How much has the biology of the human race changed in the last 10,000 years of history? Any major evolutionary traits that were developed during this time? Or have we stayed around the same ever since societies were first formed?

by illVent
Platypuskeeper

Well first that's not at all a question for historians as it by far preceeds written history, it's 100% a biology question (specifically population genetics and related fields).

As for the actual question, 10k years is a short time in evolutionary terms (it's considered 'recent'), and relatively little has happened in that time. The most well-known and pronounced phenotype that has arisen in the past 10k years (that we know of so far) is the rise of lactase persistence, i.e. retaining the ability to metabolize lactose and continue to be lactose-tolerant as adults. That does not occur in other mammals, or much of today's human population. It is most prevalent in north Europeans (e.g. from almost all Scandinavians to almost none in southeast Asia). It evolved in concert with the social practices of animal domestication and dairying, although it's not clear which one is the primary cause and which the effect - the milking or the tolerance for milk. Either way, this is without doubt the clearest known example of a cultural/societal impact on human evolution.

Another recent but older one (~40k years ago) is the Gly180Arg mutation in the ABCC11 gene that caused the ancestors of today's East Asians to develop dry earwax and sweat less.This, it is speculated, may have had to do with a survival benefit from sweating less if you lived in a cold climate.

The latter mutation only required the changing of a single DNA base, while the former may have required a half-dozen or so. Whether you want to consider those 'major traits' is in the eye of the beholder.

What we see as distinct traits (phenotypes) are not necessarily distinct genotypes, and vice versa. Human intuition leads us very often very wrong about how genetics works.