Regular foraging in shallow waters could lead us to develop artificial 'gills' to help us breathe, extracting oxygen from the water and delivering it to the bloodstream. This would also lead to our lung capacity becoming greatly reduced, and our rib cages shrinking.

Is it possible for a human to have gills?

Human lungs are not designed to extract oxygen from water to be able to breath underwater. ... Since humans do not have gills, we cannot extract oxygen from water.

Can humans evolve to breathe underwater?

Scientists have discovered a way for humans to potentially breathe underwater by merging our DNA with that of algae. ... The real-life version however could work on a more fundamental level and change our DNA so that we are more like algae, which actually give off oxygen even though they are on the sea bed.