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Related: Culture Forums, Support Forums"Mystery humans spiced up ancients’ sex lives"
Although my first thought was "how mind-numbingly boring would a conference on DNA be?" ... it probably would actually be fascinating.
http://www.nature.com/news/mystery-humans-spiced-up-ancients-sex-lives-1.14196
Updated genome sequences from two extinct relatives of modern humans suggest that these archaic groups bred with humans and with each other more extensively than was previously known. The ancient genomes, one from a Neanderthal and one from a member of an archaic human group called the Denisovans, were presented on 18 November at a meeting on ancient DNA at the Royal Society in London. The results suggest that interbreeding went on between the members of several ancient human-like groups in Europe and Asia more than 30,000 years ago, including an as-yet-unknown human ancestor from Asia.
The Denisovan genome indicates that the population got around: Reich said at the meeting that as well as interbreeding with the ancestors of Oceanians, they also bred with Neanderthals and the ancestors of modern humans in China and other parts of East Asia. Most surprisingly, Reich said, the genomes indicate that Denisovans interbred with yet another extinct population of archaic humans that lived in Asia more than 30,000 years ago one that is neither human nor Neanderthal.
The meeting was abuzz with conjecture about the identity of this unknown population of humans. We dont have the faintest idea, says Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London, who was not involved in the work. He speculates that the population could be related to Homo heidelbergensis, a species that left Africa around half a million years ago and later gave rise to Neanderthals in Europe. Perhaps it lived on in Asia as well, says Stringer.
.... It must be .... ALIENS!!!
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)Myrina
(12,296 posts)What a hottie!!
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)cliffordu
(30,994 posts)A bunch, actually......without the feathers and bear claws....actually I DO have a bear claw around here someplace......
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)cliffordu
(30,994 posts)In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)[img][/img]
maybe some day ... [img][/img]
cliffordu
(30,994 posts)Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)Now just give it some snaggleteeth and a loin cloth, and the mystery is solved!
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)I really did and still do get around.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)petronius
(26,606 posts)Maybe it was a time-traveling future version of humans, hey? Did these 'scientists' consider that possibility?
ConcernedCanuk
(13,509 posts).
.
.
In it, it suggested the concept that we on this Earth are just some superior race's "ant farm" -
ya know - them ones in glass that we watch ants just for our amusement?
Sort of humbling/scary/thought-provoking doncha think?
Like laying outside on a starry night staring skyward.
Makes our personal problems seem insignificant,
which they are.
CC
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)bluesbassman
(19,379 posts)Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)(Are we showing our age or what?)
nomorenomore08
(13,324 posts)I know I, a person of European descent, could probably pass for a Neanderthal. Or at least play one in a re-enactment.