The human family tree just got another — mysterious — branch

Interesting article, human origins gets ever more complex, with certain Africans considered to be at least partly descended from a species as yet unknown.

The human family tree just got another — mysterious — branch, an African "sister species" to the heavy-browed Neanderthals that once roamed Europe.

While no fossilized bones have been found from these enigmatic people, they did leave a calling card in present-day Africans: snippets of foreign DNA.

There's only one way that genetic material could have made it into modern human populations.

"Geneticists like euphemisms, but we're talking about sex," said Joshua Akey of the University of Washington, whose lab identified the foreign DNA in three groups of modern Africans.

These genetic leftovers do not resemble DNA from any modern humans. The foreign DNA also does not resemble Neanderthal DNA, which shows up in the DNA of some modern Europeans, Akey said. That means the newly identified DNA came from an unknown group.


This enigmatic group left its DNA all across Africa. The researchers found it in the forest-dwelling pygmies of central Africa and in two groups of hunter-gatherers on the other side of the continent: the Hadza and Sandawe people of Tanzania.

seattletimes.com...

Aliens did it

reply to post by Sinny



Yes a new species of alien arises, the pygmie aliens...

reply to post by Kantzveldt


Damn, why do they always think its all about sex? Reminds me of some freaking mason lodges. What's wrong with the engineering theory? Maybe that's the proof that mankind's DNA has been tempered with. Two different species cannot successfully breed. Look at the mule: cross donkey, cross horse. They are totally sterile.

saw this on ats yesterday or the day before. don't have time to look for the thread for you sorry.

reply to post by swan001



It's a possibility, the regional variations that are being discovered regarding differant human racial groups are also making the suggestion that we are a singular species more tenuous.

reply to post by ladyteeny



Ah yes you're right, i missed that.

reply to post by Kantzveldt


The thing I find interesting about this is that Neanderthal DNA (totally human, as recent research has proven, just another race) isn't found among modern blacks. Now they have this other type that is. Makes one wonder, how many racial variations have there been?

Originally posted by swan001
reply to post by Kantzveldt

 

Damn, why do they always think its all about sex? Reminds me of some freaking mason lodges. What's wrong with the engineering theory? Maybe that's the proof that mankind's DNA has been tempered with. Two different species cannot successfully breed. Look at the mule: cross donkey, cross horse. They are totally sterile.

edit on 29-7-2012 by swan001 because: (no reason given)

Well, in this case, it isn't two different species. It's some other race, with notable DNA differences, that isn't around anymore. That would be the best guess.

Worth noting that lions and tigers can interbreed, and produce fertile offspring. Kind of seems like they should start redefining what a species actually is! Clearly, those aren't as different as they would have us believe.

could this be the missing link?, or aliens? either way i look forward to watching about it on ancient aliens they are guaranteed to cover this soon lol

Originally posted by swan001
reply to post by Kantzveldt

 

Damn, why do they always think its all about sex? Reminds me of some freaking mason lodges. What's wrong with the engineering theory? Maybe that's the proof that mankind's DNA has been tempered with. Two different species cannot successfully breed. Look at the mule: cross donkey, cross horse. They are totally sterile.

edit on 29-7-2012 by swan001 because: (no reason given)

They can, and they have, obviously. You've used the Mule as an example, they do exist. Just because there is a recognized issue there does not mean that the same genetic flaw would be found in every cross. In fact, mathematics and probability would suggest that there are billions of other possible results of such a cross that wouldn't necessarily result in sterility.

Originally posted by swan001
reply to post by Kantzveldt

 

Damn, why do they always think its all about sex? Reminds me of some freaking mason lodges. What's wrong with the engineering theory? Maybe that's the proof that mankind's DNA has been tempered with. Two different species cannot successfully breed. Look at the mule: cross donkey, cross horse. They are totally sterile.

edit on 29-7-2012 by swan001 because: (no reason given)

Occam's razor.

Originally posted by Kantzveldt
reply to post by swan001

 

It's a possibility, the regional variations that are being discovered regarding differant human racial groups are also making the suggestion that we are a singular species more tenuous.

No not at all to the contrary it stregnthens the theory we are all one species you mad genius you. The article simply states Africans much like Europeans and Pacific Islanders at one point or another interbred with a hominid like species.

This foreign DNA can be definitivley proven to be different than that of Africans Europeans and others. So you see it provides evidence for the out of Africa theory. The study does show that Africans Europeans Pacific Islanders etc. are all genetically tbe same species Homo Sapiens. Some groups of Homo Sapiens like black frizzy haired Africans and fair skinned red hair Europeans seem to be slightly tainted by Neanderthals Denisovans and the mystery hominid species thst are the subject of this article.

Originally posted by Kantzveldt
Interesting article, human origins gets ever more complex, with certain Africans considered to be at least partly descended from a species as yet unknown.

Again OP you seem to be drastically misunderstanding the article and basic science facts. Nowhere does it say Africans descended from an unknown species. Youre just reading into it what youwant it to say.

Africans were/are genetically proven Homo Sapiens who according to the article 50 000- 20 000 interbred with an unknown non human species. Africans were at the time were already full fledged modern humans that had existed as long as 200 000 yrs ago or 150 000 before this slight taint seemed to have ocurred. Just like it happened to modern Europeans when they moved into Europe from Africa 50 000 yrs ago. It doesnt mean Modern Europeans descended from Neandsrthals no that would be ludicrous and given genetic tests and studies factually incorrect. Using the word descended in the context of what the article states is laughable and transparent.

Originally posted by LadyGreenEyes
Kind of seems like they should start redefining what a species actually is!

There are actually dozens of different species concepts, but not a single one of them can describe all life. Nonbiologists are mostly familiar with the sex defined species concept (I think the name is biological species concept), but it can't describe the vast majority of species, which belong to prokaryotes.

Originally posted by swan001
reply to post by Kantzveldt

 

Two different species cannot successfully breed. Look at the mule: cross donkey, cross horse. They are totally sterile.

edit on 29-7-2012 by swan001 because: (no reason given)

Speciesation is gradual, if two groups can successfully interbreed, most biologists would consider them branches of the same species. Before we knew that Neanderthals had bred with humans, most classified them as a separate species and some believed that they maybe couldn't breed with us. But as evidence mounted that they could (and did), the definition of what/who Neanderthals were has changed.

This group would be a different branch of the human line, a sub-species is probably the best term. Too distinct from us to be considered merely a different race, but also too close to be called a separate species. There is no sharp dividing lines with these things. In most cases with mules, something like 98% of the time, you are right, they are completely sterile. But there have been cases where mules have been born that weren't sterile and could breed a second generation. However this next generation has always been sterile, so that's why you've never seen a mule breeding stock from these few who aren't. Horses and donkeys are just too far apart to make them ever viable beyond a second generation when breeding together, so they are different species (the same is apparently true with Ligers and Tigons, the cross between Tigers and Lions).

Humans and Neanderthals seem to have been viable beyond that, and probably so was this other group. It's believed that Chimpanzees and Bonobos could probably interbreed, though I don't think it's ever been tried. We consider them to be sub-species of Chimpanzee, though physically and even more so in terms of behavior they are quite different.

Originally posted by LadyGreenEyes
reply to post by Kantzveldt

 

The thing I find interesting about this is that Neanderthal DNA (totally human, as recent research has proven, just another race) isn't found among modern blacks. Now they have this other type that is. Makes one wonder, how many racial variations have there been?

Neanderthals didn't live in Africa, they existed only in Europe and parts of the Middle-East, and it's only in the racial groups from these areas that we see their DNA mixed in. We know it's Neanderthal DNA because we've been able to recover some Neanderthal DNA from their bones and sequence it.

There could well have been other groups we haven't found fossils for yet (if we ever do), and genetic traces that we also haven't yet detected. It will be interesting to see as these sciences progress what will be discovered. The use of genetics to research our own ancestry is still very new and I'm sure there's still tons to learn.

So possibly black, white, yellow and red, are actually different, not better or worse, but different.

I wish we could celebrate our differences rather than be mofos about it.

P

Originally posted by jd0Fengland
could this be the missing link?, or aliens? either way i look forward to watching about it on ancient aliens they are guaranteed to cover this soon lol

There is no such thing as "the missing link." The concept of a missing link is probably over a century old, and is no longer considered a valid idea in biology. Species change gradually over time, so what you will find are a great many "links" between them in the fossil record and, if we could get it, in the genetic record too. In between those "links" would have been even closer connections, too, then you find closer and closer relatives until the point you have a continuous gradation from one species to the next. We have just this sort of thing in the fossil record, with the occasional gap. The truth is, bones don't usually fossilize, they will break down in most cases, which is what makes it so hard to find them. Fossils or preserved bones only happen in very specific circumstances, accidents really, so it's unlikely we'll see every single little, tiny gap in the fossil record filled. But the preponderance of evidence of what we have so far shows this gradation between species quite well as it is.

Originally posted by LifeInDeath
There could well have been other groups we haven't found fossils for yet (if we ever do), and genetic traces that we also haven't yet detected. It will be interesting to see as these sciences progress what will be discovered. The use of genetics to research our own ancestry is still very new and I'm sure there's still tons to learn.

They recently discovered that some people (ancestors of Melanesians) interbred with Denisovans, which was most likely a sister lineage of Neanderthals.