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Landmark ancient-genome study shows surprise acceleration of human evolution

nature.com

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Re: Landmark ancient-genome study shows surprise acceleration of human evolution

#11

Post by phainopepla2 »

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #2

Not that surprising when you consider, as the paper does, the explosion of very meaningful traits such as the ability to digest lactose and various anti-malaria adaptations e.g. Sickle Cell and the Duffy-null mutation. It's just controversial for obvious reasons. The notion that human groups may have meaningfully evolved in different ways over the past 10,000 years, and may still be evolving, is an unpopular one on b…

Is it unpopular on the right? Genuine question. I have only seen people associated with the left deny or downplay this.

Re: Landmark ancient-genome study shows surprise acceleration of human evolution

#12

Post by nefarious_ends »

mohamedkoubaa wrote: post #4

"To supercharge the search, Reich, Ali Akbari, a computational geneticist at Harvard Medical School, and their colleagues amassed the largest-ever collection of genomic data from ancient humans — from a total of 15,836 individuals from western Eurasia — including more than 10,000 newly sequenced genomes." Without commenting on the content of this sentence or article, I will say that it is refreshing to see sentences…

Seriously what’s the point of this comment

Re: Landmark ancient-genome study shows surprise acceleration of human evolution

#13

Post by like_any_other »

meroes wrote: post #9
like_any_other wrote: post #7

Is there any species, other than humans, that is found all across the globe (i.e. geographically separated), and has not differentiated into subspecies? Wolves, elephants, tigers, bears, and foxes have all been categorized into multiple subspecies each, distinct but able to interbreed.

Dogs?

I don't think you could have chosen a worse example. Dogs are themselves a subspecies, and are split into many different breeds, of wildly different character and physiology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog#Taxonomy

Re: Landmark ancient-genome study shows surprise acceleration of human evolution

#14

Post by burnto »

phainopepla2 wrote: post #11
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #2

Not that surprising when you consider, as the paper does, the explosion of very meaningful traits such as the ability to digest lactose and various anti-malaria adaptations e.g. Sickle Cell and the Duffy-null mutation. It's just controversial for obvious reasons. The notion that human groups may have meaningfully evolved in different ways over the past 10,000 years, and may still be evolving, is an unpopular one on b…

Is it unpopular on the right? Genuine question. I have only seen people associated with the left deny or downplay this.

Evolution itself has some skeptics among the religious right.

Re: Landmark ancient-genome study shows surprise acceleration of human evolution

#15

Post by jetrink »

phainopepla2 wrote: post #11
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #2

Not that surprising when you consider, as the paper does, the explosion of very meaningful traits such as the ability to digest lactose and various anti-malaria adaptations e.g. Sickle Cell and the Duffy-null mutation. It's just controversial for obvious reasons. The notion that human groups may have meaningfully evolved in different ways over the past 10,000 years, and may still be evolving, is an unpopular one on b…

Is it unpopular on the right? Genuine question. I have only seen people associated with the left deny or downplay this.

The religious right, specifically. They would say that all people are descended quite recently from Noah and his family.

Re: Landmark ancient-genome study shows surprise acceleration of human evolution

#16

Post by [deleted] »

phainopepla2 wrote: post #11
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #2

Not that surprising when you consider, as the paper does, the explosion of very meaningful traits such as the ability to digest lactose and various anti-malaria adaptations e.g. Sickle Cell and the Duffy-null mutation. It's just controversial for obvious reasons. The notion that human groups may have meaningfully evolved in different ways over the past 10,000 years, and may still be evolving, is an unpopular one on b…

Is it unpopular on the right? Genuine question. I have only seen people associated with the left deny or downplay this.

[deleted]

Re: Landmark ancient-genome study shows surprise acceleration of human evolution

#17

Post by orsorna »

nostromo wrote: post #8
AlotOfReading wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason no one wants to talk is that these discussions are always co-opted by racists wanting to affirm their beliefs, regardless of the underlying science. Reich in particular is borderline deliberate about attracting those sorts with his lab's research, because of how badly he chooses to handle the topic and terminology of race.

Science is about truth not social outcomes. People keep wondering why trust in scientific findings is in free fall. A big part of it is because many scientists have become comfortable lying when they feel it’s for a noble cause.

I really don't care if the people around me have physiological differences from me. It would be wonderful to explore that and such differences. But as OP pointed out the discussion gets co-opted by people who would kill others over physiological differences. How is such a viewpoint conducive to a peaceful society where millions of people with physiological differences exist?

For good reason, the wider community isn't able to have a productive conversation about it. I wouldn't even call that a noble reason, but a necessary one, unless you would be okay with inviting people that want you dead into discussion on scientific consensus.

Re: Landmark ancient-genome study shows surprise acceleration of human evolution

#18

Post by erichocean »

like_any_other wrote: post #7

Is there any species, other than humans, that is found all across the globe (i.e. geographically separated), and has not differentiated into subspecies? Wolves, elephants, tigers, bears, and foxes have all been categorized into multiple subspecies each, distinct but able to interbreed.

Humans have, obviously. Just interbreeding with ancient species was enough to do it, even without separate evolution.

Re: Landmark ancient-genome study shows surprise acceleration of human evolution

#19

Post by hooo »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #10
meroes wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dogs?

Aren't dogs technically one species?

This distinction seems more arbitrary over time. Growing up I was taught different species couldn’t interbreed. But what about Neanderthal and Sapiens?

Re: Landmark ancient-genome study shows surprise acceleration of human evolution

#20

Post by greazy »

like_any_other wrote: post #7

Is there any species, other than humans, that is found all across the globe (i.e. geographically separated), and has not differentiated into subspecies? Wolves, elephants, tigers, bears, and foxes have all been categorized into multiple subspecies each, distinct but able to interbreed.

The definition of what constitutes a species is a human construct.

Two bird populations living in the same locale but divided by a mountain range therefore not naturally breeding with each other would classify as a different species, even if they could breed with each other.

So your question is hard to answer.

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