12,000 years ago, humans 'changed shape' twice?

Two new studies show that the impact of social development can cause people to radically change from external appearance to internal functions of the body.

The first study, just published in the journal Frontiers in Genetics, reveals that humans living in Europe during the Neolithic period (about 10,000 BC to 4,500 BC) used to make dramatic changes in physique. , skin color, disease risk, and intelligence.

Could humans have been incredibly flexible in the past? -

According to Ancient Origins, a team of genetic researchers from the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen (Netherlands) and the Helmholtz Center for Infectious Diseases (Germany) studied the genetic profiles of more than 800 ancient Europeans. , were synthesized from DNA samples taken from skeletons excavated from various archaeological sites.

Compared with the DNA of modern Europeans, they discovered amazing changes in gene sets related to skin pigmentation, weight, mass index, metabolism, cholesterol, brain activity set.

Apparently, during the few thousand years of the Neolithic, it seems that changes in the technology of tool production and the way in which labor were performed had a tremendous impact on these ancient people.

They have become taller, lighter-skinned, smarter, but more susceptible to cardiovascular disease.

The most interesting of which is the change that makes more modern Europeans more susceptible to excess cholesterol and cardiovascular disease: that's because the genes involved in this damage are beneficial to the brain. Therefore, people have made the "trade-off" to own a smarter mind.

In contrast, a study led by Associate Professor Stephanie Marciniak from the Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University (USA), just published in the journal PNAS, confirms that at 10,000 BC, humans also. dwarfed by 3.8 cm.

According to the Daily Mail, the change from hunter-gatherer to primitive agrarian society caused them to endure a period of poor nutrition and an increased burden of disease, resulting in physical changes. .

The work is also based on DNA analysis, from 167 individuals found throughout Europe, who lived between 38,000 years ago and 2,400 years ago.

According to experts, it is likely that subtle social changes have had different effects on different groups of people with different ability to adapt to environmental changes. It is also possible that humans passed the difficult period of the beginning of the Neolithic to immediately reverse the transformations that initially appeared "backwards".