NationStates Jolt Archive

COMMENTARY: DNA analysis has helped us understand that all humans living today have one common ancestor from Africa, and have helped us figure out how humans emigrated to other parts of the world in several waves, also out of Africa. Now, it has suggested that homo sapiens may in fact be a hybrid between two species! So we're ALL mutts! Mutts rule! Yayyy! :D


Our Hidden History (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/22/opinion/22mon4.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin)


Published: May 22, 2006
Day by day, the ability to analyze genomes — sequences of DNA — grows more and more sophisticated. Scientists are able to examine the biological past in finer detail and with greater accuracy. The results will almost certainly transform what we know about how species are interrelated, and that, of course, includes us.

Consider, for instance, a new analysis of the genetic links between early humans and chimpanzees by a group of scientists at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass. Their hypothesis, using new analytical techniques, is that the two species diverged more recently than previous estimates, which were based solely on fossil evidence. Their results suggest further that the ancestors of humans and chimpanzees might have diverged but then hybridized to produce the early lineage from which modern humans eventually developed.

This really lets the genie out of the bottle. Even after Darwin, the popular vision of how humans became humans has always had something platonic about it. The details of our descent have been vague enough to implicitly reinforce what one geneticist, commenting on this new finding, called "a more Victorian view of our genome."

The thought that we might be descended from the mating of ancestors of separate species — that in our origins we are hybrids — is a bold one, and a reminder, once again, of what we always forget: that humans are animals too, closely related to all of life on earth. It's also a reminder how hard it is to do away with Victorian views.

If these results hold up, we will have some reimagining to do, not only of our own history but of the processes of speciation as well. And even if this particular analysis of our family tree doesn't survive, there is certainly more in store as genomic research becomes increasingly refined. We will need to learn a certain agnosticism about the nature of our origins, a willingness to face up to the best analysis of who we really are. This should be an invigorating task.

COMMENTARY: DNA analysis has helped us understand that all humans living today have one common ancestor from Africa, and have helped us figure out how humans emigrated to other parts of the world in several waves, also out of Africa. Now, it has suggested that homo sapiens may in fact be a hybrid between two species! So we're ALL mutts! Mutts rule! Yayyy! :D


Our Hidden History (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/22/opinion/22mon4.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin)


Published: May 22, 2006
Day by day, the ability to analyze genomes — sequences of DNA — grows more and more sophisticated. Scientists are able to examine the biological past in finer detail and with greater accuracy. The results will almost certainly transform what we know about how species are interrelated, and that, of course, includes us.

Consider, for instance, a new analysis of the genetic links between early humans and chimpanzees by a group of scientists at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass. Their hypothesis, using new analytical techniques, is that the two species diverged more recently than previous estimates, which were based solely on fossil evidence. Their results suggest further that the ancestors of humans and chimpanzees might have diverged but then hybridized to produce the early lineage from which modern humans eventually developed.

This really lets the genie out of the bottle. Even after Darwin, the popular vision of how humans became humans has always had something platonic about it. The details of our descent have been vague enough to implicitly reinforce what one geneticist, commenting on this new finding, called "a more Victorian view of our genome."

The thought that we might be descended from the mating of ancestors of separate species — that in our origins we are hybrids — is a bold one, and a reminder, once again, of what we always forget: that humans are animals too, closely related to all of life on earth. It's also a reminder how hard it is to do away with Victorian views.

If these results hold up, we will have some reimagining to do, not only of our own history but of the processes of speciation as well. And even if this particular analysis of our family tree doesn't survive, there is certainly more in store as genomic research becomes increasingly refined. We will need to learn a certain agnosticism about the nature of our origins, a willingness to face up to the best analysis of who we really are. This should be an invigorating task.


Heh I'm English, I have known this all my life:D

No wonder we've lasted so long...hybrid vigor. You know, we can ensure the further success of the human race by trying it again. Anybody have a pet bonobo?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_vigor

No wonder we've lasted so long...hybrid vigor. You know, we can ensure the further success of the human race by trying it again. Anybody have a pet bonobo?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_vigor

HAhahhahhhahahahah Noooooo what are you suggesting?!?!

I wonder why they studied chimp DNA instead of Bonobo DNA which is closer to human DNA?

"
More than 98% of bonobo DNA is like that of human's and it is a fraction of a percent closer to human DNA than that of the common chimpanzee. Man is the closest living relative to both the bonobo and the chimpanzee. In other words, the bonobo and the chimp are closer to humans than they are to gorillas."



http://www.colszoo.org/animalareas/aforest/bonobo.html

I wonder why they studied chimp DNA instead of Bonobo DNA which is closer to human DNA?
But...but...Bonobos have TEH SEX all the time! They're icky bad no good sinful creatures! There is no way that Man, who is made in the Holy Image of our Most Pure And Awesome Sky Fairy, could possibly related to sex-crazed (and matriarchal!!!!) monkeys!!

Now I don't feel so bad about that monkey business I did.

Too bad we didn't do the same with Homo.Neanderthal.

( It's official: we genocided 'em out of existence. )

Too bad we didn't do the same with Homo.Neanderthal.

( It's official: we genocided 'em out of existence. )

Good riddance. They were largely socialists and nanny staters

COMMENTARY: DNA analysis has helped us understand that all humans living today have one common ancestor from Africa
Erm, no. In fact, I believe that studies of mitochondrial DNA have shown something along the lines that many humans living today are descended from about 10000 different women from the isthmus between Africa and the Middle East.

Erm, no. In fact, I believe that studies of mitochondrial DNA have shown something along the lines that many humans living today are descended from about 10000 different women from the isthmus between Africa and the Middle East.

Yes, but those 10000 women must've had an ancestor.

Good riddance. They were largely socialists and nanny staters
Not to mention, they were evil sodomites who practiced all kinds of disgusting perversions and indulged in other activites that challenge my sexual orientation, so I'm going to call them evil to make me feel better about myself!

Disturbing ey

Yes, but those 10000 women must've had an ancestor.
Well, yes, but ancestors that were perhaps of different species...

It's also entirely possible that there were several different areas of Africa in which the first humans evolved, and through migration they all eventually reached modern-day Egypt. If that's the case then they won't have a common ancestor unless you go back millions of years.

Not to mention, they were evil sodomites who practiced all kinds of disgusting perversions and indulged in other activites that challenge my sexual orientation, so I'm going to call them evil to make me feel better about myself!


Good man, keep up the good work.

Been living under a rock for twenty+ years?

News so old it predates the internet.

Erm, no. In fact, I believe that studies of mitochondrial DNA have shown something along the lines that many humans living today are descended from about 10000 different women from the isthmus between Africa and the Middle East.


The current study is involved with the Y chromosome I believe. Hardly involved with women or mitochondrian DNA at all.You can hear about it on the Nature website.

But...but...Bonobos have TEH SEX all the time! They're icky bad no good sinful creatures! There is no way that Man, who is made in the Holy Image of our Most Pure And Awesome Sky Fairy, could possibly related to sex-crazed (and matriarchal!!!!) monkeys!!
LMAO! Bottle ... you've got ... issues! :D

Now I don't feel so bad about that monkey business I did.
LOL! [ hurls ] :D

Too bad we didn't do the same with Homo.Neanderthal.

( It's official: we genocided 'em out of existence. )
I don't believe that. Some peope I have seen look so much like the artists' depictions of Neaderthal that they could have POSED for them! :D

Erm, no. In fact, I believe that studies of mitochondrial DNA have shown something along the lines that many humans living today are descended from about 10000 different women from the isthmus between Africa and the Middle East.
Not that I'm aware of. The last I heard, geneticists have traced the mitochondrial DNA back to one woman who lived in Africa about 150,000 years ago. There were humans before her, but her DNA is in every single one of us now.

Not that I'm aware of. The last I heard, geneticists have traced the mitochondrial DNA back to one woman who lived in Africa about 6,000 years ago. There were humans before her, but her DNA is in every single one of us now.

I was about to say the same thing. I think you mean "60,000 years", though.

I was about to say the same thing. I think you mean "60,000 years", though.
I was wrong about the years. It's actually 150,000: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_Eve

And ... http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/stephenoppenheimer/reading.html

And ... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373595/

COMMENTARY:
{snip}
So we're ALL mutts! Mutts rule! Yayyy! :D
{snip}


"Bow wow wow, yippee yo, yippee yay"

:D

Wait, so we didn't come from bananas?

There were humans before her, but her DNA is in every single one of us now.

Damn ho'!

Yayy!

Wait, so we didn't come from bananas?
Son, I've got a sad truth to tell you...