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Post by auntym on Feb 2, 2012 23:15:08 GMT -6
www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/science/gains-in-dna-are-speeding-research-into-human-origins.html?_r=1 DNA Turning Human Story Into a Tell-All[/color] By ALANNA MITCHELL Published: January 30, 2012 The tip of a girl’s 40,000-year-old pinky finger found in a cold Siberian cave, paired with faster and cheaper genetic sequencing technology, is helping scientists draw a surprisingly complex new picture of human origins. The new view is fast supplanting the traditional idea that modern humans triumphantly marched out of Africa about 50,000 years ago, replacing all other types that had gone before. Instead, the genetic analysis shows, modern humans encountered and bred with at least two groups of ancient humans in relatively recent times: the Neanderthals, who lived in Europe and Asia, dying out roughly 30,000 years ago, and a mysterious group known as the Denisovans, who lived in Asia and most likely vanished around the same time. Their DNA lives on in us even though they are extinct. “In a sense, we are a hybrid species,” Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist who is the research leader in human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, said in an interview. The Denisovans (pronounced dun-EE-suh-vinz) were first described a year ago in a groundbreaking paper in the journal Nature made possible by genetic sequencing of the girl’s pinky bone and of an oddly shaped molar from a young adult. Those findings have unleashed a spate of new analyses. Scientists are trying to envision the ancient couplings and their consequences: when and where they took place, how they happened, how many produced offspring and what effect the archaic genes have on humans today. CONTINUE READING: www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/science/gains-in-dna-are-speeding-research-into-human-origins.html?_r=1
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Post by auntym on Feb 2, 2012 23:23:48 GMT -6
www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/02/humans-may-be-the-most-advanced-species-in-the-universe-dimitar-sasselov-of-harvard-smithsonian-cent.htmlFebruary 02, 2012 "Humans May be One of the Early Advanced Species in Our Universe" -- Dimitar Sasselov of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics[/color] Intelligent life may be in it's "very young" stage in the observable Universe. Its 200 billion galaxies show a clear potential to continue on as we see them today for hundreds of billions of years, if not much longer. Because planets and life are so young in our Universe, says Harvard's Dimitar Sasselov, perhaps "the human species are not late comers to the party. We may be among the early ones." That may explain why we see no evidence of "them" and may go a long way to explaining the famous Fermi Paradox, which asks if there's advanced intelligent life in the Universe, where are they? Why haven't we discovered any evidence of their existence? The story of the Universe according to Sasselov in is new study, The Life of Super-Earths, looks like this: generations of stars made enough iron and oxygen, silicon and carbon, and all the other elements from the original hydrogen and helium about 13 billion years ago to be able to form the Earth we live on and the planets the Kepler Mission is discovering today. Stable environments in galaxies that were enriched enough to have planets only became available some nine billion years ago and rocky Earth-like planets and larger super-Earths, only some 7 to 8 billion years ago. And Life had to wait until that time if not later to begin its emergence throughout the Universe. Between 7 and 9 billion years ago, enough heavy elements were available for the complex chemistry needed for life to emerge were in place along with the terrestrial planets with stable environments necessary for chemical concentration. Enrico Fermi argued that given the old age of the Universe and given the large number of stars and planetary systems and the incredibly short timescale it took humans to develop technology that other origins of life and civilizations in the Milky Way could have had a significant head start and should be significantly more advanced than we are. Sasselov concludes that the statistical argument for Fermi's Paradox "holds true only if the timescale for the emergence of life is much shorter than the age of the universe, but not so if the two are comparable." The future for life in the Universe looks excellent, says Sasselov. CONTINUE READING: www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/02/humans-may-be-the-most-advanced-species-in-the-universe-dimitar-sasselov-of-harvard-smithsonian-cent.html
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2012 23:27:27 GMT -6
Ancient human ancestors gettin' it on with Neanderthals. Oh yea. Bow chicka wow wow!
~smirk~
So we are a hybrid species. Kewl.
Maybe Lord of the Rings was true... apparently Hobbits did exist at one time... hehehe...
The Neanderthals were the dwarves... only tall dwarves...
And the Denisovans were the Elves, right? ;D
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Post by paulette on Feb 3, 2012 10:12:09 GMT -6
And who were the Striders? Who came and watched and seemingly didn't interfer?
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Post by satansrini on Feb 12, 2012 23:57:19 GMT -6
Ancient human ancestors gettin' it on with Neanderthals. Oh yea. Bow chicka wow wow! ~smirk~ So we are a hybrid species. Kewl. Maybe Lord of the Rings was true... apparently Hobbits did exist at one time... hehehe... The Neanderthals were the dwarves... only tall dwarves... And the Denisovans were the Elves, right? ;D hehehehe... ;D well what can i say.. Il say it on facebook! And who were the Striders? Who came and watched and seemingly didn't interfer? Meeeeeeeeeeeee. Though I personally prefer Wizard.. Strider/Numenor is my next favourite!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2012 0:09:48 GMT -6
And who were the Striders? Who came and watched and seemingly didn't interfer? I guess they haven't been discovered yet ;D
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Post by paulette on Feb 13, 2012 11:44:57 GMT -6
I think we talk about them here.
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Post by auntym on Feb 29, 2012 16:24:18 GMT -6
www.stumbleupon.com/su/1NrhYN/www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/02/what-was-the-impact-of-early-human-neanderthal-interbreeding.htmlFebruary 28, 2012 What Were the Consequences of Early Human & Neanderthal Interbreeding?[/color] Ealy modern humans left Africa about 80,000 to 50,000 years ago. The question has long been whether the physically stronger Neanderthals, who possessed the gene for language and may have played the flute, were a separate species or could have interbred with modern humans. The answer is yes, the two lived in close association. In July 2011, an international team of researchers led by Damian Labuda of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Montreal and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center announced that the human X chromosome originated from Neanderthals and is found exclusively in people outside Africa, which confirmed recent findings suggesting that the two populations interbred," said Labuda. His team places the timing of such intimate contacts and/or family ties early on, probably at the crossroads of the Middle East. Neanderthals, whose ancestors left Africa about 400,000 to 800,000 years ago, evolved in what is now mainly France, Spain, Germany and Russia, and are thought to have lived until about 30,000 years ago. "In addition, because our methods were totally independent of Neanderthal material, we can also conclude that previous results were not influenced by contaminating artifacts," added Labuda. Labuda and his team almost a decade ago had identified a piece of DNA (called a haplotype) in the human X chromosome that seemed different and whose origins they questioned. When the Neanderthal genome was sequenced in 2010, they quickly compared 6000 chromosomes from all parts of the world to the Neanderthal haplotype. The Neanderthal sequence was present in peoples across all continents, except for sub-Saharan Africa, and including Australia. "There is little doubt that this haplotype is present because of mating with our ancestors and Neanderthals," said Dr. Nick Patterson, of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, a major researcher in human ancestry who was not involved in this study. "Dr. Labuda and his colleagues were the first to identify a genetic variation in non-Africans that was likely to have come from an archaic population. This was done entirely without the Neanderthal genome sequence, but in light of the Neanderthal sequence, it is now clear that they were absolutely right!" adds Dr. David Reich, a Harvard Medical School geneticist, one of the principal researchers in the Neanderthal genome project. CONTINUE READING: www.stumbleupon.com/su/1NrhYN/www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/02/what-was-the-impact-of-early-human-neanderthal-interbreeding.html
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Post by Deleted on Feb 29, 2012 19:39:57 GMT -6
Well..according to the bible..the son's of God (whom it's believed were the angels) found the daughters of man comely and came unto them. The resulting offspring were said to be the Nephilim..(giants of the earth). But..glitches do occur in any tale that's passed down for so long. I can't see the angels finding neanderthal women a big turn on so there may be some areas of history about as blacked out as a released government document ;D en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephilim
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Post by skywalker on Mar 1, 2012 8:52:25 GMT -6
I can't see the angels finding neanderthal women a big turn on so there may be some areas of history about as blacked out as a released government document ;D Maybe that's why they call them the "dark" ages...because they were blacked out.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2012 17:18:37 GMT -6
Seems like no matter what you're shopping for 'proof' is pretty hard to find
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Post by auntym on Mar 18, 2012 12:05:47 GMT -6
www.stumbleupon.com/su/2wsKLU/www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/03/discovering-your-inner-fish-todays-most-popular.htmlMarch 17, 2012 Discovering Your Inner Fish --Human DNA Traced Back to Marine Origins [/color] Have you ever felt like you're really a fish? That you love the water, you want to swim forever, that you should don an artificial tail and eat kelp for the rest of your life? Then congratulations, you're crazy. But by coincidence some of your psycho-cells agree with you, hiding gene expression patterns that date back to the fish and probably beyond. DNA is the most complicated system you'll ever use. Your genes are a huge collection of protein-encoding patterns: some build materials required for organs and tissues, but the vast majority of the genes are designed only to control other genes: it's like running a PC with Windows Vista just to open Notepad. Even the simplest task has an enormous set of operating instructions making it possible. In 2009, Timothy Hughes at the University of Toronto, Canada, worked with a team of researchers to investigate evolutionary alterations in gene regulation in the five different vertebrates. They found that although the specialized DNA sequences that regulate the expression of the genes seem to have changed beyond recognition over the hundreds of millions of years since the clades parted evolutionary company, the actual patterns of gene expression remain closely conserved. "There are clearly strong evolutionary constraints on tissue-specific gene expression. Many genes show conserved human/fish expression despite having almost no nonexonic conserved primary sequence," Hughes said. The authors studied 3074 genes that were present as a single unambiguous copy in each of the five genomes. The similar expression profiles they uncovered suggest the existence of a basic ancestral pattern of expression in each tissue, the so-called 'inner fish'. The strongest similarities were seen in brain tissue. Hughes said, "This relatively low divergence of gene expression in brain supports the hypothesis that neurons participate in more functional interactions than cells in other tissues – imposing constraints on the degree of alteration that can be tolerated". Genes expressed in tissues subject to greater environmental influence (such as intestine, stomach and spleen) may be more likely to take on new roles and diverge in expression as a means of adaptation. CONTINUE READING: www.stumbleupon.com/su/2wsKLU/www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/03/discovering-your-inner-fish-todays-most-popular.html
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Post by paulette on Mar 19, 2012 18:58:12 GMT -6
"Have you ever felt like you're really a fish? That you love the water, you want to swim forever, that you should don an artificial tail and eat kelp for the rest of your life? Then congratulations, you're crazy. But by coincidence some of your psycho-cells agree with you, hiding gene expression patterns that date back to the fish and probably beyond." Read more: theedgeofreality.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=science&action=display&thread=2003#ixzz1pc8R06uTFunny thing is, yes I do have a strong inner fish. When I'm shocked or grief stricken - I get into the bathtub and don't come out until I have to (the hot water has all been used up). I'll never been as happy as when I surfed - both as a young woman and later from 40 or so to about 60. Looking at waves straightens out my mind. I love eating wakame (Nori seaweed). I even gather and eat seaweed here. (so far so good).
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Post by auntym on Mar 29, 2012 13:19:11 GMT -6
www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/03/ancient-antarctic-lake-reveals-snapshot-of-how-life-got-a-foothold-on-earth-todays-most-popular.htmlMarch 29, 2012 Ancient Antarctic Lake Reveals How Life Got a Foothold on Earth An Antarctic discovery in April of 2011 could help scientists better understand the conditions under which the planet's primitive life-forms thrived. “It’s like going back to early Earth,” says Dawn Sumner, a geobiologist at the University of California, Davis, describing her explorations of the eerie depths of East Antarctica’s Lake Untersee where Sumner and her colleagues, led by Dale Andersen of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., discovered otherworldly mounds of Photosynthetic microbial stromatolites. The stromatolites, built layer by layer by bacteria on the lake bottom, resemble similar structures that first appeared billions of years ago and remain in fossil form as one of the oldest widespread records of ancient life dating from 3 billion years ago or more, to understand how life got a foothold on Earth. Lake Untersee is located at 71°20'S, 13°45'E in the Otto-von-Gruber-Gebirge (Gruber Mountains) of central Dronning Maud Land. [Download Google Earth .kmz file of Lake Untersee]. The lake is 563 meters above sea level, with an area of 11.4 square kilometers and is the largest surface lake in East Antarctica. The purple-bluish mounds are composed of long, stringy cyanobacteria, ancient photosynthetic organisms. Similar to coral reef organisms, the bacteria takes decades to build each layer in Untersee’s icy waters, Sumner said, so the mounds may have taken thousands of years to accumulate. Today, stromatolites are found in only a few spots in the ocean, including off the western coast of Australia and in the Bahamas. They they have also been found thriving in freshwater environments, such as super-salty lakes high in the Andes and in a few of Antarctica’s other freshwater lakes. But scientists the size and shape of the purplish stromatolite mounds built by Phormidium bacteria in Untersee's extremely alkaline waters and high concentrations of dissolved methane, are unique reaching up to half a meter high, dotting the lake floor. “It totally blew us away,” Andersen said. “We had never seen anything like that.” CONTINUE READING: www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/03/ancient-antarctic-lake-reveals-snapshot-of-how-life-got-a-foothold-on-earth-todays-most-popular.html
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Post by auntym on Aug 27, 2012 11:50:36 GMT -6
www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/08/did-dna-exist-before-life-began-on-earth-new-study-suggests-yes.htmlAugust 27, 2012
Did DNA Exist Before Life Began on Earth? New Study Suggests "Yes"[/color] Scientists are close to demonstrating that the building blocks of DNA can form spontaneously from chemicals thought to be present on the early Earth. If they succeed, their research implies that DNA could have predated the birth of life. “The story makes more sense if DNA nucleotides were naturally present in the environment. Organisms could have taken up and used them, later developing the tools to make their own DNA once it became clear how advantageous the molecule was— and once natural supplies began to run low,” Christopher Switzer of the University of California, Riverside said. DNA is essential to almost all life on Earth, yet most biologists think that life began with RNA. Just like DNA, it stores genetic information. What's more, RNA can fold into complex shapes that can clamp onto other molecules and speed up chemical reactions, just like a protein, and it is structurally simpler than DNA, so might be easier to make. Conventional wisdom is that RNA-based life eventually switched to DNA because DNA is better at storing information. In other words, RNA organisms made the first DNA. In 2009 researchers finally managed to generate RNA (image below) using chemicals that they believe existed on the early Earth. Matthew Powner, at University College London, and his colleagues synthesised two of the four nucleotides that make up RNA. Their achievement suggested that RNA may have formed spontaneously - powerful support for the idea that life began in an "RNA world". Powner's most recent work suggests that DNA might have come first, attempting to create DNA nucleotides through similar methods to those he used to make RNA nucleotides in 2009. Prebiotic chemists have largely ignored DNA, because its complexity suggests it cannot possibly form spontaneously. "Everybody and his brother has been saying 'RNA, RNA, RNA'," says Steven Benner of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, Florida in an interview with New Scientist. Nucleotides consist of a sugar attached to a phosphate and a nitrogen-containing base molecule - these bases are the familiar letters of the genetic code. DNA nucleotides, which link together to form DNA, are harder to make than RNA nucleotides, because DNA uses a different sugar that is tougher to work with. Starting with a mix of chemicals, many of them thought to have been present on the early Earth, Powner has now created a sugar like that in DNA, linked to a molecule called AICA, which is similar to a base (Journal of the American Chemical Society, doi.org/h6q). There is plenty still to do. Powner needs to turn AICA into a base, and add the phosphate. His molecule also has an unwanted sulphur atom, which helped the reactions along but now must be removed. Nevertheless, a DNA nucleotide is just a few years away, says Christopher Switzer of the University of California, Riverside. "It's practically a fait accompli at this point. CONTINUE READING: www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/08/did-dna-exist-before-life-began-on-earth-new-study-suggests-yes.html
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Post by auntym on Mar 11, 2013 12:30:00 GMT -6
www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/03/why-did-the-human-population-explode-40000-years-ago-todays-most-popular-.htmlMarch 11, 2013 The Human Population Explosion 40,000 Years Ago --New Theories on Why DNA sequencing of 36 complete Y chromosomes has uncovered a previously unknown population explosion that occurred 40 to 50 thousand years ago, between the first expansion of modern humans out of Africa 60 to 70 thousand years ago and the Neolithic expansions of people in several parts of the world starting 10 thousand years ago. Research completed in fall of 2012 used the information from large-scale DNA sequencing to create an accurate family tree of the Y chromosome, from which the inferences about human population history could be made. "We have always considered the expansion of humans out of Africa as being the largest population expansion of modern humans, but our research questions this theory," said Ms Wei Wei, first author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the West China University of Medical Sciences. "The out-of-Africa expansion, which happened approximately 60,000 years ago, was extremely large in geographical terms with humans spreading around the globe. Now we've found a second wave of expansion that is much larger in terms of human population growth and occurred over a very short period, somewhere between 40,000 to 50,000 years ago." There is no obvious archaeological event that would explain why this sudden expansion in the human population occurred. One possible theory is that during the original out-of-Africa expansion, humans moved along the coastlines of the world, settling as they went. Their origins and genetic makeup would mean that these people were suited to coastal life, but not to the demands of living inland. This would have prevented large population growth as the coasts could only sustain a certain number of people. "We think this second, previously unknown population boom, may have occurred as humans adapted to their new environment after the first out-of-Africa expansion," says Dr Qasim Ayub, lead author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger institute. "We think that when humans moved from the horn of Africa to Asia, Australia and eventually Europe, they remained in small groups by the coasts. It took them tens of thousands of years to adapt to the mountainous, forested surroundings on the inner continents. However, once their genetic makeup was suited to these new environments, the population increased extremely rapidly as the groups travelled inland and took advantage of the abundance of space and food." The work highlights how it is now possible to obtain new biological insights from existing DNA sequencing data sets, and the value of sharing data. The majority of the DNAinformation used for this study was obtained from freely-available online data-sets. CONTINUE READING: www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/03/why-did-the-human-population-explode-40000-years-ago-todays-most-popular-.html
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Post by auntym on Jun 5, 2013 13:08:56 GMT -6
bigstory.ap.org/article/meet-your-distant-cousin-tiny-hyperactive-primateMeet your distant cousin: Tiny hyperactive primateBy SETH BORENSTEIN — Jun. 5 This undated handout artist rendering provided by Xijun Ni, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences shows a reconstruction of Archicebus achilles in its natural habitat of trees. One of our earliest primate relatives was a hyperactive wide-eyed creature so small you could fit a few of them in your hand, if they would just stay still long enough, new fossil evidence shows. (AP Photo/Xijun Ni, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) WASHINGTON (AP) — New fossil evidence of the earliest complete skeleton of an ancient primate suggests it was a hyperactive, wide-eyed creature so small you could hold a couple of them in your hand — if only they would stay still long enough. The 55 million-year-old fossil dug up in central China is one of our first primate relatives and it gives scientists a better understanding of the complex evolution that eventually led to us. This tiny monkey-like creature weighed an ounce or less and wasn't a direct ancestor. Because it's so far back on the family tree it offers the best clues yet of what our earliest direct relatives would have been like at that time, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. "It's a close cousin in fact," said study author Christopher Beard, curator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. He said it is "the closest thing we have to an ancestor of humans" so long ago. Primate is the order of life that includes humans along with apes, monkeys, and lemurs. Humans are set apart from other mammals because of our grasping five fingers and toes, nails, and forward-facing eyes. And this new species called Archicebus achilles fits right in, Beard said. CONTINUE READING: bigstory.ap.org/article/meet-your-distant-cousin-tiny-hyperactive-primate
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2013 0:52:32 GMT -6
That may be your cousin but I'm not owning up to it.
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Post by auntym on Aug 2, 2013 10:59:05 GMT -6
www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/01/genetic-adam-eve-chromosome-men-man_n_3691084.html Genetic 'Adam & Eve' Chromosome Study Traces All Men To Man Who Lived 135,000 Years Ago By Tia Ghose Posted: 08/01/2013 Almost every man alive can trace his origins to one man who lived about 135,000 years ago, new research suggests. And that ancient man likely shared the planet with the mother of all women. The findings, detailed today (Aug. 1) in the journal Science, come from the most complete analysis of the male sex chromosome, or the Y chromosome, to date. The results overturn earlier research, which suggested that men's most recent common ancestor lived just 50,000 to 60,000 years ago. Despite their overlap in time, ancient "Adam" and ancient "Eve" probably didn't even live near each other, let alone mate. [The 10 Biggest Mysteries of the First Humans] "Those two people didn't know each other," said Melissa Wilson Sayres, a geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the study. Tracing history Researchers believe that modern humans left Africa between 60,000 and 200,000 years ago, and that the mother of all women likely emerged from East Africa. But beyond that, the details get fuzzy. The Y chromosome is passed down identically from father to son, so mutations, or point changes, in the male sex chromosome can trace the male line back to the father of all humans. By contrast, DNA from the mitochondria, the energy powerhouse of the cell, is carried inside the egg, so only women pass it on to their children. The DNA hidden inside mitochondria, therefore, can reveal the maternal lineage to an ancient Eve. But over time, the male chromosome gets bloated with duplicated, jumbled-up stretches of DNA, said study co-author Carlos Bustamante, a geneticist at Stanford University in California. As a result, piecing together fragments of DNA from gene sequencing was like trying to assemble a puzzle without the image on the box top, making thorough analysis difficult. Y chromosome Bustamante and his colleagues assembled a much bigger piece of the puzzle by sequencing the entire genome of the Y chromosome for 69 men from seven global populations, from African San Bushmen to the Yakut of Siberia. By assuming a mutation rate anchored to archaeological events (such as the migration of people across the Bering Strait), the team concluded that all males in their global sample shared a single male ancestor in Africa roughly 125,000 to 156,000 years ago. In addition, mitochondrial DNA from the men, as well as similar samples from 24 women, revealed that all women on the planet trace back to a mitochondrial Eve, who lived in Africa between 99,000 and 148,000 years ago — almost the same time period during which the Y-chromosome Adam lived. CONTINUE READING: www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/01/genetic-adam-eve-chromosome-men-man_n_3691084.html
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Post by bewildered on Aug 4, 2013 4:54:27 GMT -6
Eh, humans aren't the only animals with stereoscopic vision and a grasping thumb. Animals with stereoscopic vision: canines, felines, all primates, owls, and certain arthropods, to name but a few. Animals with opposable thumbs (besides us, of course): all of the great apes, just about all of the Old World monkeys, and many pro-simians. Other mammals exhibit close approximations of a thumb (like squirrels). The human hand stands out due to the precision control we are afforded by the delicate musculature that controls our individual digits. A chimp's hand is far more powerful than ours, but the poor guy couldn't exercise the manual dexterity we can because his muscle fibers are more dense, thus stronger. The chimp's hand is also not well-designed to manipulate objects in a precise manner.
Other lesser-known facts: humans aren't the only animals who possess language, possess self-awareness, make and use tools, or design sophisticated technological devices. Whales, dolphins, all of the great apes, monkeys, birds, and dogs use some form of language to communicate with one another. Elephants, European magpies, whales and dolphins possess self-awareness. Chimps, orangutans, gorillas, monkeys, birds, and sea otters make and use tools. Orangutans build sophisticated beds, complete with pillows and even a mattress, out of leaves and boughs high in the trees at night. At times the orangutans will even make "bunk beds" so their young or close friends can sleep with them. The young orangutans observe the adults as they make these very complicated beds, and once they are capable of making them on their own, they depart to live independently of their mother. Lest we forget, a certain species of mound-building termite in Africa builds condensation coils beneath ground-level in order to regulate the temperature within their colony's mound...in other words, a tiny, virtually blind insect builds air conditioners for their homes.
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Post by paulette on Aug 4, 2013 9:33:44 GMT -6
Bewildered I appreciate the scope of your mind and what you bring here.
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Post by auntym on Aug 14, 2013 11:57:05 GMT -6
www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/08/human-evolutionary-change-100-times-higher-in-past-5000-years-todays-most-popular.html#moreAugust 13, 2013 Human Evolutionary Change 100 Times Higher in Past 5,000 Years "We are more different genetically from people living 5,000 years ago than they were different from Neanderthals," according to John Hawks -University of Wisconsin anthropologist. "Five thousand years is such a small sliver of time - it's 100 to 200 generations ago. That's how long it's been since some of these genes originated, and today they are in 30 or 40 percent of people because they've had such an advantage. It's like 'invasion of the body snatchers.'What's really amazing about humans," Hawks continued, "that is not true with most other species, is that for a long time we were just a little ape species in one corner of Africa, and weren't genetically sampling anything like the potential we have now." In a finding that countered a common theory that human evolution has slowed to a crawl or even stopped in modern humans, a study examining data from an international genomics project describes the past 40,000 years as a time of supercharged evolutionary change, driven by exponential population growth and cultural shifts. The findings may lead to a very broad rethinking of human evolution, especially in the view that modern culture has essentially relaxed the need for physical genetic changes in humans to improve survival. In 2007, a team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropologist John Hawks estimated that positive selection just in the past 5,000 years alone -dating back to the Stone Age - has occurred at a rate roughly 100 times higher than any other period of human evolution. Hawks is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin—Madison and Associate Chair of Anthropology, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Faculty Fellow, and an associate member of both the Department of Zoology and the J. F. Crow Institute for the Study of Evolution. Many of the new genetic adjustments, Hawks observes, are occurring around changes in the human diet brought on by the advent of agriculture, and resistance to epidemic diseases that became major killers after the growth of human civilizations. "In evolutionary terms, cultures that grow slowly are at a disadvantage, but the massive growth of human populations has led to far more genetic mutations," says Hawks. "And every mutation that is advantageous to people has a chance of being selected and driven toward fixation. What we are catching is an exceptional time." While the correlation between population size and natural selection is nothing new - it was a core premise of Charles Darwin, Hawks says - the ability to bring quantifiable evidence to the table is a new and exciting outgrowth of the Human Genome Project. CONTINUE READING: www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/08/human-evolutionary-change-100-times-higher-in-past-5000-years-todays-most-popular.html#more
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Post by bewildered on Aug 16, 2013 4:39:15 GMT -6
Bewildered I appreciate the scope of your mind and what you bring here. Thanks for the kind words, paulette. I rarely see you around, so it's nice to catch your posts when you decide to drop in. What makes our species unique is the occurrence of a number of attributes simultaneously. Those are: 1. Bipedalism 2. Large cranial capacity 3. Fully opposable thumbs 4. Tool-making and a tool culture 5. Complex language 6. Stereoscopic vision Each of these traits alone is certainly not unique to our species, but rather we are the only animals that evidence all of them together. Orangutans have been discovered to possess cultures unique to the regions in which they are found (we are not the only animals in possession of culture). This culture can be seen primarily in the tool-making habits of local groups. Birds have been observed using various devices to gain access to food (using stones to crack nuts). This tool use is apparently passed from parents to their offspring, as members of the same species observed in other locales do not use the same tools. Dolphins apparently can recognize other dolphins by a unique pattern of whistles and clicks, proving that dolphins possess names. Cephalopods will figure out how to open a closed jar in order to access a morsel of food inside. We sometimes think that we are the only animals capable of love and caring. Koko the gorilla, taught American Sign Language for the deaf, shows that not only did she care for a kitten (she even gave the kitten a name), but was heartbroken when she learned that the cat was killed by a car: I notice that many people still regard Neanderthals as repulsive or primitive, but I would like to point out some facts about them that fly in the face of that mistaken notion. They were very much human, merely a separate sub-species than our "modern" ancestors. Their extremely close relation to us can be seen in how some of their DNA is present in our own, meaning that our ancestors had children with Neanderthals, and those children subsequently had children of their own. Since this occurred, then Neanderthals were at least as sophisticated as we ourselves are. They created artwork, made complicated tools, and buried their dead...in addition, their skeletal remains feature structures that indicate they could speak just like we can. Apart from the prominent brow ridge, they would be virtually indistinguishable from us: Neanderthals evidenced features that are well within the normal range of modern human expression, including brain size (their brains were actually slightly larger than our own). Is every modern human tall and slender? Of course not. Why did we turn out differently than they did? Modern humans and Neanderthals share a common direct ancestor that appeared in Africa over a million years ago. That ancestor migrated from Africa, and the encroaching glaciation of the Ice Age eventually led to people with greater body mass adapted to a colder climate (aka Neanderthals). The greater the body mass, the less surface area a body has, and that directly relates to the ability to retain body heat more effectively. Sunlight was also weaker in the regions of the globe where Neanderthals evolved, leading to lighter pigmentation. Thus Neanderthals were shorter, more stocky, and suited for surviving in a cold climate. By contrast, modern humans emerged in Africa much later - roughly 100,000 years ago or so - and our ancestors didn't leave the African continent until approximately 50,000 years or so ago. We evolved in a warmer climate, so we tended to be taller and more slender than Neanderthals (less body mass and more surface area, ideal for shedding excess body heat). Our ancient modern ancestors possessed darker skin pigmentation, and after the first African migrations, time spent in regions with weaker sunlight (and likely breeding with Neanderthals) led to lighter-skinned modern humans. Natural Selection is a wondrous thing. Neanderthals were every bit as human as we ourselves are, and their legacy lives on today in us.
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Post by auntym on Oct 13, 2013 12:39:49 GMT -6
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2453857/Scientists-trace-19-living-relatives-tzi-Iceman-5-300-year-old-body-frozen-Alps.htmlScientists trace 19 living relatives of Ötzi the Iceman whose 5,300-year-old body was found frozen in the Alps *Austrian scientists tested the DNA of 3,700 male blood donors in Tyrol *They matched a genetic mutation to the mummy found back in 1991By Steve Nolan PUBLISHED: 23:07 EST, 10 October 2013 Scientists in Austria have found 19 living descendants of a prehistoric iceman whose 5,300-year-old body was found frozen in the Alps. Researchers from the Institute of Legal Medicine at Innsbruck Medical University took DNA samples from blood donors in Tyrol in the west of the country. They managed to match a particular genetic mutation with that of Ötzi, whose body was discovered back in 1991. Descendants: Scientists have found 19 living relatives of Ötzi the Iceman who was found frozen in the Alps It's all relative: The prehistoric iceman had a genetic mutation which matches those whose DNA was sampled in Austria Experts now believe that the same mutation might also be found in the nearby rgions of Engadine in Switzerland and the South Tyrol region of Italy. According to the BBC, Walther Parson from the university, said: 'We have already found Swiss and Italian partners so that we can pursue our research.' DNA from around 3,700 blood donors were analysed and the men were also asked to provide information on their ancestry. None of the donors have been informed that they are distantly related to Ötzi. Since the body was found frozen under the Alps two decades ago, scientists have conducted experiments to learn how he came to be buried between the Austrian and Italian borders more than 5,300 years ago. Preserved: Ötzi is kept in a specially built museum in Bolzano, Italy. Visitors view the mummy through portholes into a specially refrigerated room A hole in his collarbone suggested he was killed by an arrow, then a brain scan concluded he died from a fall. But research earlier this year, from the European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen (EURAC) in Germany, discovered he suffered brain damage likely caused by a blow to the head. In 2001, scientists from Austria's Innsbruck University scanned Ötzi using a CAT scan. They found dark spots at the back of the iceman mummy's cerebrum and concluded he may have died from a head injury. It was suggested that falling, after being hit by the arrow, or while climbing, may have caused this head injury. History: The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, hence the name Ötzi, near the Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy History: The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, hence the name Ötzi, near the Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, hence the name Ötzi, near the Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy. Scientists estimate he was aged around 45, was 5ft 5" tall and weighed about 7.9st when he died. Ötzi is kept in a specially built museum in Bolzano, Italy. Visitors view the mummy through portholes into a specially refrigerated room. The hunter was frozen with all his possessions including a bow, a quiver of arrows and a copper axe. He was wearing warm clothing including a cloak made of woven grass, a coat and leggings made from goatskin and a bearskin cap with a leather chin strap. MORE PICTURES & CONTINUE READING: www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2453857/Scientists-trace-19-living-relatives-tzi-Iceman-5-300-year-old-body-frozen-Alps.html
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Post by auntym on Oct 14, 2013 11:39:57 GMT -6
i don't understand the authorities holding this information back from the descendants
...if i was one of the 19 relatives related to this 5300 year old iceman... i'd want to know...
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Post by lois on Oct 17, 2013 20:20:25 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Oct 22, 2013 12:30:03 GMT -6
www.ancient-origins.net/news-evolution-human-origins/no-known-human-relative-common-ancestor-neanderthals-and-modern-humans22 October, 2013 No Known Human Relative Is Common Ancestor of Neanderthals and Modern HumansBy John Black Archaeologists and palaeontologists have worked tirelessly over the last decades to attempt to piece together a complete fossil record of our human ancestry. However, time and again, study results leave many scientists still scratching their heads. One of the focal points of research has been the search for a common ancestor linking modern humans with Neanderthals. But one new study, which will be published this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has shown that this search is far from complete. An international team of scientists investigated the topic by examining the shape of a diverse range of dental fossils. Around 1,200 molars and premolars from 13 species or types of hominins (humans and human relatives and ancestors) were examined and results showed that none of the hominin species fit the expected profile of an ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans. The researchers also presented evidence that the lines that led to Neanderthals and modern humans diverged nearly 1 million years ago, and not 350,000 years ago as previous studies based on molecular evidence suggested. "Our results call attention to the strong discrepancies between molecular and paleontological estimates of the divergence time between Neanderthals and modern humans," said Aida Gómez-Robles, lead author of the paper. "These discrepancies cannot be simply ignored, but they have to be somehow reconciled." It was found that none of the species that had been previously suggested as the last common ancestors of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens were a match. These include Homo heidelbergensis, Homo erectus and Homo antecessor. "Our primary aim," the researchers wrote, "is to put questions about human evolution into a testable, quantitative framework and to offer an objective means to sort out apparently unsolvable debates about hominin phylogeny." While progress is being made on a daily basis, scientists have a long way to go in resolving discrepancies in the fossil record, as well as uncovering the true ‘missing link’ between apes and humans. That is, of course, if there is any connection at all. By John Black - See more at: www.ancient-origins.net/news-evolution-human-origins/no-known-human-relative-common-ancestor-neanderthals-and-modern-humans#sthash.ly3zm2QB.dpuf
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Post by auntym on Oct 30, 2013 10:40:27 GMT -6
medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/e91d1c313489300 Million Chinese Men Descended From Just 3 Stone Age Grandfathers? 2013 10 28From: The Physics arXiv Blog DNA Evidence Suggests 300 Million Chinese Men Are Descended From Just Three Stone Age Grandfathers More than 40 per cent of the Chinese Han population can trace their family tree back to three ‘super-grandfathers’ who lived during the Neolithic era Our understanding of human history is currently undergoing a revolution. The technology that makes this possible is fast and cheap DNA sequencing that reveals an individual’s genetic code in just a few hours. By comparing the sequences of different humans, it is possible to work out how they are related and to reconstruct the family tree going back many generations. What’s more, the geographical distribution of genetic differences also reveals when populations split. This technique has already revealed much of interest. For example, humans and chimpanzees have a common ancestor that lived some 6 million years ago, modern humans moved out of Africa and into Europe and Asia between 100,000 and 40,000 years ago but humans only began to populate the Americas about 15,000 years ago. This work is hugely dependent on data. More detailed inferences are only possible with more data from a population. Fortunately, the genetic data that was so hard to come by just 10 years ago has now turned into a plentiful stream, even a fire hose. And new insights about human history are consequently emerging at a fast and furious rate. Today, Shi Yan at Fudan University in Shanghai and a few pals have gathered blood samples from from 800 Chinese men and selected 110 for detailed genetic analysis. They say the results show that 40% of Chinese men are the descendants of just three men who lived in Neolithic times some 5000 years ago. That’s a total of 300 million men all living today who share three common grandfathers. What’s more, it may even be possible to identify these super grandfathers by studying Chinese history from that time. First, some background. The new work is the based on the study of the Y-chromosome, which is passed from father to son in each generation. While sequences from different people are broadly similar, they contain tiny variations called single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs (pronounced ‘snips’) in which one nucleotide in a sequence is replaced by another. The pattern of SNPs in an individual’s genes is unique. When these differences occur in coding parts of the genome, they can determine much of what makes us different, such as our hair colour and our susceptibility to disease. But SNPs also occur in non-coding regions of DNA. In fact, the Y-chromosome contains the longest non-recombining sequence in human DNA, and this is passed more or less intact from one generation to the next. That’s why it is particularly useful for determining common ancestors and to reconstruct family trees. This is exactly what Shu and co have done with over 100 Chinese men in their study. The resulting family tree is complex. It reveals, for example, that the human population split some 54,000 years ago in the migration out of Africa. But it also points to a more surprising event in China some 5000 years ago in which three populations expanded quickly within 500 years of each other. Each of these populations can be traced to a single man. And yet they now account for more than 40% of today’s Han Chinese population—that’s 300 million living males. The date is significant too. This period is the late Neolithic age or late Stone Age as it is sometimes called. Although evidence of farming in China dates back about 10,000 years, this new technology spread relatively slowly at first. CONTINUE READING: medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/e91d1c313489REF: arxiv.org/abs/1310.3897
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Post by skywalker on Nov 14, 2013 18:47:46 GMT -6
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Post by lois on Jan 17, 2014 23:43:09 GMT -6
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