0
billvon

Interesting missing link fossil

Recommended Posts

A fossilized skull was recently unearthed in Romania. It's 36,000 years old and is primarily Cro-Magnon in appearance but bears some marks of a Neanderthal skull. Researchers think this may indicate that Cro-Magnon and Neanderthals may have interbred after they split off as two subspecies.

Story here.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

A fossilized skull was recently unearthed in Romania. It's 36,000 years old and is primarily Cro-Magnon in appearance but bears some marks of a Neanderthal skull. Researchers think this may indicate that Cro-Magnon and Neanderthals may have interbred after they split off as two subspecies.

Story


Story [url "http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/09/23/caveman.romania.reut/index.html"> here.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Somewhere along the line, there must have been that division between the monkeys that became people and the monkeys that remained monkeys.

I am sure that there was a humanoid-type bringing a date home to meet the folks... "Uhhh... yeah those are my grandparents over there... gramps, could you stop flinging poo for a sec, I want to introduce you to Doris..." :D

At a family reunion, "Some of the cousins didn't come this year, the opposable-thumb issue at dinner time was bugging them..."

"That side of the family tree still lives in the family tree..."
:)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

"They are all dirty and smelly and all that sort of stuff. The basic facial shape would have been like ours but from the cheeks on down they would have looked very large."



I can point out some living specimens, alive and well and drinking in the town where i live. :|

-- Hope you don't die. --

I'm fucking winning

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Does DNA allow for evolution? Is there a set of traights in our DNA that allow us to be neanderthal or cro-magnon?

This was the subject of one of the most interesting books I've read on the creation/evolution debate. Even though I'm white and 6', I have the genetic potential to be black, and 5'.

There is no indication that humans possess the genetic map of gills. The argument being that a human may be born with flippers, but not necessarily because it's parent lived it's whole life in water. It's a mutation, not an evolution.

It seems the whole debate has quieted down a lot since the human genome was mapped. I really suspect that is where the answers to our origins will be found. In our own living DNA, not the fossil record.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
>Does DNA allow for evolution?

Well, sure. You can rapidly "evolve" fruit flies by killing off all the ones with red eyes, or black eyes or whatever, and the survivor's DNA expresses the selected trait.

> Is there a set of traights in our DNA that allow us to be
>neanderthal or cro-magnon?

Well, it's probably a good guess that some of the traits are there, but inactive. DNA is incredibly complex, and part of our genetic code controls what other parts are expressed. Some are time delayed (development of secondary sexual characteristics for example) others are activated only under certain situations (melanin production when exposed to sunlight.) When evolution drives us to lose a feature (like a tail) generally the most straightforward way to do that is to just never activate the genes that express for tail formation. The information to _make_ the tail stays there, it's just not activated. Over time that information can degrade because there's no method to "fix" it anymore if it becomes corrupted. In other words if you tried to reactivate those genes it's anybody's guess as to whether you'd get a working tail, a vestigial thing or spina bifida.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Well, sure. You can rapidly "evolve" fruit flies by killing off all the ones with red eyes, or black eyes or whatever, and the survivor's DNA expresses the selected trait.



As I understand that, Bill, that's selection, not evolution. Like the moths outside London during the industrial revolution who began to stand out and get eaten by birds as the trunks of the trees were darekned by soot. There was always dark moths, but until the environment changed, they got eaten more.

I understand evolution to be something NEW in a species. Like fruit flies developing a different kind of eye entirely due to environmental pressure.

It does seem likely that the genetic code of a species might "clip out" unused or corrupted genes. It just seems to me that when we find out what all those genes do, in the multitude of combinations that are available, we'll get a better glimpse of species origin.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
>As I understand that, Bill, that's selection, not evolution.

Yes, which is why I put evolution in quotes. It takes a tremendous amount of time for truly new functional features to develop, since you need essentially a series of happy accidents to create one new organism with the new trait - which then has such a huge advantage over other animals that it succeeds where they fail. Selection is sort of evolution lite, although you can _still_ see the results in the organism's genome.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Does DNA allow for evolution? Is there a set of traights in our DNA that allow us to be neanderthal or cro-magnon?

This was the subject of one of the most interesting books I've read on the creation/evolution debate. Even though I'm white and 6', I have the genetic potential to be black, and 5'.

There is no indication that humans possess the genetic map of gills. The argument being that a human may be born with flippers, but not necessarily because it's parent lived it's whole life in water. It's a mutation, not an evolution.

It seems the whole debate has quieted down a lot since the human genome was mapped. I really suspect that is where the answers to our origins will be found. In our own living DNA, not the fossil record.



Ok, but would it not make sense that evolution is only a series of mutations that worked, well, at least well enough to allow for further mutation that works...and so on?
I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

...and is primarily Cro-Magnon in appearance but bears some marks of a Neanderthal skull.



...her recent appearance at the Debutante Ball, the daughter of Stephanie Cro and Eric Magnon was stunning in her leopard skin print. Her uncle on her mothers side, the philanthropist Mark Neanderthal, danced with her in the first traditional first dance of the evening. He remarked that "He hoped no one would burn themselves this year. The invention of fire has been such a hazard."
l

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Well technically speaking IIRC evolution is loosely defined in 'change of allele frequency in a population over time'.

Alleles can be said to be genotypes or variants on a gene. For the moth example there's a good document here.

Evolution is directionless. Changes that are not beneficial to a species just tend to be removed through 'natural selection' - or rather the failure to propogate those specific traits - usually because of a failure to reproduce.

Evolution is not an easy topic to discuss - often there are conflicts between new discoveries and Darwin's original idea. Darwin though environmental changes could trigger evolution - nowadays it is thought that this isn't so; the new environments just weed out amongst the existing alleles'.

The human genome project is a huge advancement, also for the science of evolution. We need however also to look at other species to 'compare notes' and whatnot - to find out what those dormant genes we carry might have done.

Santa Von GrossenArsch
I only come in one flavour
ohwaitthatcanbemisunderst

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

0