[an0n]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&ncid=753&e=1&u=/ap/20040324/ap_on_he_me/the_human_gene

Just another inch of rope for the noose of the creationist morons.

[Rictor]

This is not a good day for Liberator. I on the other hand, really don't care. I'm a firm believeer in evolution, simply becuase it makes more sense than any other theaory proposed, and if the plethora of facts has so far not convinced you, then I doubt this is going to.

[Goober5000]

"The mutation would have reduced the Darwinian fitness of those individuals," said anthropologist Bernard Wood of George Washington University. "It only would've become fixed if it coincided with mutations that reduced tooth size, jaw size and increased brain size. What are the chances of that?"

[Liberator]

Actually, since you seem to have your mind made up already, I'm going to let this slide, it's ludicrous of course, but I'm just not in the mood.  

Just don't talk about me behind my back.

[Bobboau]

odds are that we started makeing tools and then one of them had this mutation, the tool usage alowed him to survive, and then brain growth made his line more predomenant.

and now that Liberators gone, I'm going to call him a big peice of poo

[Liberator]

I heard that!;)

[Star Dragon]

Ever consider God the ultimate genetic engineer?  Personally I have no problems with the intent of the bible or historical facts that certain events occured. Though I am not ignorant enough to ignore scientific facts of what may or may not have happened. Human development is one of those issues. Consider this for a second, no matter  what type of life develops on a world eventually one form gains dominance and advances. Unless destroyed by internal or external forces it will continue to evolve to it's predetermined limit. Since God is infinite could it be that all races are made in the image of God (since God cannot be captured in any one form or aspect, at least in our puny Human imaginations/intellect).

  Disturbing thought but Carl the Shivan is just another child of God... (a naughty one however)


He he just remembered that scene in Alien Ressurection when the caccooned scientist is like admiring Ripley's "daughter".. "What a beautiful little butterfly....Wait no! (crunch)!"

[Kazan]

Owned

[IceFire]

Always interesting to read this research.  Pre-human evolution is a fascinating field of study, if I were good at the science of it all I'm sure I'd be researching the same stuff.

The fact that they can link it to genes and look back along the lineage is fascinating.  What'd be even more interesting to to find out what traits seem to have been played up in humans in the last 1000 years...we're getting taller (likely food oriented) but there's probably other subtle changes that go on...especially with more genetic mixing.

[an0n]

The only changes to the Human genome in the last 1000 years have most likely been purely a case of numbers (IE, more ginger people genes) rather than mutations and such.

The Human race hasn't really changed much in the past 6,000 years. I mean, look at the cases of 'feral' children. If you take away our technology we are, for all intents and purposes, no different from any Ancient Egyptian society.

[Rictor]

Except we won't get invaded by the Romans. Or atleast, I don't intend do, I don't know about the rest of you.

[Ace]

Also the low genetic diversity as a species as a whole puts some kinks into further development.

Afterall, there's less genetic diversity in the whole human race than there is in a litter of kittens.

Pretty scary considering all of the racist bull**** people pull off as it is...

[Setekh]

Originally posted by Ace
Also the low genetic diversity as a species as a whole puts some kinks into further development.

Afterall, there's less genetic diversity in the whole human race than there is in a litter of kittens.

Pretty scary considering all of the racist bull**** people pull off as it is...

Yeah, I find that intensely interesting. I wonder how that works, supposing that humans and animals developed under the same circumstances.

[Ace]

Originally posted by Setekh


Yeah, I find that intensely interesting. I wonder how that works, supposing that humans and animals developed under the same circumstances.

:ahum: Humans are animals

With the genome project and the studying of certain genes, diversity, etc. it's been figured out that most of the early homo sapiens population except for a few thousand in the southern tip of Africa were killed off. (this is also backed up by the fossil record, artifacts, etc.) One theory is how at about the same time there were some violent volanic eruptions marked by chemical traces in the soil, etc. etc.

Humanity managed to spread rather quickly from the brink of extinction, and with warring, exploration, etc. there hasn't been a lot of isolation between the various regions where humans live on the planet. Plus a few thousand years doesn't lead to a lot of change in a population even if they were totally isolated.

Anyways, there's quite a few articles on the subject.

Of course you could take the tact that we're all magic faries cast down from the shining kingdom and king nuzzuflulh planted all of this as evidence to hide the truth otherwise we'd regain our wings and sprinkle him with fairy dust.

[Setekh]

Originally posted by Ace
:ahum: Humans are animals

Naturally, I was taking the view that Humans are higher and in notable ways distinct from the rest of the animal kingdom.

I do quite subscribe to the theory of early man separating themselves off from each other due to war, exploration, desire for expansion - something that the animal kingdom seems to lack. Very interesting, all of this.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Setekh
Yeah, I find that intensely interesting. I wonder how that works, supposing that humans and animals developed under the same circumstances.

The current theory (and there seems to be a lot of supporting evidence for it) was that humankind was nearly wiped out by the Toba  supervolcano eruption 75,000 years ago.

Basically they think that the eruption wiped out humanity until there were only 1000 or so of us left.

Studies of mitochondrial DNA seem to support this. The profile isn't pyramid shaped (i.e every one developed from a small group of people) Instead the shape is more like an hourglass. Humanity evolved and diversified then there was a bottleneck and then it diversified again.  That's why we're all so similar.

[Setekh]

Originally posted by karajorma
Studies of mitochondrial DNA seem to support this. The profile isn't pyramid shaped (i.e every one developed from a small group of people) Instead the shape is more like an hourglass. Humanity evolved and diversified then there was a bottleneck and then it diversified again.  That's why we're all so similar.

That interests me, but you can explain how they reached that conclusion from "mitochondrial DNA"? Or point me to some good sources.

[karajorma]

The source I'm using is an episode of the BBC Horizon science programme about supervolcanos. I could point you at the transcript but it's a pretty long document

I did manage to find another site which has just the relavent part though here

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by an0n
The only changes to the Human genome in the last 1000 years have most likely been purely a case of numbers (IE, more ginger people genes) rather than mutations and such.

The Human race hasn't really changed much in the past 6,000 years. I mean, look at the cases of 'feral' children. If you take away our technology we are, for all intents and purposes, no different from any Ancient Egyptian society.

I thought ginger people were getting less numerous, actually. (?)

I think human evolution has really went towards evolution of behaviour and intelligence, anyways...... although i wonder what the nearly-inevitable loss of the ozone layer will cause.

[kasperl]

cancer for all?