Humans can evolve even when monogamy limits their potential to
produce children, according to research published today (April
30) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Using
church records of the marriages, births, and deaths of nearly
6,000 people living in Finland in the 18th and 19th centuries,
an international team of researchers showed that the
population’s reproductive fitness varied enough for natural
selection to act. “This is a good confirming instance, with
solid evidence” that humans still have the potential to evolve
in modern times, said Stephen Stearns, an evolutionary biologist
at Yale University, whose own work has suggested the potential
for continuing human evolution beyond prehistoric times.
Stearns, who did not participate in the current study, explained
that the extremely strong data set, in which researchers could
track each individual from birth through death, helped bolster
the argument for evolution. Whether or not humans could continue
to evolve after adopting an agrari