• Question: if we have evolved from apes, one day will we evolve so that we could fly????????????

    Asked by esmethegreat to Cathal, Daphne, Darren, Jon, Katherine on 16 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by bieberrocksduh.
    • Photo: Darren Logan

      Darren Logan answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      It is possible that we could evolve to fly, but very, very unlikely.

      We are way too heavy to fly at the moment. First we would have to get a lot smaller, then we would have to evolve large wings and then we would have to evolve much stronger muscles to support our massive wings. Having all these things would need to give us an advantage over not having them, and its difficult to see how that would. Afterall, if I want to fly somewhere, I can just get in a plane!

      In general, human evolution has slowed down (and maybe even stopped) because the pressures at “drive” evolution are not very strong in our society. So assuming humans are still around in a million years, its much more likely they will look very much like we do now.

    • Photo: Katherine Haxton

      Katherine Haxton answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Something would have to force us to start evolving wings, the pressure that Darren mentions. Some creatures fly to avoid predators or to find food better and higher in trees than other creatures and that’s their advantage. Our advantage is we can invent things like planes and helicopters and use them when we want to fly.

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