Tiny traces of DNA found in cave dust may unlock secret life of Neanderthals, from

[abqtommy]

The Guardian and Observer.

Wow! Is this cool or what? Denisovan and "Hobbit People" are also mentioned.

from article:

Scientists have pinpointed major changes in Europe’s Neanderthal populations – from traces of blood and excrement they left behind in a Spanish cave 100,000 years ago.

The discovery is the first important demonstration of a powerful new technique that allows researchers to study DNA recovered from cave sediments. No fossils or stone tools are needed for such studies. Instead, minuscule traces of genetic material that have accumulated in the dust of a cavern floor are employed to reveal ancient secrets.

The power of cave dirt DNA analysis is the scientific equivalent of “extracting gold dust from the air”, as one researcher put it, and has raised hopes that it could transform our understanding of how our predecessors behaved.

“The potential of this technology is fantastic,” said Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, London. “You don’t need to have a stone tool or a fossil bone to find out if an ancient human had lived or worked at a site. All you need is the DNA that they left behind in the debris of their cave homes. That has enormous implications for all sorts of investigations.”

much more text and pics at link:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/may/16/tiny-traces-of-dna-found-in-cave-dust-may-unlock-secret-life-of-neanderthals

[Lovie777]

1. 100,000 years ago? . ................

makes you wonder how humans will evolve in the next 100,000 years if we make it that far.

Big heads, big eyes, still skin color shades, and small bodies. Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Ligyron]

2. Maybe you mean Devolve?

Watch the documentary “Idiocracy” for a better explanation of this phenomenon.

[abqtommy]

3. Well, I've seen that the oldest member of the genus "homo" found so far is around

2.80 million* years old. This indicates to me that in many ways the learning curve for humans is fairly flat and indicates a failure on the part of natural selection/evolution. But that's just me. It still interests me, though.

* https://www.aaas.org/news/science-oldest-fossil-homo-genus-found-ethiopia

[Lovie777]

5. Lucy was found in Ethiopia . ..

to be approx. 3.2 million.

Evolving slowly, human's brain developed and became more advanced but the key was - language. The ability to speak to one another.

It's quite interesting.

[Lochloosa]

4. You're describing a Grey...

[Elessar Zappa]

9. Maybe Greys are time travelers, not aliens!

Ya never know.

[Silent3]

6. We've removed many of the pressures that are the normal causes of evolution

You don't evolve a big head, for example, unless people with bigger heads have more offspring, either by being better at attracting mates, or by outliving people with smaller heads, who are for some reason proportionally dying off before breeding at higher rates than larger-headed people.

The only way we get back to that kind of evolution is the collapse of civilization, which I hope we avoid.

Our evolution has shifted to a different mode of operation. It's cultural evolution, and technical remedies and augmentation. Soon we may add self-directed genetic manipulation, where we consciously select traits that we want to have, rather than having to wait through the long and brutal process of death and breeding failure to sift out useful genetic traits.

[Chainfire]

7. It is amazing to me that they could find Homo DNA

Amongst all of the rat droppings and bat shit. Needles in haystacks!

[C_U_L8R]

8. Alright, who let the magats into the cave?

[whistler162]

10. Any one got Carl Reiner's DNA handy

or maybe 2,000 years is too soon!

[crickets]

11. Neat! K&R for visibility.