
Human Evolution and Frameshift Mutations - pg
http://www.gmilburn.ca/2009/04/03/human-evolution-and-frameshift-mutations/
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biohacker42
_The typical explanation for why humans have smaller jaws than early primates
is that our diets changed, and so we didn’t “need” bigger jaws._

Maybe, if you're getting your _typical_ explanations from outdated high school
biology books.

Human skull and bone structure along with genes relating to muscle strength,
have to do with our giant brains and the necessary skull changes to
accommodate them.

I'm not bothered enough to find the relevant papers, despite the fact that
_someone is wrong on the internet_.

\-- EDITED--

 _The old-school view of evolution as tiny little changes over a ridiculously
long period of time is turning out to be not quite exactly true._

Yeaaaah... I'm done reading that article. (The above has not been true of the
_school of evolution_ since BEFORE Stephen J. Gould)

~~~
nazgulnarsil
I hope you're not trying to imply that Gould isn't a hack.

~~~
tokenadult
Can the late Steven Jay Gould be a hack and yet still have accurate ideas
about some scientific issues? If I only believed statements by people who were
absolutely above reproach, I wouldn't believe much.

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mjtokelly
Great layperson's explanation of a complicated genetic phenomenon. Because 3
out of 64 codons are "stop" codons, almost every frameshift error results in
truncation of the affected protein.

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endtime
The notion of frameshift mutations is interesting. Though, for the example he
gives, I don't see why the initial mutation (large jaw, small jaw muscles)
succeeded. Why wouldn't the primates with big, weak jaws be outbred before
they could evolve smaller jaws and larger brains?

Ah, maybe there was no real benefit to having a stronger jaw? Only solution I
can think of.

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wolfish
I think people often think of natural selection as only allowing the _best_ to
exist, when really it allows what _can exist_ to exist, even if the mutation
provides no benefit.

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Scriptor
When you get down to it, natural selection is merely about who is able to
create the most successful offspring. The fact that the offspring have very
similar traits as their parents is the reason why these offspring are
themselves likely to reproduce successfully. The question then is weaker jaw
muscles somehow became more prevalent than stronger ones. As I explained in
another comment, this might be because the trait was able to survive
recessively until a good genetic environment was available.

~~~
wolfish
I don't think its necessary to create the _most successful offspring_ , merely
offspring that can reproduce before they die.

