SKIRMISHER

The Y chromosome makes human men “males”, as you probably remember from high-school biology. But the thing is, it has been gradually vanishing over generations: the Y chromosome used to have 1400 genes, now the number’s down to a mere 45, with many men born without the chromosome at all.

Which points us to a future where there might no longer be human men as we presently know them, and reproduction taking on a new route. Men without the Y chromosome may split off to form a new human species.

It’s a subject of heated debate for some years now. Australian geneticist Jenny Graves says that in 15 million years (let’s pretend we could actually care about that distant future) the Y chromosome could disappear completely, giving rise to a new kind of human men.

The two groups–those with Y chromosomes and those who don’t–couldn’t mate with each other so they’d get gradually different, says Graves, “Just like chimpanzees and humans gradually became different 5 million years ago.”

LINK via FUTURISMIC

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