• Question: Will the human race ever evolve to flying organisms?

    Asked by etherdenc09 to Helen, Jenni, Mark, Martin, Stu on 23 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Stuart Mourton

      Stuart Mourton answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      I doubt it, we have evolved to the point where we alter the environment, rather than the environment altering us. If for example, suddenly the only food we could eat was birds, we’d just use planes or guns to catch it. Previously we’d have had to climb trees and jump and catch it ourselves. Over millions of years that may have led to us developing large flaps of skin like bats that we could fly with, but our species has reached an evoluntionary point where we have stopped mutating to aid our survival.

    • Photo: Mark Burnley

      Mark Burnley answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      If we could have, we would have! But Stu has given a good summary of why we have a big brain and no wings.

    • Photo: Helen O'Connor

      Helen O'Connor answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      I don’t think we will ever need to evolve in this way, like Stu said.
      Two ways in which evolution occurs are natural selection and mutation – neither of which we have as much chance of these days.

      Our life expectancy is now so good (compared with even 200 years ago and beyond) that natural selection no longer plays such a part in evolution. In fact, I think if we stamped out all diseases, we would probably only increase our average life expectancy by a couple more years worldwide.

      Although radioactivity can cause genetic mutations (like the 5-eyed fish in the Simpsons) this isnt something that happens enough or on a large enough scale to affect our evolution. One way that ‘mutations’ used to occur in humans was because men used to have children when they were much older, and now, most men stop having children after they are in their 50s. We also don’t in-breeed these days (we don’t marry or have sexual intercourse with our family members) and this was another way that genetic mutations could occur.

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