Process
Natural selection
Individuals better suited to their surroundings leave more offspring, so their inherited traits become more common. Darwin's finches and peppered moths are well-studied examples.
Human adaptation
Examples include lactase persistence, which evolved separately in Africa and Europe, and the sickle cell trait, which protects against malaria.Source: Tishkoff et al., 2007Source: Allison, 1954
Also called lactase persistence.
Process
How Human adaptation connects
Human adaptation is an example of
Human adaptation is related to
Health condition
Sickle cell disease
An inherited blood disorder caused by a variant in the HBB gene that changes one amino acid in hemoglobin.
Studied in
Your progress
Sources & further reading
The explanations on this page are our own summaries of these sources. Follow a link to read the original; if anything here disagrees with it, the original wins. How we choose and check sources.
Convergent adaptation of human lactase persistence in Africa and Europe (opens the original in a new tab)
Tishkoff SA, Reed FA, Ranciaro A, et al. (2007). Nature Genetics 39:31-40.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchProtection afforded by sickle-cell trait against subtertian malarial infection (opens the original in a new tab)
Allison AC (1954). British Medical Journal 1:290-294.
Early evidence that carrying one sickle cell allele protects against severe malaria.
Historical paperPrimary research