There seems to be some interesting genetic research going on that supports my rather tongue in cheek theory that humans are actually de-evolving. Rather than survival of the fittest and humans progressing rapidly until we have finally achieved dominance in the animal kingdom, we may well be going backwards.
Oh dear, that is a major blow to the pride….
According to the Daily Mail, a paper no one in their right mind should read, scientists now claim humans have somehow managed to lose 40.7 million base pairs of DNA, starting when we allegedly separated from our ape-like ancestors. “Geneticists have discovered that modern humans actually possess far less genetic information in our cells than their ancestral cousins.”
I think the fact that we read the Daily Mail and use the Google is pretty good anecdotal evidence of that. We’re not only dropping DNA pairs right and left, we seem to be killing off brain cells too.
As if that is not annoying enough, it turns out the human hand, including our magical opposable thumb, is not quite as remarkable as we once thought. To add insult to injury, not only do chimps use tools, it seems as if their hands are more evolved than ours. Human hands seem to have remained constant and completely eluded evolution. We share the hands of our alleged ape-like ancestors, whereas the chimps have managed to progress and evolve. How embarrassing.
Something that puzzled me about the article were these words, “They found indigenous people from the South Pacific had a high levels of a section of DNA from an extinct human species, the Deniosvans….” Hmm, well if DNA continues to exist in a species, and the species continues to exist too, we can’t very well call the species extinct, now can we?
I thought the photograph of the Neanderthal guy was rather adorable. Neanderthals are allegedly extinct for real, so in theory we can’t really photograph them, but what would I know? That’s called an illustrative photograph. I know this because when I grew up we had photos of real, live Wooly Mammoths invading our cities because of the coming ice age that forgot to come.
So, we appear to share some DNA with chimps. On the other hand, we also appear to share some DNA with a potato. Quite a bit of the DNA we are supposed to be sharing with our ape-like and human ancestors appears to be as missing as the missing link.
Or it is always possible that humans are humans, chimps are chimps, and a potato is just a potato.
“Or it is always possible that humans are humans, chimps are chimps, and a potato is just a potato.”
Yes
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Yes, a human is a human, a chimp is a chimp, and a potato is, in fact, a potato.
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“I’ve been lost many, many times, but He always knows right where He is.” I read that in your About page. Loved in. And reading this makes me lol. Thank you.
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Well, we have 2.9 billion base pairs, so 40 million isn’t much…. but its a nonsense argument. Junk DNA is everywhere. The amoeba proteus, a gelatinous, microscopic, single-celled blob of primitive organics boasts a staggering 670 billion base pairs in its genome.
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Ha! Yes, we share DNA with pretty much every living thing. The lowly microscopic nematode worm has about 67% of the same DNA as we do. With chimps we share over 90% of our DNA. But you know, the fact that we may be losing DNA does not necessarily mean we are devolving. Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. It turns out that, as individuals, we have more brain neuron connections as teenagers than we do in any other time of our lives. That does not mean the connections are valid. As connections are used and reinforced, they are kept and those that are not used are discarded. Much like pruning a fuzzy bush into a topiary duck. For instance it is not abnormal for teens to make absurd connections because of lack of experience- they may reason that the paving stones are the same color as an elephant, therefore,if you turned over a paving stone, there would be 4 legs. Our experience of seeing paving stones out of the ground tells us adults that is not so – hence that connection is discarded as the teen brain matures.
That being so in the individual, it is also likely so with our species – we are likely losing DNA – or organizational redundancy – as we mature as a species and certain characteristics are actualized. So,we may have DNA for a tail, but are not using it, so it is recessive and eventually will be discarded. That does not mean we are devolving – in fact it may mean we are evolving – discarding old DNA as we actualize newer, more appropriate DNA for our circumstances.
Great post IB.
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Paul:
Exactly. And it’s also the same with technologies, I’m sure that most modern farmers have no idea how to use a scythe, manually thresh grain, or build proper haystacks, or manage an ox team. Even a small, average family farm today possesses machinery that can do all those things and outproduce their forefathers. That’s hardly a sign we’re devolving back to primitive times.
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Most of these types of researchers aren’t exactly objective—their grant money and tenures often depend upon getting the results that their superiors want to hear.
Liberal Progressives want to take humanity back to the level of the ape: to pre-civilized eras where there were no social norms, everybody was supposedly equal in the herd, and mankind was supposedly living in harmony with Nature. Anybody who believes this would be a Golden Age; or that man is essentially no different than other primates should read Dr. Wolfgang Kohler’s epic study ‘The Mentality of Apes’.
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I don’t know, Ms. Bytes….some of these guys out there in the manosphere are a pretty strong argument for “de-evolution”. 😜
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LOL! I know, right? I keep seeking signs of our higher, evolved selves and encountering nothing but Morlocks. I’m trapped in HG Wells Time Machine, aren’t I? The world seems to have divided into Morlocks and Eloi. Apes would be an improvement at this point. 😉
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