A study led by a UW-Madison anthropologist has found that human evolutionary change, driven by huge population growth and cultural shifts, has moved much faster in the past 40,000 years than formerly believed, and even faster in the last 10,000 years.
The findings by a team led by University of Wisconsin anthropologist John Hawks are making headlines around the world. They counter a common theory that human evolution slowed to a crawl in modern humans, who had conquered nature, were living longer and had an easier life.