How is the human hand a good example of microevolution?
Actually comparing human hands with other primates is macroevolution. Microevolution is the study of the change in occurrence of certain traits (or alleles if you go into the genetics part of it) within the SAME species. In this case, there are many traits linked with the human hand which include (but are not limited to): – Hand/finger length and width – Bent little finger – Length of ring finger versus index finger – Hitchhiker’s thumb If you want to use the human hand as an example of microevolution you need to do some research into the occurrence of different traits in different areas of the world and infer whether a certain trait confers an evolutionary advantage that would explain its prevalence. Unfortunately for your essay, microevolution is usually the clearest when there is strong evolutionary pressure (i.e. the sickle cell gene and malaria). The human hand is a poor choice for observing microevolution, since unless a trait seriously handicaps an individual’s survivability, th
