Umfangreiche Studie an alter DNA zeigt, dass sich die natürliche Selektion in der jüngsten menschlichen Evolution beschleunigt hat. Viele der identifizierten Genvarianten weisen bekannte Verbindungen zu komplexen physischen, psychischen und sozialen Merkmalen auf, einschließlich des Risikos für Typ-2-Diabetes und Schizophrenie

A massive study of ancient DNA from nearly 16,000 people across more than 10,000 years in West Eurasia reveals that natural selection has shaped modern human genomes far more than previously thought.

Before now, studies of ancient human DNA had identified only about 21 instances of directional selection — the type of natural selection that occurs when one version of a gene that confers an extreme form of a trait, such as lactose tolerance after infancy, proves advantageous enough for survival and reproduction that it gets passed on to more offspring than less advantageous versions of the gene and rapidly rises in frequency across a population. The dearth of evidence suggested that directional selection has been rare since modern humans arose in Africa some 300,000 years ago and began to split into different population groups around the world.

Combining an unprecedented amount of ancient genomic data with novel computational methods, the new analysis shows instead that directional selection has driven the spread or decline of hundreds of gene variants in West Eurasia since the end of the Ice Age and that selection has actually accelerated since people transitioned from hunting and gathering to farming.

The work demonstrates the power of ancient-DNA research to illuminate human genetic adaptation and other fundamental principles of evolutionary biology.

Many of the identified gene variants have known links to complex physical, psychological, and social traits, including risk for type 2 diabetes and schizophrenia. Delving into the evolution of these traits could deepen understanding of behavior, health, and disease and inform treatment efforts. However, the way we define some of the traits today, such as household income, doesn’t translate to prehistoric contexts, and the current analysis can’t speak to what made a variant beneficial for survival when it first arose.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10358-1

I mean … in a way it makes sense … the more of us, the more natural selection accelerates. Right ?