Human evolution goes back at least 400,000 years

Just goes to demonstrate once more how little we really know about our ancestry and evolution.

Apparently, analysis of food traces confirm that his last meal was tapas.

No, they did the analysis again, and it turns out his last meal was some primitive form of a Meatballs and Mozzarella Hot Pocket.
Interesting article, I definitely want to read more about this. If this is indeed a homo sapiens sapiens, than that doubles the previous estimate of how long anatomically modern humans have been in existence.

This is symptomatic of one of the biggest problems in science reporting. A researcher announces new data or new interpretations, and an ignorant press take the idea and run with it. Most people, i suspect, don't understand the distinction between h.s.s. and previous models.

AMEN that's been , my historical rant on popular science reporting.


REMEMBER, its only mDNA and not nuclear DNA so it could be the common ancestor to everybody EXCEPT modern humans (H antecessor, Denisovans, Neanderthals , H idaltu).
I read the Nature article and Paabo is saying that "we have to eke out some nuclear DNA "

Ill bet that they only get breakdowns like osteocalcin qnd they'll have to settle for partial data.
Its gonna be at least another year away .
This has the attributes of being a common ancestor not of humans at all, but It would help settle some speculation between denisovans and Neanderthals.

I find it interesting that the Denisovans are only represented by survivors such as the Australian aborigines. What were they doing for the 360,000 years before humans arrived there?

Could they be the predecessor to humans? That would also be an interesting find.

we seem to hve suddenly come upon a trove f Denisovans . Ill bet that these guys from Planck went through OLDER collection and did a lot of reshuffling of what they first thought were NEanderthals
Remember, for about 50 years, most dinosaur specimens were constructed BACKWARDS.

All the early denisovans we had records of were like 2 teeth and a femur or two and now, kaboom, more an more come over the transom.

The news article seems to hint that but the NATURE article poses a possibility that this could have been a common ancestor of a bunch of others like antecessor and neanderthalenis, and not Hs , let alone Hss

I recently read that wolves were domesticated into dogs around the same time that Neanderthals disappeared. Based on my observations of humans, once dogs were able to be used for assisting the hunt, humans could have decided to find all the Neanderthals and kill them off. Simple, when one can assume that Neanderthals had a different scent than humans, possibly from eating more meat. So, since I've never read this politically incorrect musing, I would assume that anything that is finally published will be a politically correct version that will not offend anyone.

I have also read that Asians mixed with a cousin of Neanderthal (the Denisovan?). So, for political correctness, all these earlier version of homosapiens are now considered human. Fine, but we do not want to find out, in my opinion, if there are folks walking around with more Neanderthal DNA than others? This could all be more problematic than the early 20th century skull measuring to determine race/intelligence. I think we'll sooner find out if there are real flying saucers.

I believe the Neanderthal skeletons have only been found in Eurasia, so I'm guessing most Africans do not have any Neanderthal DNA contained in their genome, unless their ancestors migrated to Europe and then back to Africa.

I believe It's still up in the air as to whether or not Europeans interbred with Neanderthals.

Of course we are classified as different species, so even if humans did fornicate with Neanderthals they may not have had viable offspring.

Keeps the discussion lively, though, don't it?

H.n. DNA is found in modern h.s.s.--therefore, h.n. and h.s.s. (and h.Denisovan) obviously did successfully interbreed (i.e., producing reproductively viable offspring).

I thought there is a definite small amount of Neanderthal DNA in the homosapien genome of Europeans or Asians (Asians have the DNA of a cousin of Neanderthal I read). I have not read whether this Neanderthal DNA is the Y chromosome, or the X chromosome. If it is the Y chomosome then I would think that means a male Neanderthal mated with a female homosapien. If it is an X chromosome then a female Neanderthal mated with a male homosapien.

I am thinking that the mixing would have been a male homosapien and a female Neanderthal, since a male Neanderthal might have just been killed by other male homosapiens; however, if a male homosapien brought a female Neanderthal back to the group of hunter gatherers, I would think the female Neanderthal would not have been so readily killed, especially if the male homosapien announced to other male homosapiens that this human like female was "demure" (didn't talk much).

The other possibility is that there was love at first sight between a female homosapien and a male Neanderthal, and to make sure that the male Neanderthal could "pass" as a homosapien he would have been coached by the female homosapien, a la Professor Higgins, "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain." Perhaps, it became the first "musical" (My Fair Neanderthal).

Yes. Notice that Africans do not have a "strong silent type of hero" like European Americans. Africans likely developed language, while Neanderthals gave meaningful grunts.

H s. idaltu, one of the "old ones" was first found in Ethipea and then in several places along Africa's horn. I don't think thieve yet sequenced this guy

Yes this would make a great musical, sitcom, or soap opera. This would even make a great romantic comedy plot. Richard Gere could play the Neanderthal and Julia Roberts could play his lover. "Romance in Neander Valley"