• Question: could humans ever have wings???

    Asked by mexicanimmagrants to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 22 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      Hi mexican,
      It would take an enormous change in body shape and structure for humans to have wings and be able to fly. Such changes take place over thousands and millions of years through a process called evolution. There would also need to be a selective pressure that would make developing wings essential for human survival. At the moment, no such pressure is in place.

      Eoin

    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      I guess if it was vital for our survival than over millenia we could evolve to have wings. Those humans without wings wouldn’t survive long enough to pass on their genes, and those with wings would! But why we would need them when we have planes I don’t know.

    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      Hi Mexican

      I doubt whether humans will ever evolve wings, though you could argue they would be really useful as the roads get busier and busier and travelling gets trickier. Mind you, it could be chaotic in the big cities, with great flocks of humans taking to the sky. On the other hand, schools could introduce quidditch to their games lessons.

    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      I doubt it. We don’t have the muscle mass to shake them fast enough to be able to fly anyway, and even if we could, what advantage would it be for us to have them? The important thing to remember about evolution by natural selection is that for something to be selected for, and so expand through a population, it would have to be an advantage to the individuals who had them. In a world of cars and planes, I don’t think that wings would be an added advantage, and might even be a disadvantage – pretty high chance of crashing…

    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      hi mexican i guess this is a question of evolution – and simply we have never had the need to have wings for out day-to-day survival, so we haven’t evolved any.
      It would though be great to have some though – it would make my commute to work much faster and enjoyable. Is t a bird?? Is it a plane?? no its…… a bloke with wings sprouting from his back. weird.

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