Modern Human Origins

[Mythopoeika]

...So in the far future, men and women will be completely indistinguishable?

 

[ramonmercado]

A fisherman who pulled in his nets 25 kilometers off the coast of Taiwan got a surprising catch: the lower jawbone of an ancient human.

The bone (pictured)—dredged from a watery grave in the Penghu Channel—is robust and sports unusually large molars and premolars, suggesting that it once belonged to an archaic member of our genusHomo, according to a report published online today in Nature Communications. The Penghu jaw and teeth most closely resemble a partial skull of H. erectus from Longtan Cave in Hexian on the mainland of China, as well as earlier H. erectus fossils. Although it wasn’t possible to date the jawbone directly, it was found with an extinct species of hyena that suggests this archaic human was alive in the past 400,000 years and, most likely, in the past 200,000 years. If so, the find suggests thatH. erectus persisted late in Asia, or that there were several other types of humans still alive at the time in this region.

It might even be a member of the mysterious Denisovan people, a close relative of Neandertals known only from a finger bone and two teeth from Denisova Cave in Russia and its ancient DNA. But “if Penghu is indeed a long-awaited Denisovan jawbone, it looks more primitive than I would have expected,” says paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London, who was not a co-author on the paper. And that question can only be answered if researchers can get DNA from Penghu.

http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2015/01/ancient-human-jawbone-surfaces-coast-taiwan

 

[FrKadash]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...ed-sidebyside-with-neanderthals-10008717.html

Human skull discovery in Israel proves humans lived side-by-side with Neanderthals
Steve Connor, Science Editor
Wednesday 28 January 2015
The partial skull of an anatomically modern human who lived alongside the Neanderthals about 55,000 years ago has been unearthed from a cave in northern Israel, scientists say.


It is one of the oldest non-African skulls of Homo sapiens and comes close to the date when modern humans migrated out of Africa, eventually to colonise Asia, Europe, Australia and the Americas.

Scientists unearthed the cranial fragments from Manot Cave in West Galilee, a prehistoric site with an impressive archaeological record of flint and bone artefacts. Dating has placed the skull within the period 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, a time when Neanderthals were also known to have inhabited the same region.

 

[FrKadash]

18 March 2015 Last updated at 18:00
''DNA study shows Celts are not a unique genetic group''
By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News

"Many of the genetic clusters we see in the west and north are similar to the tribal groupings and kingdoms around, and just after, the time of the Saxon invasion, suggesting these kingdoms maintained a regional identity for many years," he told BBC News.

Full article here, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31905764

 

[ramonmercado]

Hohle Fels Cave Yields Paleolithic Figurine Fragments

(M. Malina/University of Tübingen)
TÜBINGEN, GERMANY—Two fragments of a female figurine carved from mammoth ivory have been found in Hohle Fels Cave. The fragments resemble a breast and part of the stomach of the 40,000-year-old figurine known as the Venus from Hohle Fels, which was discovered in 2008. This carving may have been slightly larger, however, than the approximately two-inch-tall Venus. “The new discovery indicates that the female depictions are not as rare in the Aurignacian as previously thought, and that concerns about human sexuality, reproduction and fertility in general have a very long and rich history dating to the Ice Age,” Nicholas Conard of the University of Tübingen said in a press release. To read about another masterpiece of Paleolithic art, go to "New Life for Lion Man."

http://www.archaeology.org/news/3505-150722-ivory-figurine-fragments

 

[Xanatic*]

Does anyone want to discuss the theory of multiple origins for humanity? I'm curious to hear it.

 

[PeteByrdie]

All humans can reproduce freely, producing fertile offspring. If humans originated from different members of the genus Homo, if that's the theory, I wouldn't expect that. If it arose many times from a particular species, with a bit of interbreeding, I suppose that is possible. Still, it doesn't seem likely to me.

Presumably this theory has been proposed by someone. Who originated it?

 

[Ermintruder]

John Manning, in 'The Finger Book' shorthands us all to effectively being feminised apes. I need to re-read that excellent book, where (I think) he also insightfully references/expands:

- the 'gracile jaw' thesis proposed by Abramson and Pinkerton
- pognophobia as a universal fear amongst human infants (on consideration that might've been Blafer-Hrdy)
- the sustenance of ongoing distinct species within mankind inside racial groups as an analogue of contemporary lower primate speciation (this will not originally have been Manning's thesis, and is clearly highly-contentious/unproven)

Paleoanthropology is one of the many areas of study I find fascinating.

 

[Xanatic*]

So were a bunch of manscaped chimpanzees?

 

[Ermintruder]

So were a bunch of manscaped chimpanzees?

More like yellow/pink/brown, semi-hairless, four-legged spiders.

But: it is a wise man who knows he is a fool.

(I also must re-read Jones' "Y-the Descent of Man"....the 'fragile Y' precept, that ultimately human male chromosomal existence, is in gender jeopardy. I think there was a anthropological species-seperacy origin for this somewhat-major problem facing humanity. Unless Y-chromasomes have now been reassessed as no longer being under threat....)

 

[Mungoman]

All humans can reproduce freely, producing fertile offspring. If humans originated from different members of the genus Homo, if that's the theory, I wouldn't expect that. If it arose many times from a particular species, with a bit of interbreeding, I suppose that is possible. Still, it doesn't seem likely to me.

Presumably this theory has been proposed by someone. Who originated it?

G'day Pete, in the taxanomic kingdom, there are some species that can interbreed, and in the plant kingdom, they do frequently. Science, at one time, said that Neanderthal couldn't breed with Homo sapien - they now say that it did happen.

 

[Ermintruder]

G'day Pete, in the taxanomic kingdom, there are some species that can interbreed, and in the plant kingdom, they do frequently.

I'm sure I've read that, genetically, it would be entirely-possible to generate a large combination of semi-viable ape hybrids (eg chimpanzee-gorillas or orang-macaques etc). These in vitro productions would, however, normally be sterile (as for ligers and tigons...and asses, I think)

I'm also wondering where I read the fascinating fact (Dawkins? Leakey?) that right/left handedness amongst non-human anthropoids becomes bell-curved at 49:51/51:49 , rather than our 90:10 right-handedness, this being contestably-capable of use as a sub-species flag indicator of the presence/emergence of speech-centre specialisation within the brain. Thus, unequal musculature left:right arm development within the relative primates/homo pre-sapiens could be used as a predictor of developmental differentiation towards tool use/adoption of speech at a supra-speciated level (I paraphrase, but you get the idea....and you 'get' it, in part, because you are right or left handed, on a species biased basis).

"Do you take this hand in marriage? It may be your right, but what will we be left with?"

 

[PeteByrdie]

G'day Pete, in the taxanomic kingdom, there are some species that can interbreed, and in the plant kingdom, they do frequently. Science, at one time, said that Neanderthal couldn't breed with Homo sapien - they now say that it did happen.

True, but, in animals, different species within a genus wouldn't usually have fertile offspring. However, I've had a chance to do a little reading on the mulitregional origins hypothesis since I posted my first response, and it seems clear it's not proposing that modern humans arose in isolation from one another (a notion I wouldn't give the time of day to) but that there was frequent interbreeding right through. So, I'm comfortable with that. I haven't seen a solution to the problem of greater genetic diversity in Africans, though.

 

[Mungoman]

True, but, in animals, different species within a genus wouldn't usually have fertile offspring. However, I've had a chance to do a little reading on the mulitregional origins hypothesis since I posted my first response, and it seems clear it's not proposing that modern humans arose in isolation from one another (a notion I wouldn't give the time of day to) but that there was frequent interbreeding right through. So, I'm comfortable with that. I haven't seen a solution to the problem of greater genetic diversity in Africans, though.

Well no Pete, if there were positing multi regional origins for humanity, like Africa, it would have started with an archaic form, and my example of Homo sapien breeding with Homo neanderthalensis was an example, showing how the Halls of Paleoanthropology can change its mind.

 

[skinny]

... there was frequent interbreeding right through...

Interesting discussion. I can't see how there's any doubt about this proposition. I think during the era we're looking at hominid species couldn't have looked as distinct as say Homo-ss does from orangs today. You'd have had your robusts and your graciles with height variability, but they'd have mostly had more in common than they had in variance. The males of all hominid species (known and unknown) would therefore have been f*cking anything they could hold down that looked relative to their form (and smelled female). Do we assume this was the case over waves of geographical co-location in the hundreds of thousands of years that led to the emergence of homo-ss? Almost anything could have happened breed-wise to produce the modern species as we are now. As the tree continues to complexify with successive hominid discoveries the genetic line will expand. So I guess I'm with the convergence crowd on this.

Origins has been and continues to be a very fragmented study with most of the pieces missing. So I don't hold to one theory strongly. Also fascinating is the idea that we've already transcended the old SS designation and technologically are escalating rapidly towards new sub-specieshood. If that is the case, do we see the currently unified human species evolving into divergent species at some future point? I don't see any alternative to the affirmative - other than the current crest capitulates to extinction. However, we have less to go on for future speculation, obviously, than we do of the past story. History will teach us nothing.

 

[Xanatic*]

A local library had a book from the sixties, which was about a multiregional origin for mankind. I don't recall much details though. There was a theory called Hologenesis and Francis DeLoy of DeLoy's Ape seems to have been a proponent.

 

[rynner2]

First ancient African genome solves migration mystery
By Rebecca Morelle Science Correspondent, BBC News

An ancient African genome has been sequenced for the first time.
Researchers extracted DNA from a 4,500-year-old skull that was discovered in the highlands of Ethiopia.
A comparison with genetic material from today's Africans reveals how our ancient ancestors mixed and moved around the continents.

The findings, published in the journal Science, suggests that about 3,000 years ago there was a huge wave of migration from Eurasia into Africa.
This has left a genetic legacy, and the scientists believe up to 25% of the DNA of modern Africans can be traced back to this event.
"Every single population for which we have data in Africa has a sizeable component of Eurasian ancestry," said Dr Andrea Manica, from the University of Cambridge, who carried out the research.

Ancient genomes have been sequenced from around the world, but Africa has proved difficult because hot and humid conditions can destroy fragile DNA.
However, the 4,500-year-old remains of this hunter gatherer, known as Mota man, were found in a cave and were well preserved.
Importantly, a bone that is situated just below the ear, called the petrous, was intact.

Dr Manica, speaking to Science in Action on the BBC World Service, said: "The petrous bone is really hard and does a really good job of preventing bacteria getting in and degrading this DNA.
"What we were able to get is some very high quality undamaged DNA from which we could reconstruct the whole genome of the individual.
"We have the complete blueprint, every single gene, every single bit of information that made this individual that lived 4,500 years ago in Ethiopia."


The genome revealed that Mota man had purely African DNA, his ancestors had never moved from Africa.
But the comparison of this with modern African genomes highlighted that about 1,500 years after his death, the make-up of the continent had changed.

Genetic studies have shown that after the great migration out of Africa, which happened about 60,000 years ago, some people later returned to the continent.
But this study shows that about 3,000 years ago there was a much larger migration than had been thought.

The Neolithic farmers from western Eurasia who, about 8,000 years ago, brought agriculture to Europe then began to return to Africa.
"We know now that they probably corresponded to a quarter of the people that already lived in East Africa (at that time). It was a major backflow, a very sizeable movement of people," said Dr Manica.

It is unclear what caused this move - potentially changes happening in the Egyptian empire - but it has left a genetic legacy.
"Quite remarkably, we see in Ethiopia about 20% - so a fifth - of the genome of people living there right now is actually of Eurasian origin, it actually comes from these farmers," explained Dr Manica.
"But it goes further than that, because if you go to the corners of Africa, all the way to West Africa or South Africa, even populations that we really thought were purely African have 5-6% of their genome that dates back to these western Eurasian farmers."

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34479905

 

[Mungoman]

First ancient African genome solves migration mystery
By Rebecca Morelle Science Correspondent, BBC News

An ancient African genome has been sequenced for the first time.
Researchers extracted DNA from a 4,500-year-old skull that was discovered in the highlands of Ethiopia.
A comparison with genetic material from today's Africans reveals how our ancient ancestors mixed and moved around the continents.

The findings, published in the journal Science, suggests that about 3,000 years ago there was a huge wave of migration from Eurasia into Africa.
This has left a genetic legacy, and the scientists believe up to 25% of the DNA of modern Africans can be traced back to this event.
"Every single population for which we have data in Africa has a sizeable component of Eurasian ancestry," said Dr Andrea Manica, from the University of Cambridge, who carried out the research.

Ancient genomes have been sequenced from around the world, but Africa has proved difficult because hot and humid conditions can destroy fragile DNA.
However, the 4,500-year-old remains of this hunter gatherer, known as Mota man, were found in a cave and were well preserved.
Importantly, a bone that is situated just below the ear, called the petrous, was intact.

Dr Manica, speaking to Science in Action on the BBC World Service, said: "The petrous bone is really hard and does a really good job of preventing bacteria getting in and degrading this DNA.
"What we were able to get is some very high quality undamaged DNA from which we could reconstruct the whole genome of the individual.
"We have the complete blueprint, every single gene, every single bit of information that made this individual that lived 4,500 years ago in Ethiopia."


The genome revealed that Mota man had purely African DNA, his ancestors had never moved from Africa.
But the comparison of this with modern African genomes highlighted that about 1,500 years after his death, the make-up of the continent had changed.

Genetic studies have shown that after the great migration out of Africa, which happened about 60,000 years ago, some people later returned to the continent.
But this study shows that about 3,000 years ago there was a much larger migration than had been thought.

The Neolithic farmers from western Eurasia who, about 8,000 years ago, brought agriculture to Europe then began to return to Africa.
"We know now that they probably corresponded to a quarter of the people that already lived in East Africa (at that time). It was a major backflow, a very sizeable movement of people," said Dr Manica.

It is unclear what caused this move - potentially changes happening in the Egyptian empire - but it has left a genetic legacy.
"Quite remarkably, we see in Ethiopia about 20% - so a fifth - of the genome of people living there right now is actually of Eurasian origin, it actually comes from these farmers," explained Dr Manica.
"But it goes further than that, because if you go to the corners of Africa, all the way to West Africa or South Africa, even populations that we really thought were purely African have 5-6% of their genome that dates back to these western Eurasian farmers."

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34479905

Thank you Ryn...curioser and curioser.

 

[Xanatic*]

If true, it does make it seem weird that sub-saharan populations are lacking in neanderthal genome. Shouldn't that have been brought in by these immigrants?

 

[rynner2]

If true, it does make it seem weird that sub-saharan populations are lacking in neanderthal genome. Shouldn't that have been brought in by these immigrants?

Maybe not if the new immigrants came from eastern parts, towards Asia, rather than the northern parts of Europe.

 

[Mungoman]

If true, it does make it seem weird that sub-saharan populations are lacking in neanderthal genome. Shouldn't that have been brought in by these immigrants?

It should've, shouldn't it...

 

[Mungoman]

Maybe not if the new immigrants came from eastern parts, towards Asia, rather than the northern parts of Europe.

Yet Eastern Asian populations had 1.5%, with American and European populations having between 1 - 4% Neanderthal DNA.

Another oddity is the Australian Aboriginal has evidence of interbreeding with Neanderthal and the recently discovered Denisovans, having varying levels of Denisovan DNA, while many of their neighbours, like the residents of mainland Southeast Asia, containing none.

This also suggests that the Denisovan's range, so far linked only to a cave in southern Siberia, once extended to Southeast Asia and perhaps Oceania.

Odd.


http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110922/full/news.2011.551.html

 

[Xanatic*]

Looking at genetics, some scientists claim that they hsve found evidence for another, earlier migration out of Africa. Though they say that first wave had little genetic influence.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37408014

 

[Mungoman]

I had my DNA done by Ancestorydotcom, at a cost, and was puzzled by the results.

It seems that I have 99% European DNA, with 4% GB [?], 56% Irish 34% Scandinavian, 3% Iberian peninsula, 1% Western European, 1% Eastern European, and 1% subcontinental Indian.

My Daughter has traced the Family back to the early 1700's, and as far as Faith is concerned, there is only one Irish connection.

My Great Grandma Annie Foulkes, on my Mum's side was Welsh, with the other side of My Mums people having a definite Nordic name, Skerratt, pronounced not as a k but as a 'sh'. Supposedly, the name Sherratt, no 'K', is also considered as Norman, meaning 'shining heart', and might cover the Iberian Peninsula and the Western European connection, but we have a family trait of the ring finger contracting towards the palm in old age - which I believe does indicate a Nordic connection.

I have a Scotts born Grandma, Molly, originally hailing from Wick, northern Scotland, and I'm wondering do they include Scottish origins as being Scandinavian. My Dad's side are Geordies, apart from Molly, and can be traced back to Alnwick where they were farm labourers until the advent of farming machinery, which forced them to move south and work in the pits.


The sub-continent connection is a head scratcher, and I wondered if this was a marker for a late exit from Africa, but in saying that, I discounted it, as there isn't any African marker.


I have questions concerning the efficacy of the results, i.e., how thorough is the examination of my spit [DNA], how defined are the determinations [haploid groupings], and really, is this just a money making con, considering the lack of explanation in the replies I received from ancestory.com?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Ermintruder]

and really, is this just a money making con, considering the lack of explanation in the replies I received from ancestory.com?

Depressingly, I have read and seen much that does tend towards this interpretation. Not just in respect of that particular company, but regarding the entire industry: that's at least in part because it's based upon some very-shaky paradigms.

I've seen a few video extracts of US talkshows, with a DNA 'analysis' revelation towards the end, which (as opposed to just mapping a direct identification for the purposes of personal parental responsibilities) were claiming to go, substantively, much further.

They were purporting to be able to show African American guests the specific villages (not just regions) from which their own lineal ancestors were taken.

However, these claims (of specific familial/clan descent, and geographic linkage) were being comprehensively-debunked by the producers of the show, via the simple-but-costly comparative method of having multiple DNA samples from the same given individual sent off to a range of DNA analysis companies.

Yes, you've guessed it. Like any portfolio of horoscopes, they were (almost) entirely without concordance.

Not just as in having slight variations between the analyses, but in terms of radical differences in the interpreted conclusions. The impression I got was that there was possibly no actual scientific methodological approach being used by the companies at all (I can check up on this further, and go into a lot more detail).

By this, I mean it may have even been worse than pseudoscience for at least some of the companies concerned, in that their own putative mappings would vary between two samples from the same test subject serially-submitted under two different names.

I'm unsure if some of the companies (eg 23 & Me) or initiatives (notably the original kick-starter in all this, the National Geographic Genographic Project) are significantly better in achieving genuinely-meaningful results, but I intend to find out.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Looking at genetics, some scientists claim that they hsve found evidence for another, earlier migration out of Africa. Though they say that first wave had little genetic influence.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37408014

... And in a depressingly inept follow-on, the story's top-level implication has been twisted into something else entirely ...

DNA research finds the world's oldest civilization

New research just revealed shows the world's oldest civilization belongs to the indigenous populations of Australia and Papua New Guinea. ...

SOURCE: http://www.aol.com/article/news/201...inds-the-worlds-oldest-civilization/21478043/

 

[Xanatic*]

That seems a very liberal use of the word Civilization.

 

[Mungoman]

That seems a very liberal use of the word Civilization.

The Aboriginal Australian was horrified to observe the punishment and general treatment of the first fleet convicts by their 'betters' - their idea of being civil to each other, what they do and how and how they do it, is the basis of the word civilisation, in their mind.

Having a social system that forces people to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, causing them to suffer and endure for lengthy periods of time before dying, due to erratic cellular formations in their bodies misconstrues the word civilisation, when the idea of a national health system would work, and would work well.

Invading a country, or using a clandestine section of society to unsettle a foreign government, and in consequence, encourage a small disgruntled section to rise up, after arming them, for whatever singular purpose, is not my idea of being civilised.

Having a system such as capitalism to be the method that society must depend on, even though it is a ponzie system designed by, and for a very small percentage of people, meanwhile, knowing fullwell that it will only benefit those on top of the muckheap is not civilisation as I know it

The idea of caging people for long periods of their life because they stole food is a poor reflection on that societies idea of being civilised, conversely, not punishing a group of people who created that shitstorm, initialised as the WFC, that contributed to hundreds of millions of people worldwide who lost their homes, their occupations and in quite a few incidences their freedom, due to stealing just to feed themselves is also a poor reflection on the use of that word 'civilisation

Civilisation.
n.

An advanced state of intellectual, cultural, and material development in human society, marked by progress in the arts and sciences, the extensive use of record-keeping, including writing, and the appearance of complex political and social institutions.

Civilisation.
n.

Blackwhite; Duckspeak.

 

[ramonmercado]

Siberian Town Stakes a Claim as Humanity’s Cradle
By ANDREW E. KRAMEROCT. 19, 2016

SOLONESHNOYE, Russia — Wood smoke hangs like a mist over this town, nestled in a valley deep in Siberia. The log houses lean at jaunty angles, dogs bark in the yards and cows, their neck bells clanging, walk the dusty streets.

• At once picturesque and poor, Soloneshnoye, like so much of rural
  Russia, was passed over by the oil boom and bust of faraway Moscow.
  
  But for all its woes, the town may have found its ticket in another form of fossil fuel: human prehistory, linked to discoveries of ancient bones in the area.
  
  In an emerging model of evolution, widely supported by scientists, different types of early humans, including Neanderthals, interbred and left their genetic traces with many of us today. It is a theory known in the scientific literature as “admixture between archaic and anatomically modern humans.”
  
  Piece by piece — a finger bone here, a toe there — the nearby Denisova cave has been yielding clues central to this scientific narrative. It has given rise to hopes for a tourism industry and scientific conferences here that could give the town’s fortunes a boost.
  
  “Every year, we find something interesting,” said Aleksandr S. Voronov, the mayor. Just this summer, the cave produced a new find: the world’s oldest known needle. “The more we find, the more interesting it becomes,” he said.
  
  The discoveries encapsulate what scientists say makes this place unique: It is the only spot on earth where bones of three types of early humans, Neanderthal, Denisovan and homo sapiens, have all been discovered, though they did not necessarily live here at the same time.
  The area has a long way to go before it can give the Lascaux cave in southern France a run for its money. So far, the town has opened a paleoanthropology wing at the local museum, and the regional government plans to pave the road to the Denisova cave.
  
  Along the route, a cave man-themed roadside attraction has popped up. Called the “Cradle of Humanity,” it shows various types of cave dwellers — hairy, bucktoothed and wide-eyed — with information on their transformation from apelike to more recognizably human. The display captures the strange overlap in evolution that allowed interbreeding.
  
  A guest lodge for visitors and scientists has opened near the cave. A few miles away, another lodge doubles as a retreat for soaking in a tub of a traditional Mongolian medicinal bath, in water with fermented deer antlers. A third lodge is under construction.
  
  In the summer months, vacationers come by the busload from around Russia. Recently, some Dutch tourists arrived in a camper van.
  
  The 50,000-year-old needle found this summer was an intriguing example of human ingenuity. But that is not the Denisova cave’s main draw.
  
  The cave — at 2,900 square feet, about the size of a home in the American suburbs — has become a center of study into ancient hominid interbreeding.
  

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/20/w...-stakes-a-claim-as-humanitys-cradle.html?_r=0

 

[ramonmercado]

Ostrich Eggshell Beads Found in Denisova Cave
Tuesday, November 01, 2016

(Maksim Kozlikin)
NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA—The Siberian Timesreports that beads made of ostrich eggshells were discovered in Denisova Cave, which is located in the Altai Mountains. The beads measure less than one-half inch in diameter and are thought to be between 45,000 and 50,000 years old. “This is an amazing piece of work,” said researcher Maksim Kozlikin of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography. “The ostrich eggshell is quite robust material, but the holes in the beads must have been made with a fine stone drill.” He thinks the beads could have been part of a bracelet or a necklace, or may have been sewn into clothing. The presence of the beads in Denisova Cave suggests that the people who lived there had trade contacts to import either the eggshells or the finished beads. The jewelry items were found in the same archaeological layer where a bracelet made of dark green stone was found in 2008. For more, go to “Letter from Siberia: Fortress of Solitude.”

http://www.archaeology.org/news/4981-161101-denisova-cave-beads