How does climate affect human evolution?

Overall, the hominin fossil record and the environmental record show that hominins evolved during an environmentally variable time. Higher variability occurred as changes in seasonality produced large-scale environmental fluctuations over periods that often lasted tens of thousands of years.

How did humans adapt to new climates?

Adaptations in humans can be physiological, genetic, or cultural, which allow people to live in a wide variety of climates. Humans have adapted to living in climates where hypothermia and hyperthermia are common primarily through culture and technology, such as the use of clothing and shelter.

What does adaptation mean in climate change?

Climate change adaptation means altering our behavior, systems, and—in some cases—ways of life to protect our families, our economies, and the environment in which we live from the impacts of climate change. The more we reduce emissions right now, the easier it will be to adapt to the changes we can no longer avoid.

Does race have any taxonomic significance?

Still others argue that, among humans, race has no taxonomic significance because all living humans belong to the same subspecies, Homo sapiens sapiens.

How did the modern concept of race emerge?

The modern concept of race emerged as a product of the colonial enterprises of European powers from the 16th to 18th centuries which identified race in terms of skin color and physical differences. This way of classification would have been confusing for people in the ancient world since they did not categorize each other in such a fashion.

Do adaptive traits define races in humans?

There are no objective criteria for choosing one adaptive trait over another to define race. As a consequence, adaptive traits do not define races in humans. Much of the recent scientific literature on human evolution portrays human populations as separate branches on an evolutionary tree.

Does human genetic diversity reflect human race?

Humans have much genetic diversity, but the vast majority of this diversity reflects individual uniqueness and not race. Keywords: admixture, evolutionary lineage, gene flow, genetic differentiation, race, human evolution 1. The Biological Meaning of ‘Race’ Many human societies classify people into racial categories.