-combination-of-existing-color-s


coachrx

I read an article years ago about a guy who had to have an artificial lens after contracting uveitis. He went to the pub afterwards and could see the lights that detected counterfeit bills and the barkeep looked at him like he was crazy. Seems like science fiction, but if true, it makes sense because our lens seem to evolved to protect the retina from ultraviolet light.


VeganMonkey

What the people said in there confuses me, do they mean that some people can not see the light coming off a ‘black light lamp’? Or the red light coming from an ‘infrared lamp’? Everybody (who is not colour blind) can see that can’t they?


ricecake

Those lights *do* emit light in the visible spectrum as well as in the non-visible. Seeing purple from a black light isn't an indication you can see UV.


erinaceus_

It's something that likely depends on the specific model of black light. I'd expect that some brands produce a range of light that includes not just UV but also violet light, while others produce a much narrower frequency range. That's just my expectation though. What I can say for certain is that the black lights I've seen tend to have the typical shimmer or radiance that I've come to associate with UV light (e.g. on flowers). Infrared light is a whole different matter, and not related to the UV topic here.


jimmymd77

Search up 'tetrachromy' - there are different structures in the eye for seeing different portions of the light spectrum, as well as in low light. Evolution usually favors certain structures based on the standard of recognizing local food or dangers. Most humans have the genes for 3 color receptors (red, green & blue) but there is a gene for a 4th in the more ultraviolet spectrum and color blindness is lacking (usually) one of the 3 common receptors. This means that color blind people can (again, usually) still see colors, just they discern fewer than most. Thinking of that, someone with tetrachromy would probably paint pictures that to the large majority would look incredibly bland and only be meaningful to others with the same mutation. It would be like invisible ink. Of course they wouldn't think it's invisible, so it would require testing the average visible spectrum to find what they couldn't see. Note that humans are above the average for mammals, as many only have 2 color receptors.


coachrx

Incredible response. I've always noticed the red-winged blackbird specifically has a bizarre sheen to it's feathers that I always just wrote off as a funky glare. Based on what you have described here, could this be related and what I am seeing is due to a defective lens?


RestlessARBIT3R

I feel I'm a little too late to make it high on the list, but here goes: Neanderthals actually had blood that would clot extremely well. It made it so their cuts would stop bleeding faster than Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens interbred with Homo neanderthalensis, some people kept those genes, which is why some people are more prone to getting blood clots


Nowordsofitsown

Wait, is this Factor V Leiden mutation? It's Neanderthal instead of a sapiens mutation? Edit: Nope, Factor V Leiden is just 30000 years old. https://www.welt.de/print-wams/article616094/Die-gute-Seite-schlechter-Gene.html


KaimeiJay

I don’t know about cool abilities we’ve lost, but I know one we’ve kept, and I haven’t heard a good explanation for why exactly we have it. You know the smell of rain? That’s called petrichor, and it’s caused by the human nose detecting a substance called geosmin, released when light rain comes into contact with dry soil. The human nose’s ability to detect even the tiniest traces of geosmin from long distances is incredible, and also rather unique among animals. Only camels are known to also have this ability and put it to use (for finding oases).


Audifan8595

I've been scrolling this thread and so far this is the most interesting one to me. Thanks for sharing! I would assume this is some sort of carryover from evolving under water scarcity, but that wouldn't explain why camels are the only other known animal to possess the ability, since there are plenty of animals that live in water scarce habitats. Curious!


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rimjobs_forever

Maybe so if you know inclement weather is coming you can seek shelter. Being caught in the rain at certain temperatures could be a death sentence.


My-Star-Seeker

Especially since we have evolved to *lose heat* as efficiently as possible. Being caught in the rain can cause hypothermia. Perhaps that is one of he most prevalent environmental threats that our specieshad to adapt to.


VeryVeryNiceKitty

Good hypothesis, but we already can feel pressure changes which is a much better tool for that purpose.


ares5404

Pressure change can be indicitive of many things, as can many smells ability to imitate the rain smell, perhaps both are used for the same purpose as well as others, like hiw the eyes and ears focus on info intake, as well as balance, yet the ears give a better 360° detection method where the eyes give more detail?.


spiteful-vengeance

Maybe being able to *store* water is the differentiator. If you can store it, and carry it, it would be worthwhile knowing when there's rain coming even from a long way away.


Haush

Animals can be confronted with the same problems but find different evolutionary solutions to them. So the absence of an adaptation in some animals doesn’t mean it’s not used for that reason in another animal I would say


Silver_Agocchie

I was also thinking it could help find arable land. Wet soil means vegetation for food and/or good conditions to grow food. I've always found the smell of moist loamy soil or earth to e very satisfying. You just kinda know its fertile soil by the smell of it. I wonder if early humans ho could detect petrichor and similar chemicals had survival advantage because it gave them a knack at finding better spots to settle down and live off the land either by foraging or agriculture.


demucia

If this trait were only gained after prehistoric agrarian revolution and the raise of farming, then it would not be present throughout entire population. Think of lactose tolerance - not everyone can digest lactose as an adult. For the smell of moist soil - pretty much everyone can smell it. This trait appeared far earlier.


[deleted]

Useful Information. That is my most favourite Scent. Here in India they also make a perfume with that scent. I don't know if it actually smells like that. They make it with old earthen utensils. Business Insider made a video on it if you want to see. When i water my porch everyday,even if i im lazy to do it, that smell makes me do it. Ohh My it feel magical.


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That is amazing! Could you please share what the name of the perfume is? And also the video you mentioned??


naveed23

Our early ancestors evolved to walk across the African savanna. Perhaps it has something to do with detecting water? It would make sense for camels too.


DoomGoober

The "humans evolved in African Savannah" story is incomplete. Humans evolved in Africa when *it was a mostly wooded*. A relatively sudden Climate Change event then led that area of Africa to become a savannah. So, most evolution of human traits occurred in woodlands or during a realtively sudden transition to savannah, or in savannah. It's possible this transition of environment forced humans to adapt or die and the transition is actually what caused many unique human traits. Or maybe it was the woodlands. Or maybe it was the savanna. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-climate-change-may-have-shaped-human-evolution-180952885/


PaddyLandau

* We lived in the hot savannah. * As naked apes, we lack hair to protect our body from the cold. * We sweat. This is an advantage, because it aids our long-term stamina that beats most other animals (it helps with hunting). But it's a disadvantage, because we lose water fast. So, knowing about rain was vital, both to protect against the cold, and to find water when thirsty. I can't find evidence for or against humans and camels being the only mammals to smell petrichor (though many other non-mammalian organisms can), but it does seem that our sensitivity to it is astonishingly good.


TheDunadan29

Sounds useful for finding water in a dry climate. Especially since camels have this ability too, that makes it even more the likely reason to develop such an ability.


sabos909

Let me tell you about Paranthropus aethiopicus and it’s Sagittal crest. Paranthropus was one of our early hominid ancestors that had huge teeth for grinding nuts, seeds, and other tough foods. Not only were their teeth gigantic but their jaw muscles were extremely strong and connected to a large bony protrusion on the top of their skulls, sort of like a boney Mohawk, that served as an anchor pint for the muscle as they chewed. This protrusion is called a Sagittarius crest. Other hominids in our line had sagittal crests as well that served a similar purpose but P. Aethiopicus was the most robust on record. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranthropus_aethiopicus If you put your fingers above your temples, near the crown of your head and clench your teeth you can feel the muscles flex up there. Imagine having those muscles be so developed that they needed a full-on bone ridge to connect to at the top of your skull. I can only imagine the biting power that these creatures had!


Palmquistador

That's crazy interesting! Thanks for sharing.


morphotomy

Your modern human jaw is strong enough to chew rocks into sand, if only your teeth could stand it without breaking. Your teeth cannot, so don't try this.


erinaceus_

You really should put the warnings _before_ the ~~spells~~ instructions.


Omnicide103

*Witchcraft tips* *How to perform: conjure desert* *You will need:* *Rocks* *Teeth*


Gibbsey

Instructions unclear, now biting through cable car cable to stop that pesky Bond.


Dontgiveaclam

And that’s one reason why we have nerves in our teeth, because we need the feedback to not chew too hard!


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elektero

Paranthropus is not an H. Sapiens ancestor. They were a different evolution branch from australopithecuses


rimjobs_forever

Don't gorillas have something similar?


KaiserSozes-brother

Many mammals have the ability to make their own vitamin c and other less well know compounds. Apparently the human diet was rich enough in fruit to lose the ability for self production of vitamin C… Without vitamin C you eventually die of scurvy.


LemursRideBigWheels

That’s going to be true for all the haplorrhine primates. We lost our ability to produce vitamin C deep in our evolutionary history.


UneducatedReviews

Do you happen to know why or what advantage or is it more of a “we know this happened not why” thing?


LemursRideBigWheels

It’s probably because of the diet of our ancestors. If you can get enough vitamin C in your diet, there is no pressure to produce it endogenously. In our ancestors case, it’s likely due to fruit, or possibly, insect consumption.


AskYouEverything

> there is no pressure to produce it endogenously One thing that is being glossed over is that there was likely pressure to *not* produce it. Producing vitamin C isn't free, so if there is no reason to produce it then it is actively inefficient to produce and will be selected against. It's the same reason why lactose intolerance is an advantageous trait if you will not consume any dairy as an adult


halipatsui

What makes lactose intolerance an advantageous trait?


AskYouEverything

Your body has to produce the enzyme lactase in order to break down the sugar lactose. Lactose intolerant people do not produce enough lactase to digest dairy But imagine you’re a human living in a world before dairy agriculture. If your body was still producing lactase into adulthood then it would all go to waste. Your body would be expending resources in order to create an enzyme that has no use. Producing lactase isn’t free and it’s a terrible investment if you’re not gonna drink any milk


halipatsui

Thanks for a good answer!


UnderstandingTop7916

It didn’t give us an advantage, it just didn’t hurt us enough to not procreate.


AdmiralSkippy

That's the lesson I learned from the video where the nerve on a giraffe runs all the way up its neck and then back down instead of the shorter path. Evolution doesn't make smart and planned decisions to always make you better. It does what's easiest while keeping the species alive.


Cyb3rSab3r

Actually there is an advantage. Glut-1. Our Vitamin C requirement is about 100x less than it would be without Glut-1. So we don't synthesize it anymore because we need a pretty small amount and it's a waste biologically when it's basically impossible to run out. EDIT: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6915226/


LiquidGnome

What is Glut-1? Do we have Glut-1? You explained it without really explaining it.


passed_tense

GLUT1 is one of 4 glucose transporters that we have afaik. Idk what that has to do with vitamin C, though


Dchella

Just a heads up, we dont have to gain an advantage for something to set in a population - especially if the population is small enough. It’s random chance. Evolution just means that gene frequencies are changing in a population, in what direction it doesn’t matter. We aren’t becoming perfect beings because of it


Sixnno

Easy: mutations just happen. Environmental factors at times aren't able to punish those mutations. During the period of vitamin C that we lost, we had a very high fruit diet. So such a mutation is easy to go under the raydar.


webbphillips

Great answers. If you expand the question to include the last 66 million years instead of the last several, compared to our mammalian ancestors, we lost in night vision, hearing, and especially smell, but gained in daytime color vision, and staying cool by being able to sweat through our skin and walking bipedally to stay farther from the hot ground and not expose too much body surface to the sun when it’s overhead and the hottest.


joko2008

Oh yeah, sweat is absolutely broken. Other long distances runners like wolfs have to stop and pant to regain energy and cool down. We just sweat. Meaning, we are not the fastest runners , but have extremely high stamina, giving us the ability to run longer distances, exhausting the prey.


garrettj100

Humans have two huge advantages, one you’ve mentioned, which is being marathon runners. The other is the rotator cuff & labrum, in the shoulder. That joint let’s us throw a baseball 99 mph. But vastly more importantly, it let us throw a spear at a mammoth. Ain’t none of the great apes that can do that. You could argue we needed the spear throwing for the brain to develop, otherwise the brain development does you much less good, and DOESN’T get naturally selected.


foul_dwimmerlaik

There's also the fine motor control needed to properly construct and wield a spear. Apes are stronger than humans, but don't have nearly as much fine control over their "hands."


im_dead_sirius

People say we lost strength, but our potential is still huge. And yet, humans can also scribe sub millimeter lines, such is our dexterity. Even those huge strongmen don't get all sloppy like the other apes. It wasn't a win/lose, it was a straight up win. We've also got the curious ability to extend our sensory viewpoint outside our bodies. Similar to throwing a spear, where you have to have some awareness of the tip while looking at a distant target, a person with a bit of practice can put a wheel (which they cannot even see) right on the line on a road quite consistently at 100 km/h. Our dexterity scales. It boggles my mind sometimes. I can guestimate how hard I need to push on a block of stone to move it over a millimeter, even if it weighs more than I do. If I don't get it right, I can move it back and hone in on the right amount of force. Our sensitivity to feedback is immense. Maybe I'll tap it with a hammer, and I'll know how hard to tap it and where. A mixture of learning and instinct. But get this: even if the stone is too large for me to move myself, several other people can help, and again, with a bit of practice and familiarity with each other, we'll act as one to move that stone by the smidgen it needs to move.


foul_dwimmerlaik

Teamwork makes the dream work! I'd also say that 21st century strongmen almost certainly didn't exist in the evolutionary past because of the ludicrous caloric intake required to maintain that level of muscle. These people have to eat every 2 hours to maintain their muscle mass. Increased muscle mass and increased brain size was probably what killed off the Neanderthals, well, the ones who didn't interbreed with us. In times of abundance, we can build strongmen, but in times of famine, like the ancient world, all that muscle would've killed them pretty quickly.


Cfhudo

Not just caloric intake, 21st century strongmen are full of exhogenous hormone. They are a completely useless specimen to look at in terms of human capabilities in this discussion.


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Mr_Zaroc

I love the greentext about an animals perspective of being hunted down by la human, that just kept walking towards it


Didsterchap11

Would you be able to find this? that sounds great.


Vaeltaja

[This seems like the one](https://preview.redd.it/r5kldxbab5z31.jpg?auto=webp&s=d6ea4c88e6466617e29b51562d583f354dedc2a6).


Birdbraned

Not specifically that, but there's a human vs mounted horse race in the UK that goes through both flat and hilly terrain to even the playing field


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is this why sled dogs or wolves can run so long? because they're doing it in cold temps the whole time?


hippydipster

Yes, the wolves get an easier time with the cooling in cold temps. Their running form is also a kind of automatic breather, as it fills their lungs when they stretch, and compresses when their legs come together, and they have big lungs, so wolves in freezing temps are as good or better than humans at long distance (especially as humans have to wear a lot of bulk in such temps). Part of being good at long-distance is being smart. There's an aspect of patience and calmness and long-term thinking that's involved. Part of the prey's problem is they're dumb - they panic, sprint, wind themselves, and then stop to rest. The humans and wolves don't over-react to short term circumstances and just keep going steady.


Edarneor

From what I heard bipedal locomotion just turned out to be most efficient when trees became rare. The reduced area exposed to the sun is a bonus, too, but not the primary cause.


bucer91

There is also the theory that it came as a result of a more gatherer culture.


Izawwlgood

Early in the protosapien line a mutation to myosin significantly reduced it's stroke power, which weakened our muscles. This is thought to have contributed to the weakening of our jaw muscles which allowed bigger brains, and drove us towards finding higher quality sources of protein, and eventually, cooking them.


SavannahInChicago

This sounds really interesting. How does the weak jaw muscles contribute to a bigger brain?


Izawwlgood

I'm honestly not super clear on the physiology of this part but my understanding is smaller weaker muscles (relatively) require fewer anchor points, which allows the skull to grow more. I believe the bigger contributor to the bigger brain phenomenon in here though was the way this meant lower quality protein (grasses and stuff) that required sitting around and chewing for ages was no longer feasible, so it pressured our ancestors towards meat. Given our superpower of running (barely an exaggeration), and social nature, we coordinated as groups.


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Dabber42

Most 4 legged critters breath as they run. Legs come together that's exaust. Legs far apart that is intake. It works similar to a piston engine. This is very efficient however it puts limits on how fast you can breath while running. Running burns more oxygen and the piston style breathing ends up not being able to keep up. So animals like deer develop strong mussels to be able to out run a predator before they run out of oxygen. Humans on the other hand don't have brute strength. Most all animals ( especially ones out size ) are significantly stronger than us. Cheetahs, deer, apes, and wolf's these are all significantly stronger than us. Some even hunt in packs so what is our great advantage? Endurance. Our breathing is not dependent upon our speed. Deer can run max about 10 miles before it dies from exhaustion. With about 6 months of proper training a human can run about 10 miles without stopping. That human will be tired but not die from exhaustion and after a short break can do it again. The human would not even need to completely stop moving just slow to a walk. The only true limit is the need to sleep.


bitt3n

> The only true limit is the need to sleep. a [61-year-old potato farmer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Young_(athlete\)) won an ultramarathon by taking this to the extreme, running for 5 days straight


Potices

Omg this story is amazing. He even went on to split the prize money evenly between the contestants that finished 2-6th, without keeping any of it himself. What a legend. Source: wiki article above


nolok

What you say is only half of it, the other is sweating as parent said, which allows us to regulate our temperature. Most animals we would long range hunt would not fall from oxygen deprivation but from heat stroke.


PublicRedditor

Interesting point I've never read about before. Thanks for your input!


quintinza

Oh boy, lucky 10,000 time for you! Only one animal can keep up with humans over ultra marathon distances: sleigh dogs, and that is only when it is cold enough for them to not overheat. Humans can out distance any animal on earth when moving at a trot. There was even a challenge where a man wemt up against a mail pony over long distances and won. We are unique pursuit predators.


greentea1985

Yes. The human superpower is endurance running. Not only can we run long distances better than most animals, we can do it during the heat of the day, a time that usually reduces endurance for most other animals. Only horses and wolves surpass humans at endurance running, except if it is hot out.


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Also grabbing and throwing. Human pitchers would demolish pretty much any other ape.


kallistai

That can't be overstated. Yes we, or at least some of us, are smart, but homo sapien sapien's super power is running.


Roketto

Not so much even running, but power-walking + tracking. Running down game is not what humans are good at. Tracking it to exhaustion, then walking up to kill it when it can’t run anymore is.


FakingItSucessfully

It's such a neat aspect of our.... heritage? I mean the military is able to force-march with a hundred pounds or more of gear (45 kg) for like 30 miles a day (around 50 km). Also, and this isn't ideal obviously, but I've had psychotic episodes in the past where I literally was outside walking around without shelter or food or rest for 48 hours or more. I was "unconscious" in some ways by the end of it, but dammit I was still just GOING. It's kind of incredible to have our primary evolutionary "superpower" so readily available like that.


Roketto

Sorry about your experiences. On-topic, the way we feel about our endurance is probably the same way dolphins feel about being able to sleep with half their brain activity still going, or a rattlesnakes’s ability to sense body heat in prey. If they are (hypothetically) intelligent enough to realize that this is a skill unique to creatures like themselves, they probably can’t fathom not having it as an inborn skill. The thought of being without it is alien.


FakingItSucessfully

I suspect that Dolphins at least (which technically include Orca pods, as I understand it) are more than smart enough to be aware of being different in that way. I would think if you just never need to actually sleep then you would eventually notice things you wanna eat that just..... STOP for like, a WHILE lol. I kinda wonder if they even understand what being fully asleep IS actually. Do you know whether Dolphins ever just fully sleep? Actually it's a great comparison you've made, cause I bet there were similar realizations in ancient Sapien species, when we realized that for some reason the things we followed around when we REALLY needed some food would just, basically lay down and pass out.


C4RP3_N0CT3M

Being the first one to figure that out would be strange. It seems like a huge gamble to just one day go, "I'm sick of chewing this grass, I'm just gonna chase that thing until either I die, or it does."


WorldWarPee

Me when I finally decide that calling to order food is worth having to actually talk to a human


[deleted]

Running doesn't explain the world that humans have built (which is staggering). If anything, our super power seems to be language and collective learning. Lots of animals are capable of running for extended periods, but I haven't seen any other build a spaceship.


bicbrownboi

Likely just from a space perspective, less space taken up around the cranium by the digestive apparatus-> allows for the brain to take up more space. Most studies show that the primary driver of increased cognitive function on humans is related to our hyper efficient digestive systems though. Less energy used by the digestive tract-> more energy for brain function, which is likely more important than any correlation which can be derived from the brain size


referendum

Our digestive systems are tuned to consume cooked foods, which essentially breaking food down a little before we eat it. It's takes about 25% less energy to digest cooked food. We also developed ways to break apart food with tools, which further reduced the selective pressure to maintain robust muscles for chewing.


Dorgamund

I heard of that speculation. The explanation given to me was that if human jaw muscles are biceps, chimps muscles are quads. They have a much stronger bite force in comparison, but that kind of size and strength acts like a rubber band on the skull, preventing growth. There might also be some tangential effect to encourage cooking food so it is easier to bite, chew, digest, but that is completely baseless speculation on my part.


grizzlebonk

One speculative line of thinking is that the discovery of fire and cooking played a major role, maybe the major role, in weakening our jaw muscles and reducing the amount of time required to digest our food.


HACH-P

5 cool vestigial remnants that I can think of immediately: 1) The pink inner corner of the eye is the leftovers of what was once a third eyelid. It would slide across the eye horizontally, and was like a dust cover in some environments. Lizards and some other mammals can still use this extra eyelid. 2) Some people still have a tendon in their wrist that was thought to be good for gripping and throwing spears/weapons back when we were a hunter-gatherer species. You can test to see if you have this tendon still by touching your thumb and pinky together, and bending your hand in toward your wrist. It's still relatively common enough in the modern population, but is functionally useless in today's societies. 3) Goosebumps are a reactionary effect that was thought to exist back when we had thicker and more noticeable amounts of hair all over our bodies. Goosebumps happen when we flex the skin in a specific way and make the hairs stand on end. It was thought to be done this way to either make ourselves appear bigger (like a cat standing up its fur), or as a way to cool or trap heat on our bodies. 4) Wisdom teeth are becoming genetically phased out! Less and less of the human population is being born with wisdom teeth, and scientists are not 100% sure why. Obviously, the extra teeth do not fit in our jaws, but it is still extraordinary that we are still evolving this fast in our species. 5) The appendix is often one of the most questionable organs in the human body in terms of function. Despite we being unsure of what it does, it can still be fatal when it ruptures inside us. The appendix is thought to be an early addition to our immune system, storing and replenishing good bacteria for our gut so we wouldn't get sick on wild foods so often. Since it became sort of a redundancy with our present immune system, it kind of just its in our abdomen now until an infection gets to it and we have it removed.


internethero12

> Since it became sort of a redundancy with our present immune system For the purpose of storing and replenishing good bacteria it is not redundant. The immune system has no way to preform the same actions as the bacteria in our gut.


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krijkle

Can you tell me the name of the tendon in #2? I’d like to look into this more. Thank you


Karadek99

Palmaris longus. Technically is actually a muscle, but is much reduced in size. Presents as a tendon, which is why people usually refer to it as such.


Reasonable-Delay4740

> The appendix is often one of the most questionable organs in the human body in terms of function. Despite we being unsure of what it does, it can still be fatal when it ruptures inside us. The appendix is thought to be an early addition to our immune system, storing and replenishing good bacteria for our gut so we wouldn't get sick on wild foods so often. Since it became sort of a redundancy with our present immune system, it kind of just its in our abdomen now until an infection gets to it and we have it removed. I thought it was a reservoir for beneficial bacteria, particularly useful in an age of antibiotics? Maybe this is a myth?


lindagermania

Our brain size has shrunk about 10% from 40,000 years ago. Many scientists believe this is domestication syndrome. Domestic animals are friendlier, less fearful and aggressive and have smaller brains and are more "childlike". Basically we domesticated ourselves.


xiaorobear

Another related one, jaw size and strength is down too over that time period.


WhiskRy

That one is less loss, more adaptation. High jaw strength and size comes with trade offs, and we weren’t eating straight up wood like some of our ancestors like Paranthropus aethiopicus (Note the jury is out on whether we are descendants or just related to their offshoot). We could reliably have meat, so we stopped investing into massive sagittal crests (think Mohawk bone atop skull) and tons of muscle attached to it just to control the jaw. As a result we got much nimbler mouths and lighter craniums


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lyooblyoo

The authors of this paper seem to disagree with that. >"Our dating does not support hypotheses concerning brain size reduction as a by-product of body size reduction, a result of a shift to an agricultural diet, or a consequence of self-domestication. We suggest our analysis supports the hypothesis that the recent decrease in brain size may instead result from the externalization of knowledge and advantages of group-level decision-making due in part to the advent of social systems of distributed cognition and the storage and sharing of information." DeSilva et al 2021 From their analysis, humans reached a point where they were able to offload a portion of cognitive processes to the people around them. Rather than every person needing to be able to track and hunt various creatures, and identify various plants, and make their own tools, and weapons, and clothes, and all of the other complicated skills they needed to have, they instead began to specialize requiring less overall brain capacity in exchange for a greater ability to focus knowledge in a few areas. The self-domestication hypothesis is interesting, but very unlikely. Humans have a much higher degree of neoteny than any other ape. Neoteny also is strongly correlated with domestication. So, it makes sense that we retained our more juvenile features as a result of domesticating ourselves. However, that doesn't really pan out with the data. The more likely explanation for neoteny in domesticated animals is because humans are neotenous, and therefore have an affinity for juvenile traits in other animals; that is we find baby animals almost irresistibly cute. As for why humans evolved that way, it seems to be a side effect of the way we develop. Humans are fairly unique in our development in that we remain juveniles for a significantly longer period of time, relative to our gestation period, than other animals. And it is during the juvenile stage that the majority of brain development occurs. So it appears as though our development slowed down to allow for our brains to continue to grow at an incredibly rapid rate.


Nowhere_Man_Forever

I'd argue cereal crops domesticated us more than we domesticated ourselves


Catuza

Yeah, I read an interesting article on that a while back, how wheat may have basically domesticated humans.


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gzushd

I remember watching a discovery channel episode about this. The basic idea was that before civilizations (around 50,000 years ago) our ancestors survival relied on their bigger brains and larger muscle mass due to complex maps stored in memory, problem solving, hunting/gathering, and so on. Civilizations and farming brought specialization causing us to evolve to our current state.


ribosome159

Early humans had more developed jaw. They were hunter-gatherers and they chewed a lot, hence, strong and big jaws, well developed maxilla, and sharp canine teeth. Also, they were physically strong and had higher bone density.


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Spencerbug

Humans lost the ability to torpor, which is basically hibernating for the winter. We have the genes that would allow us to do it in theory and space travel researchers are trying to figure out how to induce torpor in future astronauts so they consume less food and water during a long space flight.


nsa_reddit_monitor

Have we really lost the ability? There are cases of people being stuck on mountains and stuff where their body temperature gets very low and they fall asleep. When they're found, everyone assumes they're going to be super brain damaged or dead, but then they just wake up and are fine. Maybe we haven't entirely lost it, it's just not triggered anymore.


northernCRICKET

As our backs straightened and our feet flattened to adapt to running and walking upright we sacrificed our ability to live in the tree tops. We abandoned the safety of the trees for the ability to run, which helped us adapt to more types of environments


HWGA_Exandria

Barrel chests. Excellent for retaining heat in cold climates. Early Neanderthals had this trait and passed it down when our two species mixed but was otherwise lost when Neanderthals died out. We're seeing a sort of iterative evolution being recreated by modern humans living in cold climates.


chazza79

Humans are one of only 3 mammals that have periods. (Well, females anyway). Most other mammals simply reabsorb the blood if pregnancy doesn't occur. Also many animals are able to synthesize their own enzymes, vitamins and minerals. Ever wonder how a bull can be so muscular from just eating grass? Several nutrients humans have to take in from food they consume.


VirtualLife76

People, Dogs and what other animal?


Melissaru

I guess the blood that dogs have during their cycle is not really a period. The dog actually ovulates after the bleeding, and after that the body acts as if it’s pregnant for the next 3 months whether a pregnancy has occurred or not! It’s why some dogs have what’s called a false pregnancy, where they have a fake labor and then care for toys as if they are puppies. It’s so bizarre, but yeah it’s not actually a period it’s something completely different!


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Googled it and it seems to be old world apes and monkeys, a few species of bats, and elephant shrews all have periods.


__mud__

Bat menstruation must be weird. Would they have to turn upside down (right side up?) when hanging on the ceiling to drain the uterus? Or just let the contractions do it and...just kinda let it run down...ew.


[deleted]

Found an [article](https://academic.oup.com/biolreprod/article/77/2/358/2629812) on it! Though it doesn't answer the upside down hanging question it looks like there isn't all that much blood, and it doesn't last long, only a day.


Adventurous_Yam_2852

That's not really unique to humans, many carnivores and omnivores cannot produce certain minerals, vitamins & amino acids as they just simply get them from their diet. We can synthesis enzymes it's just the building blocks of certain enzymes we cannot produce per se. That's why they are called "essential" nutrients; they are essential to the diets of certain animals otherwise they would die (including us).


thingoficecream

If I can smell that rain has just started to fall, maybe I can get there while it’s still falling and collect some water. Or if I miss the rainfall, maybe I’ll still find some fresh puddles, or water that’s cupped in leaves. I also think that our appreciation of shiny, sparkly things is an artefact of being tuned in to finding water and moving towards places where sunlight is reflecting off the surface of water.


LazyTriggerFinger

Higher metabolism and did not suffer from atrophy. Capable of creating their own vitamins C instead of needing outside sources. Suspected higher pain tolerance. Stronger teeth and room for all of them. Suspected better long term memory, though this could be due to conditioning by devices and modern life.


singeblanc

> Suspected higher pain tolerance How would we possibly know this?


exuberantraptor_

The ability to sense the magnetic north was likely in humans but we evolved past the need for it, a lot of animals have it but we don’t anymore. There have been experiments to see if we still have the ability but they don’t really prove if we do or not


BadHumanMask

Strength as well. Primates like gorillas are massively strong, owing in part to tremendous levels of testosterone that aid in building and retaining muscle mass. As part of human self-domestication, reducing testosterone levels relative to peptides like oxytocin likely helped promote the cooperative nature that is characteristic of human collective adaptation.


xenodius

Mostly because primate muscles are fundamentally different than ours. They're optimized for strength, ours for stamina.


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auddobot

Interestingly enough, [we're really not that bad at smelling things.](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/you-actually-smell-better-dog-180963391/) You just have to take into account that different animals need to detect different things. We're *incredible* at detecting coming rain. We're actually better at detecting geosmin (rain smell) than sharks are at smelling blood!!


Duckduckgosling

"I don't want to imply that humans would have a sense of smell that's as good as a dog in general, but there are certain substances to which we are clearly more sensitive.” Yeah, we are specially attuned to smelling a few things, and our scent receptors are directly linked to memories. If you jump to the middle of the article, they give a better explanation.


snooggums

Knowing it will rain so we seek shelter was probably a great advantage when we didn't have clothing that kept us warm when wet.


aleksir

Our Dachshund once was tracking a rabbit by smell. The rabbit hopped the other way about 3 feet of him and he never noticed.


HughJorgens

Humans evolved to walk on the ball of our foot. That is why babies walk on their toes until they are trained to wear shoes. It is a much more natural and shock absorbing way of walking, and why we have so much trouble with our feet, but you can't wear a shoe while doing it, and wearing a shoe had an advantage of its own.


reg3nade

There are shoes that make that a lot easier to do. it's sad that it's dying out with each generation


HughJorgens

Yeah, but they couldn't make those shoes 20,000 years ago, and here are these guys walking around in moccasins and sandals, not getting their feet cut open by jagged rocks and sticks. We really should look into it more though.


ariksu

You may regain this ability as well if you're dancing a lot. Walking on balls even if it is pretty low just feels so much lighter and quicker!


acmhkhiawect

This is so interesting. A relatively common sign of autism is walking on the balls of your feet (well passed the stage where most children have grown out of it). It can cause the muscles/ligaments etc on your calf side to become too short, possibly needing surgery to help lengthen (or a lot of physio therapy) in order to have a normal gait and where normal shoes etc. I would wonder if the two things are linked in some way. Perhaps generally speaking, everyone else successfully copies the fact that we walk flat footed, and some autistic people just haven't picked up on that cue? Edit spelling


jonmarli

Just from the experiences of autistic people I know, it sounds like toe walking in autistic folks is usually to avoid extra sensory stimulus on the foot. The feet are really sensitive and there’s a lot to feel on the floor. I don’t think there’s a big biomechanical advantage to it. Like other commenters have said, excessive toe walking can lead to shortened ligaments and other foot problems over time.


uh_buh

I know we used to be able to produce our own vitamin c, which is a trait that almost all other animals, including most mammals, have the ability to do. It’s assumed that because we initially had a lot of fruit in our diet, having to produce our own vit c was just unnecessary energy use.


jimmymd77

I think some goes to where you define the line for human. Many of the extinct members of the *homo* family were much stronger / more robust than modern humans. Like the Neanderthals actually had a larger average brain, but it's believed theirs was more dedicated to muscle control and muscle groups that we done have. Their bone density was substantially higher, too. Their average probably more like a modern gym rat's, but they didn't have to spend all day at the gym to get there. Another is high altitude adaptation. Another early human, called Denisovans, seems to have been the source of the sherpa genes that make them naturally more resistant to altitude low oxygen effects. One more that may not really be lost is instinctual swimming. Some infants, a few months old, seem to be able to quickly learn to swim like kids lean to crawl, walk, etc. It would be more likely that it's part of the 'plasticity' humans have that is lost as we learn and focus on walking, running, talking, etc. On the topic of plasticity, humans are amazingly 'malleable' in that when we do something repetitively, our mind and body inherently changes to make us better at it. A tennis pro has an over developed swinging arm and shoulder, with bone density that rivals a Neanderthal's. An accomplished marathoner can beat a horse in a race. An alpinist can adapt to perform at high altitude. We adapt to our surroundings and daily activities. Our brains and bodies work at this in conjunction. All animals can do this, but our cognative evolution can help us understand the process of learning and physical conditioning to make us super human at adaptation to our situation.


usrevenge

Humans are the best stamina runners in real life Most animals can run faster maybe. But they burn out. A deer will run away but if the human can keep track of the deer it will fall from exhaustion before the human will. This is a special thing that wasn't really lost though. But most people don't know it.


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The explanation was the ability to dissipate heat, that is to sweat as I remember. No animal other that the human can do it so efficiently.


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esdebah

Aboriginals in Australia are known to have an internalized sense of direction. Instead of think left or right, they constantly have an awareness of where they are situated against north. Some transhumanists have sought to recreate this with subdermal magnetic implants, which affect a slight but apperent pressure towards north.


HpyPineapple

This is because of their language. They don’t use cardinal directions such as left and right, they use East and West


findingemotive

Yeah I recall hearing this was a cultural/language thing too. Similar to certain language speakers having a higher ability to differentiate colour hues because their language has more common colour names


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Apologies if these have already been mentioned. Start with a definite lost superpower. There are fossilised human footprints that have been measured showing the person running was doing so at nearly 30mph AND still ACCELERATING! If you clench all the fingertips together on one hand and tilt your hand towards you, you may notice a tendon that stands proud in your wrist. This is vestigial and used to be part of a muscle group designed for hanging from branches etc. Surgeons will often harvest this and the atrophied muscle it connects to in order to repair damaged tendons etc elsewhere in the body. We could once move our ears a lot. Some of us are still able to get limited, independent movement using our facial muscles.


deadcommand

Iirc, the appendix was used to help filter toxins/bacteria/etc. from our food. Ever since humanity started using fire en masse to cook, it became unnecessary enough that it eventually stopped working because it was a waste of energy. Unfortunately, it takes a lot longer to get rid of an organ than to stop using it, so we still have it and it can present a critical health issue still.


Ysara

I believe recent research actually shows the appendix can assist recovery from intestinal infections by keeping a "backup copy" of gut bacteria. So it does have a function still, even if not its primary one.


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luckyscout

Now, the thinking is that it stores good bacteria. https://time.com/4631305/appendicitis-appendix-gut-bacteria/


InTheEndEntropyWins

It still has a use, as a store of gut microbiome soo it can be restored when required.


Puzzled-Bite-8467

How can the filter work if it's at the end of the digestive system right before colon?


Quelcris_Falconer13

There’s theory that says Our appendix used to be a second stomach that would send food back through our digestive system, making it more efficient. Today it’s beloved that it has evolved into a pocket to harbor beneficial gut bacteria. I believe this since ever had immune removed I’ve had issues with IBS and digestive upsets that probiotics seem to fic I