It’s 5:45 am in a small Neolithic settlement near the Danube. A woman crouches by a smoldering fire, grinding emmer wheat on a saddle quern. She doesn’t stretch or meditate. She doesn’t need to. In twenty minutes, she’ll walk three miles to check a snare line, dig wild tubers for an hour, and hoist her toddler onto her hip with a movement pattern her body was literally designed for. There’s no…

Evolutionary mismatch, also known as mismatch theory or evolutionary trap, is a concept in evolutionary biology that refers to evolved traits that were once advantageous but became maladaptive due to changes in the environment. This can take place in humans and animals and is often attributed to rapid environmental change.