Lack of Human varieties. Genetic "cleansing" through history?

There is no need for a large vairiety of outward physical variation in humans. We all survive, particularly in todays world, even the most unhealthy least fit humans survive and reproduce.Humans adapt their environment to fit to their needs.Thanks to our minds we can survive almost anywhere with almost no regard to our physical features. There are a huge amount of physical differences in human popualtions though.I am sure we killed off any recent species of human relatives. Homo floresensis was probably one of the last populations of contemporary human relatives on the planet. After homo spaiens arrived on that island they were probably slowly killed off, maybe not entirely by human hands but also by our ability to out compete them for food supplies.People are also born with 6 toes or fingers, webbed feet or hands and tails sometimes.

All a genetic mutation is really is just a base pair change and crossing over in sperm or eggs. That single event is basically instantaneous. But mutation of a species into another species is gradual.This message has been edited by carini, 03-25-2006 12:52 PM