00:00These people evolved to live on the ocean.
00:02The Bajos are a nomadic people living in the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines
00:06and who spend all their lives on boats.
00:07Although nowadays most opt for pilot houses,
00:10it is estimated that they have maintained this lifestyle for about 1,000 years.
00:13They spend most of the day diving in the ocean to hunt fish and other marine creatures
00:18and that's where things get interesting.
00:19They have the particularity of being able to hold their breath underwater for 13 minutes
00:23and dive up to 60 meters deep.
00:25Some Bajos even intentionally pierce their gills at an early age to facilitate diving and sea hunting.
00:30With more than 1,000 years of diving in apnea,
00:32associated with their life at sea seems to have given the Bajos several genetic adaptations to facilitate their way of life.
00:37According to a study carried out in 2018,
00:39the reason why they can hold their breath underwater for so long is that their rat is larger than that of other humans,
00:44which allows them to store more blood rich in hemoglobin,
00:46which is expelled in the bloodstream when the rat contracts in depth,
00:50allowing them to dive in apnea for longer.
00:52It is estimated that their rat is at least 50% larger than ours.
00:55These adaptations are probably the result of natural selection,
00:58which has increased the frequency of relevant alleles in Bajos.
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