Altitude Sickness and Hypoxia Effects
Most people experience increasingly severe physiological challenges as altitude increases, with life-threatening conditions developing above 2,500 meters without acclimatization.
Evidence for Human Aquatic Adaptation
Researchers suggest that perhaps the entire human species has been utilizing aquatic resources and foraying into the seas for an extended evolutionary period, not just select populations like the Bajau.
Bajau People's Enlarged Spleens for Diving
The Bajau people, who live around Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia, have developed extraordinary breath-holding abilities through an evolved anatomical adaptation related to their diving lifestyle.
Extreme Freediving Performance Records
Free divers have pushed human breath-holding and diving capabilities to extraordinary limits, making use of the mammalian dive reflex that all humans possess but few exploit fully.
Genetic Adaptations to High Altitude
People historically living in three high-altitude locations—the Tibetan Plateau in Asia, the Andean Altiplano in South America, and the Semien Plateau in Ethiopia—have developed remarkable adaptations to harsh hypoxic conditions, though not always identically.
Homo Erectus Hunting with Spears
Homo erectus, the hominid ancestor appearing approximately 2 million years ago, developed throwing-optimized anatomy coincident with intensified hunting practices evidenced in the fossil record.
Human Throwing Ability as Unique Adaptation
Humans possess the unique ability among all species to throw projectiles accurately and with lethal force, demonstrated most dramatically by professional baseball pitchers who can throw at speeds exceeding 105 miles (169 kilometers) per hour.
Mammalian Dive Reflex in Humans
Humans and other mammals possess the mammalian dive reflex, a set of physiological changes that occur automatically when submerged in water while holding breath, whether voluntarily or not.
Sherpa Mountaineering Performance Records
The Sherpa, a Tibetan ethnic group native to the most mountainous regions of Nepal, Tibet, and the Himalayas, have dedicated their lives to mountaineering and are regarded as some of the most elite mountain climbers to have ever lived.
Shoulder Anatomy Adaptations for Throwing
Human physiology underwent several key evolutionary changes that separate our throwing capabilities from other primates, despite chimpanzees’ superior strength and tree-swinging abilities.