History Main / EvolutionaryStasis

-->--'''King Louie''', ''Disney/TheJungleBook''

-->--'''[[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys King Louie]]''', ''Film/TheJungleBook''

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':

* In the BBC series ''Series/{{Jekyll}}'', the antagonists justify their attempts to kidnap Tom Jackman and experiment on his other personality on the basis that humanity is doomed to EvolutionaryStasis without Hyde's unique genetics.

* In the BBC series ''Series/{{Jekyll}}'', the antagonists justify their attempts to kidnap Tom Jackman and experiment on his other personality on the basis that humanity is doomed to EvolutionaryStasis without Hyde's unique genetics.

* Despite being born millennia in the past, the immortal ComicBook/VandalSavage still looks identical to the modern ''Homo sapien''. An easy HandWave for this is that Vandal is probably a common ancestor for most of humanity by this point, but the point still stand

->''Now I'm the king of the swingers\\

-->-- [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys King Louie]], ''Film/TheJungleBook''

* [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Seele]] from NeonGenesisEvangelion believe this to be the case; that human evolution has stagnated, and that humans must be forced to evolve through the Human Instrumentality Project, which involves [[spoiler: merging the souls of all humans with the EldritchAbomination Lilith, progenitor of all terrestrial life]].

* An ExploitedTrope in ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}''. The BigBad Zanza hid the DNA of the Telethia, draconic monsters that serve as macroscopic digestive bacteria for his true body, [[spoiler:the Bionis, inside of the [[OurElvesAreBetter High Entia]], a sentient, technologically-advanced species created specifically for the role. By hiding them inside beings who rely on technology rather than adapting to their environment, the Telethia would be protected from the ravages of natural selection in order to prevent them from changing too much to be usable before Zanza was ready to consume all life en masse. Fortunately this didn't work 100%, as the High Entia royal family somehow learned the truth and set up a BreedingCult using intermarriages with humans to try and breed out the Telethia genes]].

* Averted in ''Literature/Seveneves'', where humans five thousand years in the future have evolved to live underwater, underground and on the moon and are drastically different from contemporary humanity.

See also MedievalStasis.

* Played straight in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''. Humans haven't changed one iota in 65 million years aside from the development of magic, and there's a number of other species that haven't changed at all either except for [[PaletteSwap color]]. Justified when you fight the final boss - turns out Lavos has personally controlled humanity's evolution since its crash landing in 65 Million BC. Apparently the original form of man serves it best for [[PlanetEater its meal]].
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': Played straight and justified with the vorcha, as their DNA has been unchanged for millions of years. This is due to their ability to adapt rapidly to any environment as individuals which removes their need to evolve as a species.
* An ExploitedTrope in ''VideoGame/Xenoblade''. The BigBad Zanza hid the DNA of the Telethia, draconic monsters that serve as macroscopic digestive bacteria for his true body, [[spoiler:the Bionis, inside of the [[OurElvesAreBetter High Entia]], a sentient, technologically-advanced species created specifically for the role. By hiding them inside beings who rely on technology rather than adapting to their environment, the Telethia would be protected from the ravages of natural selection in order to prevent them from changing too much to be usable before Zanza was ready to consume all life en masse. Fortunately this didn't work 100%, as the High Entia royal family somehow learned the truth and set up a BreedingCult using intermarriages with humans to try and breed out the Telethia genes]].

* An ExploitedTrope in ''VideoGame/XenoBlade''. The BigBad Zanza hid the DNA of the Telethia, draconic monsters that serve as macroscopic digestive bacteria for his true body, [[spoiler:the Bionis, inside of the [[OurElvesAreBetter High Entia]], a sentient, technologically-advanced species created specifically for the role. By hiding them inside beings who rely on technology rather than adapting to their environment, the Telethia would be protected from the ravages of natural selection in order to prevent them from changing too much to be usable before Zanza was ready to consume all life en masse. Fortunately this didn't work 100%, as the High Entia royal family somehow learned the truth and set up a BreedingCult using intermarriages with humans to try and breed out the Telethia genes]].

* An ExploitedTrope in ''VideoGame/XenoBlade''. The BigBad Xanza hid the DNA of the Telethia, draconic monsters that serve as macroscopic digestive bacteria for his true body, [[spoiler:the Bionis, inside of the [[OurElvesAreBetter High Entia]], a sentient, technologically advanced species created specifically for the role. By hiding them inside beings who rely on technology rather than adapting to their environment, the Telethia would be protected from the ravages of natural selection in order to prevent them from changing too much to be usable before Xanza was ready to consume all life en masse. Fortunately this didn't work 100%, as the High Entia royal family somehow learned the truth and set up a BreedingCult using intermarriages with humans to try and breed out the Telethia genes]].

* NowAndThenHereAndThere is set 5 billion years in the future and humans haven't changed at all. Now, it's possible the human population was brought to the future by the 'bound' system, but that's never implied in the series.

* ''Warhammer40K'': The major genetic evolution in humanity has been the emergence of psykers, and even then they're around one in a million. Somewhat enforced, however, in that FTL travel is far from easy: the populations of planets become known for very particular traits (every Catachan looks like Franchise/{{Rambo}} and the Franchise/{{Predator}} squad) and there is little opportunity for interbreeding. The other major modification, which involves taking the cloned genes of a long-dead superhuman warrior and injecting them into a human until they're seven feet tall and bulletproof also makes them sterile.

* An ExploitedTrope in ''VideoGame/XenoBlade''. The BigBad Xanza hid the DNA of the Telethia, draconic monsters that serve as macroscopic digestive bacteria for his true body, [spoiler:the Bionis, inside of the [[OurElvesAreBetter High Entia]], a sentient, technologically advanced species created specifically for the role. By hiding them inside beings who rely on technology rather than adapting to their environment, the Telethia would be protected from the ravages of natural selection in order to prevent them from changing too much to be usable before Xanza was ready to consume all life en masse. Fortunately this didn't work 100%, as the High Entia royal family somehow learned the truth and set up a BreedingCult using intermarriages with humans to try and breed out the Telethia genes]].

* Discussed and arguably justified in Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/TheEndOfEternity''. Twissell, from beyond the 30,000th century, is virtually undistinguishable from a modern human (to make no mention of [[spoiler:Nöys]], who's from beyond the 100,000th century and still there's no way to tell). Twissell is convinced that this stagnation is due to some machination from beings in the future, but it's revealed that [[spoiler:Eternity itself]] has deprived mankind of any evolutionary drive.

* ''Warhammer40K'': The major genetic evolution in humanity has been the emergence of psykers, and even then they're around one in a million. Somewhat enforced, however, in that FTL travel is far from easy: the populations of planets become known for very particular traits (every Catachan looks like {{Rambo}} and the {{Predator}} squad) and there is little opportunity for interbreeding. The other major modification, which involves taking the cloned genes of a long-dead superhuman warrior and injecting them into a human until they're seven feet tall and bulletproof also makes them sterile.

[[folder: LiveActionTV]]
* In the BBC series ''{{Jekyll}}'', the antagonists justify their attempts to kidnap Tom Jackman and experiment on his other personality on the basis that humanity is doomed to EvolutionaryStasis without Hyde's unique genetics.
* ''Series/DoctorWho:''
** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS2E1NewEarth New Earth]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E3Gridlock Gridlock]]", taking place 5 billion years in the future, pure humans are extinct, but the descendent species look identical.
** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E11Utopia Utopia]]", taking place ''trillions'' of years in the future, humans still look identical. At some point in between they spent time as [[EnergyBeing clouds]] and [[BrainUploading data]], but they apparently keep returning to human form.

[[folder:TabletopGames]]

* ''TheUnderlandChronicles'' averted in that the underlanders' eyes turned purple and their hair turned a very light blond. Although how living under ground could cause a change in melanin levels that quickly could be an example of artistic license.

* The major genetic evolution in humanity has been the emergence of psykers, and even then they're around one in a million. Somewhat enforced, however, in that FTL travel is far from easy: the populations of planets become known for very particular traits (every Catachan looks like {{Rambo}} and the {{Predator}} squad) and there is little opportunity for interbreeding. The other major modification, which involves taking the cloned genes of a long-dead superhuman warrior and injecting them into a human until they're seven feet tall and bulletproof also makes them sterile.