Study finds humans still evolving

In a world where we've tamed our environment and largely protected ourselves from the vagaries of nature, we may think we're immune to the forces of natural selection. But a new study finds that the process that drives evolution was still shaping us as recently as the 19th century.

The finding comes from an analysis of the birth, death, and marital records of 5,923 people born between 1760 and 1849 in four farming or fishing villages in Finland.

Researchers led by evolutionary biologist Alexandre Cour-tiol of the Institute for Advanced Study Berlin picked that time period because agriculture was well established by then and there were strict rules against divorce and extramarital affairs.

The team looked at four aspects of life that affect survival and reproduction, key signposts of natural selection: Who lived beyond age 15, who got married and who didn't, how many marriages each person had (second marriages were possible only if a spouse died), and how many children were born in each marriage.

"All these steps can influence the number of offspring you have," says Courtiol.

Natural selection was alive and well in all of the villages the researchers surveyed. Almost half the people died before age 15, for example, suggesting that they had traits disfavored by natural selection, such as susceptibility to disease. As a result, they contributed none of their genes to the next generation.

Of those that made it through childhood, 20 percent did not get married and had no children, again suggesting that some traits prevented individuals from obtaining mates and passing on their genes to the next generation.

Courtiol's team reported its findings online yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. -- ScienceNOW