# Am I More Evolved? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 2, 2004, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-more-evolved/243067 "2004-05-02T00:31:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-more-evolved/243067/21 "2004-05-02T21:04:44Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > No doubt wisdom teeth are a handicap in surviving or passing on progeny. Apparently, whatever it is that earlobes do is important enough that even not having them is just such a sufficient handicap. All we’re looking for is a slight statistical trend over billions of lives. Now, having four rotten molars sounds like quite a handicap to me, and I think it might just hurt enough to take my mind off sex - that’d be quite a handicap indeed. They have not proven to be so. “… four rotten motars …” vastly overstates the general condition of wisdom teeth. They erupt relatively late, after the individual is mature enough to procreate I believe. And no matter how sore your jaw, if you pass on your genes that’s evough. ---
**Author:** ![nocturnal\_tick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@nocturnal\_tick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nocturnal_tick)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-more-evolved/243067/22 "2004-05-02T22:15:55Z")
Okay so because it is only a mutation because of the low percentages of those who have it. Going with what **mangeorge** was saying the best bet is for **helieo** and others without wisdom teeth to procreate. Go forth, ye mutants, like bunnies. Once you’ve have enough children, the trait will become part of the whole population, then you will be more evolved. Remember this kiddies, the difference between mutation and evolution is sex, lots and lots of sex. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-more-evolved/243067/23 "2004-05-02T22:49:08Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > OK, I have to nitpick. First of all, why shouldn’t we think of advantageous change as progress? No. Progress is movement towards a goal. There is no endpoint or pinnacle for evolution. There is no goal to move towards. Evolution is simply change. The ancestors of the whale and dolphin left the sea for the land. Then, they left the land for the sea. There are species which have survived by becoming smaller, slower, less complex or less inteligent than their ancestors. > [@](#): > > And secondly, it surely isn’t true that every species is equally suited to its environment. Some bacteria living in stable and isolated ecosystems must have had thousands or millions of generations with only slight drift, and would be very close to ideally suited - whereas we humans, for example, would ideally have evolved physiologies much more suited to sedentary and overfed lifestyles than we would have required just 3 generations ago, and so are much less well suited to our environment… A species that is not suited to its environment either changes and becomes suited, or dies. The lifestyle of certain people in certain places mey be ‘overfed and sedentary’. But, there are plenty of people and places where this is not true. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-more-evolved/243067/24 "2004-05-02T23:00:12Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > The lifestyle of certain people in certain places mey be ‘overfed and sedentary’. But, there are plenty of people and places where this is not true. And the current environment of modern technology and modern society allows a person to be overfed and sedentary and still survive and procreate. We have to always remember that it is the environment that sets the conditions for survival, not whether we are ‘fit’ or ‘unfit’ in terms of some absolute standard. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-more-evolved/243067/25 "2004-05-02T23:13:43Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > Do you have a special mutant power picked out yet? Like being able to eat a double bacon cheeseburger in 15 seconds? The best power is to have the power to have lots and lots of powers. Like being able to be see into the future, but better then someone else who could. ---
**Author:** ![kdeus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b487fb/32.png) [@kdeus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kdeus)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2004, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-more-evolved/243067/26 "2004-05-03T01:04:10Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > There are species which have survived by becoming smaller, slower, less complex or less inteligent than their ancestors. for example, my brother-in-law. –kdeus _Smart people should be required to reproduce, at gunpoint if necessary._ ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2004, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-more-evolved/243067/27 "2004-05-03T01:33:43Z")
> [@kdeus](#): > > _Smart people should be required to reproduce, at gunpoint if necessary._ Axiomatic paraphrase: If you’re so smart, how come you can’t find your own means of reproduction? * * * Having a lack of molars is not a sign of evolutionary progress unless it’s accompanied by being able to pick up radio signals in your mouth or telekinesis. Peace. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2004, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-more-evolved/243067/28 "2004-05-03T01:40:31Z")
> [@nocturnal\_tick](#): > > Okay so because it is only a mutation because of the low percentages of those who have it. Going with what **mangeorge** was saying the best bet is for **helieo** and others without wisdom teeth to procreate. > > Go forth, ye mutants, like bunnies. Once you’ve have enough children, the trait will become part of the whole population, then you will be more evolved. I also have no wisdom teeth, and I’ve procreated (twice), _and_ passed on my mutant abnormality. My older offspring (a female) _also_ has no wisdom teeth. Scary, ain’t it? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2004, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-more-evolved/243067/29 "2004-05-03T05:50:41Z")
Wisdom teeth don’t kill you before you have kids, so they’re not being elvolved away. You’re just lucky. Missing teeth (those that you never get, that is) are passed on (rather, the missingness of teeth…er…you know what I mean) genetically, though – my mom and I are both missing the upper teeth between the incisors and canines (but do have wisdom teeth). ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2004, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-more-evolved/243067/30 "2004-05-03T06:12:59Z")
> [@Gunslinger](#): > > my mom and I are both missing the upper teeth between the incisors and canines Er…there are no teeth between the incisors and the canines. For humans, the standard dental formula in the upper jaw (and lower jaw, for that matter) is I2-C1-P2-M3; that is, each side of the jaw has 2 incisors, 1 canine, 2 premolars and 3 molars. From the sound of it, you are missing the second pair of incisors. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-more-evolved/243067.md?page=1)