wisdom teeth in hunter/gather diet

[jess in hawaii]

I wasn't sure if this is the best place to post this, but thought this article would be interesting to alot of y'all.

http://news.yahoo.com/ancient-diet-shift-explains-why-wisdom-teeth-pain-200406009.html

[dovey]

Very interesting!  It's amazing how fast evolution works.  Humans start farming and within several thousand years we have already evolved different facial structures to accomodate our new diets, as well evolving the ability to use grains and legumes as a major source of nutrients. 

Initially, people thought that evolution was a gradual process, occuring over a long time scale, but now we are learning that it often happens in fits and starts, over just a few (relatively speaking) generations, as a result of changes in the environment.  There was a really interesting article in National Geographic about domestication a few months back - it talked about some of these ideas.  http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/taming-wild-animals/ratliff-text