Humans could evolve webbed feet if sea levels rise, scientist claims

Dr Matthew Skinner claims humans could evolve to have webbed hands and feet and less body hair so they could move quickly through the water

Ducks feet
Could we end up like some of our feathered friends? Credit: Photo: Alamy Stock Photo

The perils of climate change are well known, but rising sea levels could also alter human evolution, scientists have claimed.

Rising sea levels could force communities to live in underwater or semi-aquatic towns which could change out physiology.

Dr Matthew Skinner, a paleoanthropologist from the University of Kent, claims that humans could evolve to have webbed hands and feet and less body hair so they could move quickly through the water.

Artist's impressions show how woman may evolve

Our eyes would even become more like cats, so we could see in the murky gloom of seas and rivers and our lungs would shrink as we became used to using artificial tanks to breathe underwater.

“Regular underwater foraging would lead to the evolution of longer fingers and toes which would then likely develop ‘webbed’ interconnecting skin to enable easier swimming,” said Dr Skinner.

“We may evolve a tapetum lucidum, an additional layer in the retina, like cat’s eyes, that would improve our vision in low light conditions such as underwater.

“Due to the cold environment of being submerged in water regularly, we would maintain a layer of ‘baby fat’ into adulthood as an insulator.”

And how man may look

Likewise colonising another planet like Mars would also have implications for the human body. Nasa has already said it wants to have Earth-independent habitations on the Red Planet by the 2030s but a weightless environment would change how bones grow, altering overall body shape and size.

A weaker gravitational pull would mean that legs would be used less to support body weight and would become shorter. An opposable big toe could also develop to allow greater dexterity in an weightless environment.

Due to a lack of natural predators, as well as the reduced need for physical exertion, our overall body size would reduce.

Humans may even follow a common evolutionary phenomenon called ‘island dwarfing’ which occurs in a number of mammals when there is low resource availability and few predators.

Scientists have identified the gene which may have driven the crucial step in evolution where man learned to talk.
Humans will continue evolving as their environment changes

Dr Skinner added: “The technological developments that allow us to inhabit another planet would also suggest that basic dietary requirements would be met through manufactured nutritionally-balanced non-solid substances.”

“The most obvious relaxation of selective pressure would be on the teeth and jaws".

Cooking and its associated softening of food, has led to a reduction in our tooth and jaw size over the last million years. For example, dental crowding in modern Britons shows the impact of small jaws and relatively too many teeth.

Interactive: Evolution of Man

Therefore, there could be a selection for a complete loss of teeth and a reduction in jaw and mouth size down to something you can fit a straw into, which would result in face size also becoming smaller.

“Theoretically, we might look more like newborns whose mouths only need to swallow, yet they still have large brains,” said Dr Skinner.

"Theoretically, we might look more like newborns whose mouths only need to swallow, yet they still have large brains"
Dr Matthew Skinner

Another possible scenario would see Earth being plunged into another Ice Age if an asteroid hit the planet, causing dust to cover the planet and block out the Sun.

The lack of sunlight would cause our skin and hair to become paler to improve the absorbtion of vitamin D which is essential to health. Nose and face size would also increase to warm cold air behind the nose.

Both men and women would grow in size to survive in such an inhospitable environment and both sexes would see an increase in body hair as a means of insulation.

Humans have evolved over millions of years to be completely adapted to today's environment with only slight differences between races. For example people who live at high altitude have greater lung capacity while those who live in more northerly environments have grown paler to soak up more sunlight.

The predictions were made of the release of Extant Season 2 on Syfy tonight.