Tianyuan Man scientists unlock secrets of ancient DNA

Tianyuan Man scientists unlock secrets of ancient DNA

The discovery of ancient human bones in Tianyuan Cave, in Zhoukoudian, Beijing, 10 years ago caused a sensation. They showed Tianyuan Man died about 40,000 years ago.

It was the first time that early human remains had been found in the area since the discovery of Peking Man in 1920s. But Peking Man's skull and other specimens were lost in the chaos of the Japanese invasion during the second world war.

For those of us who have been following this story now going back something like 10 years and the results are in and are pretty damned impressive. 40,000 years ago this ancestor of Han Chinese as well as some others such as Koreans lived and died in this region.

The method worked, and the results solved some suspenseful scientific puzzles about Tianyuan man. Although some Chinese researchers had theorised that he was an ancestor of present-day Chinese, the scarcity of bones made it a wild guess at best. But the DNA results confirmed it, showing that Tianyuan Man was not only an ancestor of Han Chinese but also of many people in Asia, including Thais and Koreans. He was also quite similar to Native Americans.

This is a very fascinating read if you're like me and like the present technological ability to unravel the story of our ancient heritage.


As Always stay tuned..

awesome
"He was also quite similar to Native Americans."
i think that is the most interesting fact presented

i would also like to know exactly how they were able be selective in which dna they were extracting because my first thoughts are that if they are specifically looking for certain things they might end up overlooking a lot

"He was also quite similar to Native Americans."

I always thought comparing asian with north american and even south american native indians they were all directly related. It makes me wonder how other races of human being may of come into being by some way of genetic extrapolation. For example when i see a arabic person i see a mix of african negro, white european and asian. The human race appears to be of been around alot longer than is coventionly thought.

reply to post by AthlonSavage


Semitic-Caucasoid

I dunno, but this is a very interesting discovery imho of course....

Slayer ! i know this is a bit off topic ! but i liked the first Leonidas! pic



great thread btw

Originally posted by SLAYER69

[url=http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1151909/tianyuan-man-scientists-unlock-secrets-ancient-dna]

. He was also quite similar to Native Americans.

That is interesting.... Wasn't this a few ice ages back when there was a land bridge connecting North America and Asia? The Native American connection makes sense. Our distant ancestors always explorers and adventurers.

reply to post by AthlonSavage


I dunno but this goes back far enough to be contemporary to neanderthal and denisovans. The human family tree is actually a nasty unruly bush.

Just because they said he looked like native Americans don't read any more in to that as with most ethincities looks can be deceiving.

40,000 years long time to be worried about dna contamination.

reply to post by SLAYER69


I find it fascinating that we know more about our planet and it's inhabitants from 65 million years ago than we do from 40,000 years ago.


Another brilliant find!

Thanks for the article! I don't read the SCMP that much, so I wouldn't have caught it without you. It's strange that there were very few articles on the matter. The SCMP should be the second HK paper to talk about the discovery, and even so, it was a month late - the study was published on 21 Jan. New DNA data of our paleolithic ancestors is very important!

I wonder if they could use the same DNA technique on the even older Yuanmou Man and Lantian Man. That would unveil even more about our ancestors...

Originally posted by neo96
Just because they said he looked like native Americans don't read any more in to that as with most ethincities looks can be deceiving.

40,000 years long time to be worried about dna contamination.

edit on 18-2-2013 by neo96 because: (no reason given)

They compared the DNAs, not what they looked like. I imagine he looked more like an ape than any modern race.

its weird we find so many bones/fossils from millions of years ago.yet theres so many voids in human fossils

I wouldn't read too much into the kinship claims with native americans. That's the 4th "origin" for them that I've read just this week. Looks to me like they're just trying desperately to place them somewhere, anywhere, other than North America.

It also suggested that people in China at the time were already different from Europeans.

I'll bet this just thrilled the Chinese to no end. They seem to take great pride in their lineage, and in their uniqueness from the rest of us.

This find, and the development of new techniques stemming from it has many implications. Not the least of which would be back tracking, and using this same technique on previous finds if it turns out to be repeatable and reliable. Looking toward the future, this has the potential to map the DNA of everything that has ever lived on this Earth. Well, at least everything we can find.

Which of course, begs the question. Once they have this procedure, and others that come out of it, down to a fine art. What if they don't like what they find?

I have to agree with Klassified, in that I know for sure the Chinese, well, some Chinese, are doing backflips every time their ball gets pushed further down their end of the field like this.

The find and the continuing research are awesome, and it is great to read about it, but, are the Chinese giving the credit to Tianyuan Man for, Chinese people, all the peoples of the Malay archipelago, and everything and anything that may have walked over the Bering Strait?

I don't know, it makes me want to ask two things:

1. Why the Chinese always gots to be perp'n?

2. I thought the revisionist movement, in the 70s onward, was supposed to fix these problems with things like Anthropology and Archeology? I don't think that we are ever going to get a straight answer as long as politics and hubris come in to play. It's kinda like having corrupt politicians investigate themselves.

Awesome thread, though, and great information.

Thanks, OP.

Wow this thread took off over night.

It's good to know others are interested in the topic as well.

Great replies

Native Americans are descendants of Asians. Asian Haplogroups are Q for male and A, B, C, D and X for female. My father who is 35% Mayan carries a A2k maternal haplogroup and he's from Costa Rica.

So there really is no need to prove or disprove that. Simple as that.

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by favouriteslave

Native Americans are descendants of Asians.

Thanks for your post, that took me on a little journey. I get it now. They certainly are. It seems the only real debate left is as to whether or not it was one wave or three.

Thanks for the heads up.

Obviously we are on our way to this > "All will be revealed "

We have reached a point of " Quickening " and the rate is undoubtedly exponential.

Keep us up to speed my man.

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by SLAYER69

 

I find it fascinating that we know more about our planet and it's inhabitants from 65 million years ago than we do from 40,000 years ago.


Another brilliant find!

Yeah.....Nothing compared to Nothing....

Carbon testing is a joke......If you held a spear in front of me I could tell you it anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 years old and I would be right.....Not only that you wouldn't accept that answer, yet everyday they do that to us!

This bone is from a dinosaur anywhere from 10,000 to 650 million years old.......Why spend the money on the employees and the testing? It is a complete and utter joke!

reply to post by SLAYER69


Great find, article, link. Thanks.

S&F

PS. What do YOU think about "mitochondrial Eve"?