I don't know if I find him to be an authority, British or not.
Posted on 10/06/2008 5:31:41 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Human evolution is grinding to a halt because of a shortage of older fathers in the West, according to a leading genetics expert.
Fathers over the age of 35 are more likely to pass on mutations, according to Professor Steve Jones, of University College London.
Speaking today at a UCL lecture entitled “Human evolution is over” Professor Jones will argue that there were three components to evolution – natural selection, mutation and random change. “Quite unexpectedly, we have dropped the human mutation rate because of a change in reproductive patterns,” Professor Jones told The Times.
“Human social change often changes our genetic future,” he said, citing marriage patterns and contraception as examples. Although chemicals and radioactive pollution could alter genetics, one of the most important mutation triggers is advanced age in men.
This is because cell divisions in males increase with age. “Every time there is a cell division, there is a chance of a mistake, a mutation, an error,” he said. “For a 29-year old father [the mean age of reproduction in the West] there are around 300 divisions between the sperm that made him and the one he passes on – each one with an opportunity to make mistakes.
“For a 50-year-old father, the figure is well over a thousand. A drop in the number of older fathers will thus have a major effect on the rate of mutation.”
Professor Jones added: “In the old days, you would find one powerful man having hundreds of children.” He cites the fecund Moulay Ismail of Morocco, who died in the 18th century, and is reputed to have fathered 888 children. To achieve this feat, Ismail is thought to have copulated with an average of about 1.2 women a day over 60 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Well. Isn’t that...conveeeenient?
I don’t think this guy is correct..
Most elderly animals don’t breed. It’s the young and robust animals that do.
I can’t comment authoritatively but it sounds pretty crackpot to me.
I had been wondering what the former Sex Pistols lead guitarist had been up to.
I’ve often wondered if evolution created brains that were smart enough to beat natural extinction.
By the way, natural selection is all about the genes, and they don’t care what machine they’re inside of. The survival of the species is a curiosity to us, not “evolution.”
Human evolution is over... hmmm... Did they note that Barack Obama and Barney Frank are proof that we are regressing? Or did they claim that Barack Obama is evidence that we can evolve no further?
Humans never evolved in the first place.
I know that I’m done evolving. Some people say I am set in my ways.
I don’t get this. It seems like in the past 30 years older and older men have been being fathers, and that for most of human history men didn’t make it to 35.
*snert*
Historically, of course (not to mention prehistorically), the evidence suggests that most men over 50 were dead, so how’d we evolve until now?
Anyway, wait until the female-shortage goes global, and then rich old guys will start making up a larger percentage of fathers.
GEEZ! Ismail must've had one heck of a marathon libido, not to mention extraordinary stamina ....
Oh please...what a load-
So is global warming.
Complete and utter nonsense!
1: The reproduction patterns of this generation are not an indicator of future patterns.
2: Isolated mutations (the mathematical equivalent of zero) are washed out by the massive population.
Ismail is thought to have copulated with an average of about 1.2 women a day over 60 years.
GEEZ! Ismail must’ve had one heck of a marathon libido, not to mention extraordinary stamina ....”
I find that 0.2 of a woman kinda icky.
I don't know if I find him to be an authority, British or not.
no, it stopped. but it will come back. after all Al gore can’t be wrong.
Noah was 500 years old when his sons were born. His children must have had a wide diversity.
We’re not talking elderly, we’re talking those in their prime who can still beat down the young toughs. In Human, it’s mostly done with money. I’ve held for some time that young women find success just as attractive as they do youth and beauty.
That said, I think this is a ridiculous statement to make. This culture is a passing thing. It will be gone in a blink of the planetary eye. This fellow should know that. It makes him suspect that he wouldn’t recognize it.
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