The official name of a mutation winning despite having no selection benefit is genetic drift. When I had genetics lessons in university the concept that was taught was that a significant amount of our genetic changes are due to gene drift but there’s no exact way to quantify how many.
Furthermore some genes aren’t stable and can easily mutate. Evolution doesn’t succeed in bringing color blindness to zero despite it being no useful mutation.
Yes, an obvious one is the inability to manufacture Vitamin C. Universal in great apes, including us, but every other animal and plant can do it, except guinea pigs.
I imagine that at some point our ancestors lived in a vitamin C rich environment, so losing this was no immediate handicap. But even then, the random drift should have taken ages. Is there some reason why losing this pathway would be a benefit?
Same for colour-blindness. Is it drifting, or is it actually good for something in an environment where it does no harm? (These poor children, none of them will ever be commercial pilots or qualified electricians....)
The official name of a mutation winning despite having no selection benefit is genetic drift. When I had genetics lessons in university the concept that was taught was that a significant amount of our genetic changes are due to gene drift but there’s no exact way to quantify how many.
Furthermore some genes aren’t stable and can easily mutate. Evolution doesn’t succeed in bringing color blindness to zero despite it being no useful mutation.
Yes, an obvious one is the inability to manufacture Vitamin C. Universal in great apes, including us, but every other animal and plant can do it, except guinea pigs.
I imagine that at some point our ancestors lived in a vitamin C rich environment, so losing this was no immediate handicap. But even then, the random drift should have taken ages. Is there some reason why losing this pathway would be a benefit?
Same for colour-blindness. Is it drifting, or is it actually good for something in an environment where it does no harm? (These poor children, none of them will ever be commercial pilots or qualified electricians....)