...And I can't. Not yet anyway. Not until we clone one of them.
Extinct Humans Passed High-Altitude Gene to Tibetans
11–20 of 25 posts
Re: Extinct Humans Passed High-Altitude Gene to Tibetans
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many Neanderthal genes make a Neanderthal?
More than half at least, as a mule is neither donkey nor horse
We have 50% genetic similarity with bananas - does that make us nearly bananas? More to the point, we have 96%-98.8% (depending on how you calculate it) similarity with chimpanzees. Presumably our similarity to Neanderthals would be very close to 100%
"More than half" is a very poor measure unless you define "more than half" of what. I think it's a fair point to make that Neanderthals are not entirely extinct - a good portion of their genes just are.
I guess one way to look at it is, assume that there are some genetic markers that make someone look asian. Now genocide everyone who's "pure" asian, i.e. has more than 50% of those markers. Would you consider "asian people" to be "extinct" then, even though most if not all of their genetic markers are sill in circulation in the human gene pool?
[*] http://genecuisine.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/human-dna-similari...
Re: Extinct Humans Passed High-Altitude Gene to Tibetans
#13Perhaps not entirely surprising, when you consider how much better Tibetan high-altitude adapations are when compared to Andean people's. So the idea that they evolved in the span of 3,000 years seems suspect. Very interesting that they seem to have picked them up from a relict population - perhaps this is related to the Yeti stories?
Greg Cochran has been making that argument for some time now. Here's his take on the issue: http://westhunt.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/rasmus-nielsen/
Re: Extinct Humans Passed High-Altitude Gene to Tibetans
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
More than half at least, as a mule is neither donkey nor horse
We have 50% genetic similarity with bananas - does that make us nearly bananas? More to the point, we have 96%-98.8% (depending on how you calculate it) similarity with chimpanzees. Presumably our similarity to Neanderthals would be very close to 100% "More than half" is a very poor measure unless you define "more than half" of what. I think it's a fair point to make that Neanderthals are not entirely extinct - a goo…
I have had many co-workers I suspect of being mostly banana.
Literature I'm seeing suggests humans and neanderthal were related subspecies. I suspect one measure of "not existing" is when there's no clearly distinguishable neanderthal clan or trait cluster. Though there are people who have features which look strongly neanderthalic.
I've been reading bits and pieces of various aspects of anthropology and human evolution. It seems that cro-magnon man were likely an early sub-species or tribe which settled across northern Africa, as far out as the Azores, and along what's now the Spanish-France border region. All of which now show similar linguistic roots. And suggest that the Basque language, unrelated to others in Europe, is derived from cro-magnon.
The Roma people migrated from India toward southeastern Europe.
And there's solid anthropological evidence of settlements in what is now the Black Sea, living on what was then dry land, prior to it being flooded and inundated about 5600 BC. Now if only there were a flood myth in human tradition ....
Re: Extinct Humans Passed High-Altitude Gene to Tibetans
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
The same sense dinosaurs are extinct while their progeny still walk/fly on earth.
That is a different sense. Totally different timescales, and dinosaurs were many species.
I think it captures the general fuzziness of it all. "Species" don't really exist. All the classifications and taxonomies are fuzzy, to various degrees. Even parent-offspring is a tricky concept.
Is the Tasmanian Devil facial cancer a new species? Did it evolve/mutate from tasmanian devils? Is it an offspring of a specific devil?
Re: Extinct Humans Passed High-Altitude Gene to Tibetans
#16Pity we didn't acquire Neanderthal genes for their 1600 cc brains, the largest of any primate species found to date. [1]
Edit: Apologies to the downvoter, I should have substantiated that claim. I have added a source.
[1] http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/society/neanderthal-m...
Re: Extinct Humans Passed High-Altitude Gene to Tibetans
#17There's a subgroup of Asians spanning the Himalayas and east Asia that have blue bottommed babies that is generally believed to denote an ancestry that shares Genghis Khan, iirc. Anyone know whether this group is the same as the one that shares the Denisovan gene?
There's one other thing that I think people living in the Himalayas have, myself included, that helps and that is proportionately humongous lungs. This is probably evolution at work over the course of centuries.
Re: Extinct Humans Passed High-Altitude Gene to Tibetans
#18> Extinct Humans Passed High-Altitude Gene to Tibetans
Extinct? Hmmm. Get over it we are partly neanderthals, denisovans and so on.
Re: Extinct Humans Passed High-Altitude Gene to Tibetans
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
More than half at least, as a mule is neither donkey nor horse
We have 50% genetic similarity with bananas - does that make us nearly bananas? More to the point, we have 96%-98.8% (depending on how you calculate it) similarity with chimpanzees. Presumably our similarity to Neanderthals would be very close to 100% "More than half" is a very poor measure unless you define "more than half" of what. I think it's a fair point to make that Neanderthals are not entirely extinct - a goo…
"More than half of the distinct genes", is what I would have written if I was thinking more carefully.
If the notion of "extinct" is as fuzzy as you propose, that implies Homo erectus is not extinct, as we descend directly from them.
Re: Extinct Humans Passed High-Altitude Gene to Tibetans
#20There's a subgroup of Asians spanning the Himalayas and east Asia that have blue bottommed babies that is generally believed to denote an ancestry that shares Genghis Khan, iirc. Anyone know whether this group is the same as the one that shares the Denisovan gene? There's one other thing that I think people living in the Himalayas have, myself included, that helps and that is proportionately humongous lungs. This is…
> There's a subgroup of Asians spanning the Himalayas and east Asia that have blue bottommed babies
That's funny. I had to Google it because I never heard about that before, but apparently it's extremely common!
According to Wikipedia this trait is common not only on asians but also native americans, so it predates Genghis Khan.