News:

Welcome to our site!

Main Menu

Snails reveal ancient human migration

Started by Smartmarzipan, June 20, 2013, 12:10:31 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Smartmarzipan

Snail Trail Reveals Ancient Human Migration
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 084633.htm

QuoteDr Angus Davison, Reader in Evolutionary Genetics at the University, and PhD student Adele Grindon, found that snails in Ireland and the Pyrenees are genetically almost identical, despite being thousands of miles apart. And -- as snails aren't renowned for their speed -- the simplest explanation is that snails hitched a ride with human migrants approximately 8,000 years ago.

Dr Davison said: "There is a very clear pattern, which is difficult to explain except by involving humans. If the snails naturally colonised Ireland, you would expect to find some of the same genetic type in other areas of Europe, especially Britain. We just don't find them.

"There are records of Mesolithic or Stone Age humans eating snails in the Pyrenees, and perhaps even farming them. The highways of the past were rivers and the ocean -- as the river that flanks the Pyrenees was an ancient trade route to the Atlantic, what we're actually seeing might be the long lasting legacy of snails that hitched a ride, accidentally or perhaps as food, as humans travelled from the South of France to Ireland 8,000 years ago.

Huh. Of all things...snails. Very neat.
Legi, Intellexi, Condemnavi.

"Religion is the human response to being alive and having to die." ~Anon

Inter arma enim silent leges

Solitary

There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

FrankDK

Was there a trail of garlic butter?

Frank

Smartmarzipan

I found some more basic information on theoretical human migration routes. I love visual aides!

THE HUMAN JOURNEY: MIGRATION ROUTES (maps)
https://genographic.nationalgeographic. ... n-journey/

QuoteAccording to the genetic and paleontological record, we only started to leave Africa between 60,000 and 70,000 years ago. What set this in motion is uncertain, but we think it has something to do with major climatic shifts that were happening around that time—a sudden cooling in the Earth's climate driven by the onset of one of the worst parts of the last Ice Age. This cold snap would have made life difficult for our African ancestors, and the genetic evidence points to a sharp reduction in population size around this time. In fact, the human population likely dropped to fewer than 10,000. We were holding on by a thread.
Legi, Intellexi, Condemnavi.

"Religion is the human response to being alive and having to die." ~Anon

Inter arma enim silent leges