Quebec Island Site of Most Recent Case of Natural Selection

UQAM researchers say Ile Aux Coudres is further proof of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.

An island in Quebec is the site of the most recent instance of natural selection among humans, according to researchers at hte Universite du Quebec a Montreal. Ile Aux Coudres, in the middle of the St. Lawrence River northeast of Quebec City, was first settled by French farmers in the early 1700s. Extensive birth records from the island between 1799 and 1940 show that the average age of a woman when she had her first child fell from 26 to 22 over those years, meaning women could have up to four more children each by 1940. Fertility is an inheritable genetic trait, and other factors that would have led to a lower age of first birth, such as income or societal pressures, were ruled out due to the homogeneity of the island. Plus, residents of Ile Aux Coudres had a habit of inbreeding, meaning the population was ripe for genetic mutations. Having kids at a younger age would have been desirable, too, because kids were a great source of cheap labour for farmers and fishermen. The researchers posit that given those circumstances, a genetic mutation that would have caused women to have children earlier would have spread quickly among the island. So, residents of Ile Aux Coudres, you're a bunch of mutants. Early-child-havin', interbreedin' mutants.