Comments on: Interbreeding With Other Human Species Helped Our Ancestors Spread Worldwide

By: wblogan

wblogan — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 23:25:26 +0000

So, if Neanderthals wore genes,
what’s the deal with Levi-Strauss?
Another “alien” explanation, or
twisted logic conspiracy theory?
Is it just me, or does it smell all
cave man up in here?

By: Patrick Buck

Patrick Buck — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:56:42 +0000

Question: would you have sex with a Neandertal, in circumstances where doing so would not contradict your personal moral code? I would, if I liked the Neandertal and found him/her attractive.

By: Julia

Julia — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 14:33:09 +0000

With regard to the Bible, Genesis 6:1-4 talks about the sons of God and the daughters of man, and also nephilim (sometimes translated “giants”), which is a 3rd thing. This implies at least 3 different human-like species, directly referenced in the Bible, that the Bible says interbred. This is completely in line with the premise of this article.

By: dave chamberlin

dave chamberlin — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 02:33:58 +0000

@13 I respect your opinion on not feeding the trolls, but to me trolls are attention seekers saying something shocking to get attention. My guess is bibleguy is genuine, doesn’t only half the USA believe in evolution? When someone starts talking about Atlantis, or is purposely rude or stupid I agree with you, to give them any kind of attention means they win.

By: zachary

zachary — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:08:17 +0000

Come on guys, don’t feed the troll.

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:54:22 +0000

If bibleguy believes so strongly why is he reading science articles at all?

By: dave chamberlin

dave chamberlin — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:24:18 +0000

I wonder if Bibleguy really thinks all those scientists out there are all in cahoots together. Maybe he thinks they all get together in secret satanic graduate school get togethers so that they can all keep their story straight. Think of all those scientific journals and how hard they must work to keep all those lies about fossils so perfectly in line with each other. That dirty devil must have a lot of editors and writers working for him, constantly adding more non conflicting detail to his obviously wrong plot to undermine the one true book.

By: Bibleguy

Bibleguy — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:42:59 +0000

The Bible is clear on the matter. God created Adam 6000 years ago. So this story is obviously wrong

By: Joseph Castro

Joseph Castro — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:20:24 +0000

Link fixed.

By: Avanti Shrikumar

Avanti Shrikumar — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 05:41:21 +0000

Aren’t species defined as being incapable of interbreeding?

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:28:36 +0000

The New Guinea link doesn’t work.

By: Elvis Othello

Elvis Othello — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:57:14 +0000

Not only was there no discussion on Channel3000, but, well, at first I thought it was a parody, as apparently is Rick–who cannot read grouped sentences for meaning. Yikes.

By: dave chamberlin

dave chamberlin — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:17:00 +0000

there are no discussions on channel3000, I suspect Rick ain’t real

By: Rick

Rick — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 05:51:56 +0000

The reading of the comments was exhausting. I suspect Al Cahol was a contributing
Author. Found the comments nearly worthless, unlike the discussions found on Channel3000.com. I love Discover Magazine & have subscribed for years. I will stick to the articles and skim the responses.

By: dave chamberlin

dave chamberlin — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 04:07:27 +0000

If this is true than their was significant genetic advantage for both Denisovans and Neanderthals over fresh out of Africa modern humans in combating infectious diseases just like Europeans had a significant advantage over Amerinds after they arrived in the Americas. It explains why modern humans were long delayed from expanding beyond the middle east, we needed their genetic protection from the diseases they carried, so a human hybrid was created by interbreeding. We know that their was a bottleneck in the very early human population that spread though out the world, excluding sub saharan Africa, and this provides a scenario as to why. Once their was a sustainable population that combined genetic protection from disease as well as near modern intelligence these hybrid humans spread very rapidly and the rest, as they say is history. I paint too simple a picture because we know we interbred with two different groups in two different times and places. Also there is debate among highly respected experts in this field such as John Hawks if these findings are correct. Razib Kahn over at the Discover blog Gene Expressions has a post up titled Massive Denisovan and Neanderthal Introgression that explains the particulars far better than I can. East Asians were believed to have near to zero percent Denisovan lineage, but here they are reported to have 70 to 80 % Denisovan HLA. If true it signifies a significant advantage provided by Denisovan HLA, at least in Asia.

By: Iain

Iain — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:48:28 +0000

Think about it, no tv, no radio, no books, no puppeteers, no animee, no internet, our ancestors didn’t have much for entertainment except the most special fun thing ever. Ya they bred with rock piles too, thinking that there was maybe a snake in it.

By: fintin

fintin — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:36:14 +0000

This really makes me wonder who our true ancestors were…..