Sunday Times 2
Evolution might lead to colour-changing skin
Scientist Dr Dean Burnett has created a list of features he predicts humans could evolve.
It includes tentacles, colour-changing skin, flexible skeletons and selective hearing.
The neuroscientist humorously notes that as evolution takes so long no one will be around to see his predictions are right or wrong.
Taking inspiration from the chameleon, humans could evolve the ability to consciously change their skin colour, he wrote in a blog for The Guardian.
He muses that this could happen in humans evolved chomatophores – pigment-containing and light-reflecting organelles in cells found in reptiles – or even by using technology, but notes that whatever the case there are numerous evolutionary benefits.
‘Being able to either visually blend in or stand out at will would be a potent advantage in modern society, one that evolutionary pressures could make more common,’ he said.
Dr Burnett points out that humans already have the ability to focus their hearing on certain conversations and noises, but the human ear does not have a physical mechanism for doing this.
He believes that over time selective hearing could become more important – perhaps to filter out increasing noise from social media and other sources of continuous information.
‘Rather than diverting attention to more relevant inputs, humans could develop the ability to actively ‘tune out’ things they don’t want to hear, like closing your eyes to block an unpleasant sight,’ he said.
While this could result in humans taking in less information over all, Dr Burnett believes future humans might be less stressed and angry to live longer, happier lives.
He said that in order for humans to use keyboards and touch screens to communicate with computers more easily, we could evolve more dexterous hands that allow us to make precise movements but are less rigid to help us type faster.
They could even end up more like ‘tentacles like those on a sea anemone,’ he said.
Noting that there might be limited practical reasons for humans to develop tentacles, he humorously suggests that they could be used for sexual selection as an alternative method of arousal.
Humans could also develop more cartilage in their skeletons like sharks, which would have benefits such as being able to give birth more easily, he said.
As the world gets safer for most of us, there is less need for humans to have rigid and inflexible bones to withstand forceful impacts.
While Dr Burnett’s suggestions for features that humans could evolve are just his own musings, new research has found that that humans could one day grow beaks
Dr Fraser, a biologist at Sheffield University,believes that humans will evolve constantly developing teeth thanks to ‘tooth fairy’ cells.
He believes that human teeth are no longer fit for purpose and could even change into a beak that beak would not rot, chip or fall out.
© Daily Mail, London
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