The Bajau people are able to dive tens of metres underwater with no conventional diving aids. Instead they rely on weights, handmade wooden goggles – and a single breath of air. As a result the team used an ultrasound device to measure the spleen in 43 Bajau people and 33 people from a neighbouring group of farming people, the Saluan. Further analysis by the team revealed that these genetic boons are not the result of chance, but evolutionary adaptations arising from natural selection. “We know that the Bajau have been leading this lifestyle for at least a thousand years, but we do not know when they started it – perhaps much earlier.”

Source: The Guardian April 19, 2018 15:56 UTC