Telling Humanity’s Story through DNA

Flann Fina

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You can't tell humanity's story solely with DNA. Archaeology and isotope analysis have to be co-equal.
 
For those interested there’s a new article about David Reich in Harvard Magazine.

Telling Humanity’s Story through DNA

Geneticist David Reich rewrites the ancient human past.
by JONATHAN SHAW

https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2022/07/feature-ancient-dna


Very interesting, particularly the following:

"[FONT=&quot]IF ANYONE CAN[/FONT][FONT=&quot] untangle that ancient history, it’s Reich. David Anthony, who continues to work with him to find the original speakers of proto-Indo-European (the Yamnaya are thought to have spread the language, but not to have invented it), describes him as “a remarkable man."

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Also this:

"[FONT=&quot]Reich is not resting on his laurels. As the data accumulate, and the tools become more sophisticated and powerful, he has begun revisiting some of his own prior interpretations of human prehistory, and coming to terms with what he describes as “weird signals in the current data.” Mitochondrial DNA shows that modern humans and Neanderthals are much more closely related to each other in the maternal line than either is to Denisovans. The Y chromosomes of modern humans and Neanderthals, passed only in the paternal line, are also much more closely related to each other than to Denisovans. “But then if you look at the whole genome, on average, Neanderthals and Denisovans are more closely related to each other than either one is to modern humans. Having an entirely male line and an entirely female line saying one thing, and then the rest of the genome saying something else, is weird.” The explanation some people give is that there may have been modern human mixture with Neanderthals further back in time than currently understood, somewhere between 250,000 and 400,000 years ago, and that contributed a few percent to the Neanderthal genome. “But it’s very surprising that only a few percent contribution would be the source of both the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA for Neanderthals.” Maybe contemporary non-Africans are actually Neanderthals, and later waves of modern human DNA from Africa swamped the rest of non-Africans’ genomes so “non-Africans are best described as Neanderthals, with 98 percent modern human mixture, or something profoundly philosophically unsettling like that,” he says, half seriously."


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Very interesting, particularly the following:

"IF ANYONE CAN untangle that ancient history, it’s Reich. David Anthony, who continues to work with him to find the original speakers of proto-Indo-European (the Yamnaya are thought to have spread the language, but not to have invented it), describes him as “a remarkable man."

Also this:

"Reich is not resting on his laurels. As the data accumulate, and the tools become more sophisticated and powerful, he has begun revisiting some of his own prior interpretations of human prehistory, and coming to terms with what he describes as “weird signals in the current data.” Mitochondrial DNA shows that modern humans and Neanderthals are much more closely related to each other in the maternal line than either is to Denisovans. The Y chromosomes of modern humans and Neanderthals, passed only in the paternal line, are also much more closely related to each other than to Denisovans. “But then if you look at the whole genome, on average, Neanderthals and Denisovans are more closely related to each other than either one is to modern humans. Having an entirely male line and an entirely female line saying one thing, and then the rest of the genome saying something else, is weird.” The explanation some people give is that there may have been modern human mixture with Neanderthals further back in time than currently understood, somewhere between 250,000 and 400,000 years ago, and that contributed a few percent to the Neanderthal genome. “But it’s very surprising that only a few percent contribution would be the source of both the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA for Neanderthals.” Maybe contemporary non-Africans are actually Neanderthals, and later waves of modern human DNA from Africa swamped the rest of non-Africans’ genomes so “non-Africans are best described as Neanderthals, with 98 percent modern human mixture, or something profoundly philosophically unsettling like that,” he says, half seriously."



Angela: Thanks very very much for the link to that article. Just printed it out and will take a look. Wow, Prof. Reich is making some very interesting statements based on what you cited.
 
Angela: Thanks very very much for the link to that article. Just printed it out and will take a look. Wow, Prof. Reich is making some very interesting statements based on what you cited.

Flann Fina brought it to our attention.

I merely read it and highlighted a few interesting bits. :)

There's quite a bit more in there.

Amazing minds in that Lab.
 
Flann Fina brought it to our attention.

I merely read it and highlighted a few interesting bits. :)

There's quite a bit more in there.

Amazing minds in that Lab.

I see that now, thanks to Flann Fina as well. I guess I just went to your post First as you are usually one of the first to post this interesting articles.

My apologies to you Flann Fina.
 
I see that now, thanks to Flann Fina as well. I guess I just went to your post First as you are usually one of the first to post this interesting articles.

My apologies to you Flann Fina.


No problem, Palermo. An understandable conclusion on your part.
 
Razib Khan has picked up on these hints about Neanderthal uniparentals:

After posting the same paragraph that caught my attention, he opines:

"Neanderthals clearly have a bit of “modern” human-like DNA from paleo-Africans. On the order of a few percent. But strangely, their Y and mtDNA seem to fit into a lade with modern humans, as opposed to the Neanderthal’s Denisovan cousins. This isn’t impossible; over time rare lineages will replace common ones. But what’s the chance that both Y and mtDNA from humans would replace that of Neanderthals? (probability of fixation of a new mutation is 1 over the number of gene copies)."

https://www.gnxp.com/WordPress/2022...e-replacement-of-the-neandersovan-y-and-mtdna
 

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