A massive study of ancient and modern DNA from thousands of West Eurasian people has identified nearly 500 genetic variants that evolution has selected for or against in recent history Natural selection has been playing a bigger role in changing modern human DNA than previously thought, according to a new study. geralt via Wikimedia Commons under CC0 Many people are familiar with the concept of natural selection and “survival of the fittest.” While modern humans may look like they’ve been at their “fittest” for hundreds of thousands of years, new research hints that  Homo sapiens  have continued to evolve—to a much greater extent than previously thought—over the past 10,000 years. In an enormous study published April 15 in the journal  Nature , researchers analyzed ancient and modern DNA from nearly 16,000 West Eurasian people.…