These cultural adaptations can emerge without genetic changes, since cultural evolution operates on faster timescales, he wrote in the paper. The results suggest that cultural evolution compressed what would normally require roughly 88 million years of biological diversification into about 300,000 years within a single species. Signs of genetic adaptations have been found in humans, for instance, in physiological and metabolic adaptations to high-altitude zones. In humans, this can be accomplished not only through biological evolution but also, crucially, through cultural evolution,” he wrote in the paper. By comparing humans to mammals, we can more clearly isolate the distinctive effects of cultural evolution on the expansion of ecological range.

Source: The Hindu March 23, 2026 03:38 UTC