The Rh blood system is an evolutionary oddity

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An evolutionary oddity

Nobody knows why Rh-negative blood is as common as it is. It doesn’t produce any obvious advantage in people who have it but it can create a disease called hemolytic disease in the fetus and newborns. That can happen when the mother has rh-negative blood, the baby in her womb has rh-positive blood, and the mother previously had a baby with Rh-positive blood.

Because babies with hemolytic disease can die, natural selection ought to cause Rh-negative genes to become less common and eventually disappear. But that hasn’t happened and no one knows why.

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2 Comments

  1. Richard Youatt April 19, 2021 Reply
  2. Paula McNeil May 18, 2021 Reply

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