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by LarryL 2863 days ago
Some people seem to have _evolved_ to be able to hold their breath (over 12 minutes) and work.

Look for the "sea nomads", there have been articles about them recently, a recent (2016) research ( https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(18)30386-6 ) suggests that their ability could be because they evolved a larger spleen (which helps with red blood cells).

2 comments

I thought it was interesting that there are also sea nomad children who are able to see clearly underwater: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160229-the-sea-nomad-child...

Although that skill didn't evolve. It's just something kids can do with practice, and the ability is lost as we age and our lenses become less flexible.

They measured a difference in spleen size between the "sea nomads" and some neighboring group of farmers.

However, all the news stories neglected to mention that the sea nomads still had smaller spleens than average humans overall.