If anyone cares, pretty cool new finding. Finally have an identified Denisovan skull to start to flesh out the “genetic” species that was discovered awhile back.
Just the first 5 minutes.
1 Like
I care, thank you. I find this stuff fascinating.
So if I understand, Denisovan co-existed and bred with Homo Sapien 140,000 years ago. Cool stuff.
Yes, a large percentage of modern humans have Neandertal genes and/or Denisovan genes because of interbreeding. For the most part only Africans don’t, consistent with the hypothesis that modern humans originally evolved in Africa before dispersing to Eurasia, where they encountered Neandertals and Denisovans and mixed with them. There was also interbreeding between Neandertals and Denisovans. IIRC at the Denisovan cave where the species was first discoved through genetic analysis of a finger bone, there are bones from an individual whose parents were a Neandertal and a Denisovan.
Crazy to think these populations were separated for probably a few hundred thousand years, long enough to evolve unique enough genetic differences such that we can identify them as separate populations, and we have the remains of someone who was the result of two individuals from these different populations getting back together. I’m not sure what the oldest modern human/Denisovan mixed person we have is? A fair number of early modern human/Neandertal mixed individuals. I’m not sure we have a direct offspring of a mixing but I want to say there is a grandkid.
Presumably earlier dispersals out of Africa. As far as we know Home erectus was the first to migrate out of Africa shortly after 2 million years ago (Dminisi site in Georgia), but presumably the population that became Neandertals was a later migration since I believe the genetic estimates suggest the modern human lineage and the Neandertal lineage split about 600-700k years ago. I want to say that’s also roughly the estimate for when the Denivosans split from the other populations but I’d have to look it up to be sure.
Yes, it is crazy to think about them all coexisting and interbreeding for so long. Also crazy to me is that google says Denisovans didn’t go extinct until about 25,000 years ago. That’s really recent!
The Coffee Shop is really a learning place 
1 Like
There was still a small herd of Mammoths on a island in Russia while the Pharaohs were building pyramids
And, the Europeans? … well, let’s have Kevin Smith tell that story
Hooper X: For years in this industry, whenever an African American character, hero or villain, is introduced USUALLY by my white artist names. They got SLAPPED with racist names that singled them out as Negros! Now–my book, “White-Hating Coon”, don’t have any of that bullshit. The hero’s name is Maleequa and he’s descended from the black tribe that established the first society on the planet while all you European motherfuckers were all hiding out in caves 'n shit, terrified of the sun.
Homo florienensis from what we know went extinct about 50k years ago, but what are the chances of this one cave site really being the last population of them? If I remember correctly there have also been some very small bodied human remains found on Luzon as well. It may be that many of those islands in that area had populations of “hobbits” that were still around when modern humans showed up. Even at 50k years ago it’s possible modern humans were on the scene.
Modern Europeans are as descended from those Africans (presuming he means the “society” as modern humans) as modern Africans are. There were no Europeans other than Neandertals at the time modern humans first evolved in Africa. Actually possibly not even Neandertals yet but some precursor of them. I don’t believe full-blown so called “classic” Neandertals existed until 200k to 150k years ago if not later, while often the date given for the evolution of modern humans is around 250k years ago.
So while Kevin Smith might tell a good story, I think his prehistory is a bit off.
Basically Africans are the only true Homo sapiens while the rest of us have lesser genes mixed in.
Hitler is spinning in his grave.
This is so fascinating. Google gave me this:
The percentage of Denisovan DNA is highest in the Melanesian population (4 to 6 percent), lower in other Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander populations, and very low or undetectable elsewhere in the world.
They were getting busy.
What does it mean to have Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA?: MedlinePlus Genetics
What does all this mean, if we’re just living in a Simulation, anyway?
Yeah, Sam Harris has talked about just imagine what the racists would have made of it if it was Africans who had the Neandertal genes rather than the rest of the world.
That being said, I know I’ve read that there is also genetic evidence of interbreeding within African populations with some sort of “ghost” archaic population. Basically an African equivalent of Neandertals/Denisovans. Although now that I think about it I don’t know if that was supposed to have happened before the main migrations out of Africa and hence we all have those genes or after. I’d guess since it talked specifically about Africans it may have been after.
As far as lesser genes, if they’re still around that suggests at least the ones we still have may have some benefit. I know they’ve made some big deals about certain Neandertal genes influencing the immune response of Eurasians who have them. I think even affecting the response to COVID.
That whoever created the simulation went to a lot of trouble to make it appear that we evolved.
Or… that evolution was part of the simulation.
Regardless, it’s clear that they are just fucking with us now. Nothing else can explain Trump being re-elected.
I guess when I think of simulation, I think of something like a video game that creates a ready made world.
If the simulation has deep time to it, at that point it wouldn’t matter. All we are saying is the Universe is a simulation and the simulation is the Universe.
