Ali Akbari, a senior researcher at Harvard University, said:
"Modern technologies, along with the analysis of a large number of ancient genomes, have allowed us for the first time to trace how natural selection has affected human biology over thousands of years. This reduces reliance on searching for genetic 'trace's' left by selection in modern human genomes, and on assumptions and theoretical calculations."
He notes that evolutionary biologists have begun in recent years to study whether natural selection still influences humans after their ancestors transitioned to civilized life. Some researchers believe that human evolution has become primarily driven by social factors, while others maintain that the biological evolution of Homo sapiens continues.
Research teams conducted the first large-scale study in paleogenetics dedicated to this issue, which included the analysis and comparison of more than 15,800 ancient genomes collected from the remains of people who lived in different regions of western Eurasia during the last 18,000 years, in addition to a similar analysis of 6,500 living volunteers.
The results showed that 479 regions of human DNA underwent significant changes as a result of directed natural selection, with a clear acceleration in the pace of these changes around 10,000 years ago, the period believed to have witnessed the emergence of agriculture and the beginnings of civilization, suggesting a possible link between the acceleration of human evolution and the transition to a settled lifestyle.
According to the researchers, many of these genetic changes have been linked to traits such as skin and hair color, predisposition to diseases such as alcoholism, tuberculosis and rheumatoid arthritis, as well as traits related to cognitive abilities, mental health and other human characteristics.
The researchers point out that conducting further studies on these changes will contribute to expanding the understanding of the relationship between biological and cultural evolution and how each influences the other.
