Nature Knows 07 - Evolution Miracle In Tibet Poem by Unnikrishnan Sivasankara Menon

Human settlement in the Tibetan Plateau
dates back ten thousand years ago
when fresh migrants pushed
the earlier settlers up the Himalayas.

Those who live in the plains
find the rarified air in the Plateau
with less Oxygen difficult to breathe in
and may experience severe hypoxia.

Scientists and researchers have found
that the settlers in the Plateau have evolved
features that maximise oxygen delivery,
albeit by the process of natural selection.

The researchers confirmed that the traits
stand the test of evolutionary fitness,
one of the markers is reproductive success,
they are passed on to the next generation.

A measurable trait is higher number of
live deliveries per women; though
haemoglobin level in their blood was average,
but oxygen saturation of haemoglobin, high.

these adaptations maximize oxygen delivery
to cells and tissues that ensures child health,
without thickening the blood avoiding stress on
the heart for pumping high-viscosity blood.

This evolution in homo sapiens
is nothing short of a miracle.