• Question: •will we ever adapt to have gills or anything cool

    Asked by opolotjwh to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 14 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Rhys Phillips

      Rhys Phillips answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I doubt it – certainly not in our life times anyway.

    • Photo: Ian van der Linde

      Ian van der Linde answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      In our evolutionary history we have already had gills! If you look at a human fetus in the womb and compare it to some fish at the same stage of development, they are quite similar. You might know that some of our DNA is not used but is there historically from earlier stages of our evolution. On a number of occassions, babies have been born with partly formed gills because that part of their DNA that is supposed to be dormant has somehow been activated.

    • Photo: Helen Fletcher

      Helen Fletcher answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      We did have gills once but then evolved lungs so we could breath air. If the whole planet got flooded with water I reckon humans would die out and some sea dwelling animal would evolve to take our place as the dominant species instead.

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