Humans are still evolving, and one surprising sign of this is that many people are now being born without wisdom teeth. This change is happening because our faces are becoming shorter over time due to changes in our diet. As our jaws get smaller, there isn’t enough space for wisdom teeth to grow properly, so they’re gradually disappearing in many individuals.
Dr. Teghan Lucas, a researcher from Flinders University in Adelaide, explains that this is a clear sign that humans are still evolving—and it’s happening faster than we might think. Dr. Lucas and her team studied how people’s bodies are changing over time and found evidence of what they call “micro-evolution.” This refers to small evolutionary changes that can be observed over a relatively short period.
One key reason for these changes is the way our diets have shifted. Over time, humans have relied more on cooked and processed foods, which are easier to chew compared to raw or tough foods our ancestors ate. This reduced demand for strong jaws means that our jawbones have become weaker and smaller, leading to less room for teeth like wisdom teeth.
But wisdom teeth aren’t the only part of the body showing signs of evolution. Scientists also discovered other changes in modern humans. For example, some people are now being born with extra bones in their arms and legs, while others have an extra artery in their arms. This artery is something that used to disappear during development in the womb but now seems to be sticking around in more people. Additionally, some individuals are born with unusual connections between two or more bones in their feet, which is another sign of our bodies adapting over time.
These findings were published in the Journal of Anatomy, and they aren’t the only study to notice such changes. Together, these studies show that evolution isn’t something that just happened in the distant past—it’s still shaping who we are today.
