Latest on human evolution, with hybridization, not just with Neanderthals

[Baruch]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B2Xofn9sgQ

[Sorginak]

I am not the type of individual who has the time to watch an hour long video.

If you would be so kind as to provide a synopsis of the video, since you obviously watched it, that would be great.

[Baruch]

I am not the type of individual who has the time to watch an hour long video.

If you would be so kind as to provide a synopsis of the video, since you obviously watched it, that would be great.

OK ... there are actually a total of 5 videos, this one being the one dealing with Africa (the earlier phase).  Well we know more and more about Paleolithic humans and pre-humans, how there was more than one species, but we could interbreed.  A bit like the fact that tigers and lions are clearly different but they can interbreed.  Genetic studies as well as new fossils are making this a rapidly changing subject, just in the last 10 years.  So basically, there were anatomically modern humans, in E Africa, as long as 200,000 years ago.  The Sahara was wet, so they were also found in N W Africa at that same time.  But genetic studies show, that there are some Africans and African-Americans today, that have Y-chromosome and M-DNA that is over 300,000 years old.

So in middle Paleolithic times, there were not only new humans, but pre-humans, all living in Africa at the same time.  This is not surprising, since there the Homo Erectus came out of Africa way before that, to Europe and Asia.  There had to be some proto-humans living in Africa after the first migration out.  That is what these rare Africans/African-Americans are, from equatorial Africa .. they are hybrid humans.  The people most likely to be pure, are the Africans who stayed in Africa, almost everyone else outside of Africa is a hybrid.  The inverse of Aryan race mixing theory ;-)  The Nazi Aryans in fact have the highest amount of Neanderthal ancestry (appropriately named after a find site in Germany).

This same thing happened, during the time when the new humans also left Africa, like their predecessors long before ... and migrated all over Europe and Asia.  Turns out that almost all humans are hybrids outside of Africa ... we are like "ligers" we are mixed species, not pure.  Europeans specifically are a mix of new humans and Neanderthals.  There were at least 3 species of porto-humans in Asia, when the new humans arrived, and new humans interbred with them too.  This hybridization led to the absorption, not killing off, of the proto-humans.  We intermarried and out bred them (this is also how the Indo-Europeans colonized Europe).  Hunter-gather warfare could occur between any two groups, but not on racist difference ... because clearly often new humans and porto-humans not only got along, they intermarried.

This hybridization has been shown to have helped new humans adapt more rapidly to the various environments, the proto-humans had colonized for many millennia.  For example European skin come from the Neanderthals.  The new humans who came to Europe were dark skinned, and light skin is an advantage ... there hasn't been enough time, since new humans came into Europe, for Europeans to evolve light skin by themselves.  It is also thought for example, that the inter-breeding of Denisovans and new humans led to the high altitude tolerance of the Tibetans.  Denisovans and Neanderthals were both derivative of Homo Erectus (see Peking Man).  And there may even have still been ancestral Homo Erectus in China, only 100,000 years ago, when the first new humans arrived in China, that the new humans interbred with.

Racist theory is exactly opposite of what actually happened, and it actually injurious because of inbreeding and preventing useful hybridization.  Though other studies have shown, the much later superiority of ME and Egyptian people, Indian and Chinese people .. is due to the practicality of agriculture in those locations, not due to any genetic benefit.

[SGOS]

I have been recently surprised at how much information has changed since I took anthropology in the 60s.  We know a lot less about ourselves than a lot of much older things, like physical laws.  Physical laws are constants and sit still so they can be studied, so that makes sense to me.  I guess we find it hard to chart our history because we are a new species and haven't been around long enough to leave a lot of artifacts.  There does seem to have been lot of different kinds of humans.  Some lasted longer than we have, some were here briefly.  We are just the survivors of the chaos.  I assume current humans were better adapted than the ones that didn't make through, but we may have been luckier too.

Anthropology is an exciting study that I find amazing and inspiring.  The emergence of hominids from and earlier species just wandering about trying to survive, not knowing they would eventually be a dominant species is an interesting story.  Why it should inspire me (and it does) isn't logical at all.  Maybe it's like believing a god poofed us into existence, which apparently inspires the theist.  Why be inspired?  I guess I just can't help myself.

[fencerider]

might be fun to share that info with a white supremacist to watch them have a melt down

[Baruch]

might be fun to share that info with a white supremacist to watch them have a melt down

Proof of African origins for all humans?  Of course, but don't let that go to your head, as it has with some Black Cleopatra fans.  Cleopatra may have been part African, mixed race folks can be very very attractive.  Coins and images would say she wasn't pure Black (Nubian), not that would be a bad thing.  Of course non-Africans are simply melanin challenged Blacks ;-))  Far north Cro-Magnon hybrids ... developed weird mutations because of the hybridizing .. like straight copper red hair.  Any botanist can tell you that hybridizing can be an advantage ... of course the pure racists (of N or S type) are wrong.  Mongrels rule the world, just ask the Mongrel Horde.

Replacement video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8ZTp-gs-Ok

[fencerider]

melanin challenged. haha  I get sunburned very easy and if I dont put some kind of lotion on the burn I aint goin to sleep (if I get a good sunburn I'm gonna get a fever to go with it)

[Cavebear]

I have been recently surprised at how much information has changed since I took anthropology in the 60s.  We know a lot less about ourselves than a lot of much older things, like physical laws.  Physical laws are constants and sit still so they can be studied, so that makes sense to me.  I guess we find it hard to chart our history because we are a new species and haven't been around long enough to leave a lot of artifacts.  There does seem to have been lot of different kinds of humans.  Some lasted longer than we have, some were here briefly.  We are just the survivors of the chaos.  I assume current humans were better adapted than the ones that didn't make through, but we may have been luckier too.

Anthropology is an exciting study that I find amazing and inspiring.  The emergence of hominids from and earlier species just wandering about trying to survive, not knowing they would eventually be a dominant species is an interesting story.  Why it should inspire me (and it does) isn't logical at all.  Maybe it's like believing a god poofed us into existence, which apparently inspires the theist.  Why be inspired?  I guess I just can't help myself.

Sorry to be late to the party...  I agree that human development is an amazing thing and that the study of it is worthwhile.  Things change so often.  The hobbits one year, the denisovians  next, and Naledi now.  And newly older stone flakes than thought possible.  Where will it ever end?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Latest news is always suspect until solid confirmation is obtained.

[Baruch]

Latest news is always suspect until solid confirmation is obtained.

Stone tools are pretty solid ;-)

[Cavebear]

Latest news is always suspect until solid confirmation is obtained.

But "solid confirmation" gets overturned too. 

[Baruch]

But "solid confirmation" gets overturned too.

You must also subscribe to "Anthropology Of The Week Club" too ;-)  The most solid confirmation ... coprolites.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

But "solid confirmation" gets overturned too. 

Yep, that's how science works.

[Baruch]

Yep, that's how science works.

But not how scifi works ;-(