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Humans Interbred with Four Extinct Hominin Species, Research Finds

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Re: Humans Interbred with Four Extinct Hominin Species, Research Finds

#101

Post by JoeAltmaier »

hashberry wrote: post #55

"Homo sapiens" is Latin for "wise man," but there were many Hominin species who possessed comparative culture, art, and intelligence. Neanderthals actually had larger brains compared to modern humans[0]. There are many theories on why Neanderthals became extinct[1]; my favorite is that we simply outbred them because of our sex appeal. What is Latin for "sexy human?" [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal#Anato…

The culture, art part may be overstated? Very limited compared to the pervasive Homo Sapiens evidence. And while Neanderthals imitated Home Sapiens spear points they chipped a whole nodule of flint down to make one point, missing the entire point of flaking multiple points off of a single nodule (from evidence of campsites shared over centuries by both species).

Re: Humans Interbred with Four Extinct Hominin Species, Research Finds

#102

Post by JoeAltmaier »

firecall wrote: post #71

I'm curious; can we assume they were similar enough to be attractive or desirable as mates? It's obvious different cultural standards may have applied. Or am I asking a stupid question?

A recent discovery is of an individual 1/8 Neanderthal. That means some Homo Sapien mated with their parent (1/4 Neanderthal), their grandparent (1/2 Neanderthal) and their great-grandparent (100% Neanderthal). So yes, they didn't seem to be stigmatized.

Re: Humans Interbred with Four Extinct Hominin Species, Research Finds

#103

Post by NoGravitas »

orange8 wrote: post #97
Juliate wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or use complex language. That we know of. They might completely have complex language using different mediums (infra sounds, vibrations, movements, smells, etc.).

I believe all animals definitely have some sort of language, and that the complexity of a language depends on its utility in facilitating everyday interactions and activities. What are the most complex activities you've seen elephants get up to?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_cognition will give you the high points.

Re: Humans Interbred with Four Extinct Hominin Species, Research Finds

#104

Post by quotz »

amelius wrote: post #60
hashberry wrote: post #55

"Homo sapiens" is Latin for "wise man," but there were many Hominin species who possessed comparative culture, art, and intelligence. Neanderthals actually had larger brains compared to modern humans[0]. There are many theories on why Neanderthals became extinct[1]; my favorite is that we simply outbred them because of our sex appeal. What is Latin for "sexy human?" [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal#Anato…

> my favorite is that we simply outbred them because of our sex appeal. Then why didn't the smart and strong Neanderthal males mate with the sexy Sapiens females?

I think thats what actually happened. We only have DNA from either male or female Neanderthals, forgot which one though. As far as I know if the neanderthals were a certain gender then the hybrid would be infertile.

Re: Humans Interbred with Four Extinct Hominin Species, Research Finds

#105

Post by Juliate »

orange8 wrote: post #97
Juliate wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or use complex language. That we know of. They might completely have complex language using different mediums (infra sounds, vibrations, movements, smells, etc.).

I believe all animals definitely have some sort of language, and that the complexity of a language depends on its utility in facilitating everyday interactions and activities. What are the most complex activities you've seen elephants get up to?

I never had the chance to meet elephants.

Now, from what I've learned/read about their behaviours, I have no doubt on the depth of their lives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_cognition#Elephant_so...

And I wouldn't call that "some sort of language". That's language. Species-specific. Not "human" language.

Even language that another species can grasp more or less perfectly. You can get that with minimal observation of dogs, cats, even birds. And obviously, animals read us as well.

Now, the complexity of an other species language may be partially out of reach because we do not have the same senses, abilities, history, memories.

So they might even engage in activities we cannot grasp or identify (and reciprocally) but for great patience, observation, study, understanding, and luck.

Re: Humans Interbred with Four Extinct Hominin Species, Research Finds

#106

Post by dsfyu404ed »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #102
firecall wrote: post #71

I'm curious; can we assume they were similar enough to be attractive or desirable as mates? It's obvious different cultural standards may have applied. Or am I asking a stupid question?

A recent discovery is of an individual 1/8 Neanderthal. That means some Homo Sapien mated with their parent (1/4 Neanderthal), their grandparent (1/2 Neanderthal) and their great-grandparent (100% Neanderthal). So yes, they didn't seem to be stigmatized.

>So yes, they didn't seem to be stigmatized.

Or the grandparent (1/2) and parent (1/4) just happened to be female (which is likely, see also: Haldane's rule) in which case they probably had little problem getting laid (side effects include pregnancy which if not treated can lead to children) no matter how stigmatized they were assuming modern humans behavior is any indication.

Having a kid is no guarantee they (and presumably their kid) weren't the lowest status person in the tribe (i.e. stigmatized) on account of who their parents were. That said, it's entirely possible the people in question were too concerned with month to month and year to year survival to care about that kind of thing.

Re: Humans Interbred with Four Extinct Hominin Species, Research Finds

#107

Post by dsfyu404ed »

corodra wrote: post #17

Hi everyone, just letting you all know, it's no surprise that modern homo sapiens ancestors bumped uglies with other species in the genus of homo back in the day. The enlightening part of this article is there are some unknown species in homo that we have genetic evidence of, but no fossil record. The thing you should be fascinated by, there were many contemporary relatives to homo sapiens that could have been as muc…

Not sure why this is down-voted. It's spot on albeit devoid of the usual literary bubble wrap used when discussing this kind of thing in polite company.

That there exist other similar species that we don't (yet) have a fossil record of is the interesting part here.

Re: Humans Interbred with Four Extinct Hominin Species, Research Finds

#108

Post by [deleted] »

hashberry wrote: post #55

"Homo sapiens" is Latin for "wise man," but there were many Hominin species who possessed comparative culture, art, and intelligence. Neanderthals actually had larger brains compared to modern humans[0]. There are many theories on why Neanderthals became extinct[1]; my favorite is that we simply outbred them because of our sex appeal. What is Latin for "sexy human?" [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal#Anato…

[deleted]

Re: Humans Interbred with Four Extinct Hominin Species, Research Finds

#109

Post by oflannabhra »

If you are even vaguely interested in ancient human DNA, human migration, or human evolution I highly recommend Insito.me's[0] podcast, The Insight [1]. Improvements in genomics DNA extraction techniques combined with several key paleontological finds, have resulted in a revolution in human paleontology and anthropology.

[0] - http://insito.me

[1] - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-insight/id13247444...

Re: Humans Interbred with Four Extinct Hominin Species, Research Finds

#110

Post by excalibur »

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identical_ancestors_point

> In 2004, Rohde, Olson and Chang showed through simulations that the Identical Ancestors Point for all humans is surprisingly recent, on the order of 5,000-15,000 years ago.

How can different populations of modern humans have interbred with different hominin species around 50k years ago when ALL of today's humans had the EXACT SAME SET OF ANCESTORS as recently as 15k years ago?

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