Rick Potts is the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Program. He has researched human origins since the 1980s, and oversees the National Museum of Natural History’s What Does It Mean To Be Human? exhibition, which opened in 2010.
Potts developed the variability selection hypothesis of human origins, linking key human traits to a process of adaptation to climate variability and uncertainty. Climate.gov interviewed Dr. Potts by telephone on September 29, 2016. Here are his lightly edited responses.
Climate.gov: What is variability selection?
Potts: Variability selection is a form of natural selection that explains adaptation as a response to dramatically increased variability in the environment. When climate and other aspects of the environment vary dramatically, it can really affect the survival and success of an organism and its offspring over time. The effects can be evident in the gene pool and adaptations of an organism over time. Ultimately, organisms that can cope with widely varying conditions have a better chance of surviving novel and unpredictable environments.
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-and/climate-and-human-evolution
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