AI Study of Human Genome Finds Unknown Human Ancestor (smithsonianmag.com) 88
Zorro shares a report from the Smithsonian: A recent study used machine learning technology to analyze eight leading models of human origins and evolution, and the program identified evidence in the human genome of a "ghost population" of human ancestors. The analysis suggests that a previously unknown and long-extinct group of hominins interbred with Homo sapiens in Asia and Oceania somewhere along the long, winding road of human evolutionary history, leaving behind only fragmented traces in modern human DNA. The study, published in Nature Communications, is one of the first examples of how machine learning can help reveal clues to our own origins. By poring through vast amounts of genomic data left behind in fossilized bones and comparing it with DNA in modern humans, scientists can begin to fill in some of the many gaps of our species' evolutionary history. "The new data suggest that the mysterious hominin was likely descended from an admixture of Neanderthals and Denisovans (who were only identified as a unique species on the human family tree in 2010)," the report adds. "Such a species in our evolutionary past would look a lot like the fossil of a 90,000-year-old teenage girl from Siberia's Denisova cave. Her remains were described last summer as the only known example of a first-generation hybrid between the two species, with a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father."
Re: Was he... (Score:2)
Did you just presume xer gender?
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90,000 year old teenage girl.
Or a Supreme Court justice who falls down a lot.
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Homo Orangus
What a Family (Score:2)
Jeez I know my dad sowed some wild oats but this is taking it too far.
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Aah, Artificial Intelligence finally answered the age-old question:
"Would you hit that?"
The answer was 'yes'.
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a previously unknown and long-extinct group of hominins interbred with Homo sapiens in Asia and Oceania somewhere
If it was Scotland or Wales I'd say the unknown gene was sheep, but Asia/Oceania? Futanari perhaps?
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No, this is a troll waste and reclamation site. Welcome.
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AFAIK, the story goes that Yahweh created the first man in his image, then he created the first woman from the baculum (penis bone) he removed from the first man. (It's often said to be a rib bone, but I believe it was supposed to be the baculum.)
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Technically it only could have been the baculum, plus a heavy dose of female hormones.
Luckily he was so good in surgery and hormone therapy, otherwise all women would be mega ugly and probably most men would be gay.
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Fortunately for me you got both ends of that stick and I'm strait and beautiful. Not too smart though...
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I'm unfortunately straight too ... or is it a myth that gays have more sex? No idea :P
As long as my wife says I'm beautiful, I'm happy ...
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So you like when your wife lies to you? As for the gay sex thing, its probably a lie just like strait guys do.
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If she is only lying about my beauty, sure I do. Like everyone else. Perhaps she only loves me because I'm good in bed ... but who knows. OR because I'm the only male she knows who can cook ... and I'm not already drunk 16:00. Women are a mystery, you know. Who will ever know why they love an unshowered, unshaved, farang? But: I'm not bald, have all my teeth and no belly, only muscles. Perhaps that helps.
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Nah, it's a case of poor translation because they didn't have the tech. God took out part of a chromosome. This means the first human was a female (XX) and God made a male by turning the clone into XY.
Also, the Garden of Eden was a seed-ship with cloning capabilities, and God was the AI on the ship. The flaming swords were either a laser system that protected the ship, or its rockets as it took off and left the people behind.
The story just got muddled because ancient Hebrew didn't have the right words for t
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Seth was a god ... ...
And the kids of Adam and Eva were Kain and Abel
Even I know that shit.
Re: Science figuring out what we already know (Score:1)
And Lo I called out to the heavens. "Heavenly father. Bringer of life, of harvests, of fertility. Ended of droughts and bringer of rain. For your sacred name is clouded in mystery. How am I to cry out when I know not thy sacred name"
And a voice boomed out: "Gary. It's Gary, ok? Now sod off, I'm busy humping Mary's sweet ass"
So did the 'AI' really find it, or (Score:2)
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or did they work backwards and apply algorithm 'filters' using the known existing fossil? Yup, I'm one of those AI isn't really AI crowd.
It's a Bayesian algorithm, so it's not necessarily definitive, just a high degree of confidence based on the unknown data.
What is not talked about when it comes to machine learning and sequencing because the genomics world doesn't want to discuss it is that there are major weaknesses in modern sequencing in the data. Sequencing data is not the actual AGTC's of the data. Instead the sequence is copied thousands of times with synthetic DNA, then modified to add fluorescent labels to it so it makes an optica
Homo Sapiens (Score:1)
Homo sapiens are the dumbest, stinkiest losers to have ever walked the earth.
Re:Homo Sapiens (Score:4, Funny)
Yet the only ones to explore the outer reaches of the solar system, walk on the moon, and when you get right down to it; did a lot to make this planet a genuinely comfortable place to call home, and not the feral hellhole that wants to kill you at every turn that it used to be.
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and not the feral hellhole that wants to kill you at every turn
Are we using the same internet? Because I'd say that actually describes it pretty well.
Species? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Species? (Score:5, Informative)
There's at least 26 definitions of species. When you get down to it, defining a species is a problem. The observation of the AC about lions and tigers being able to hybridize with only one sex being fertile is an example that may apply to the different hominoids. There's also horses and donkeys where the offspring are almost always infertile but there has been rare cases of mules getting pregnant and producing offspring.
Ring species where the neigbours can breed but further apart specimens can't.
Plants get more complex. Dandelions IIRC skip generations so parent and offspring can't breed but grandparent and grandchild can.
Then there's the organisms that are asexual.
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"ghost population" of human ancestors. (Score:2)
And an AI found it. You realize it takes one to know one, right?
spoiler: it's actually cylons (Score:1)
So say we all.
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It's fairly well understood by the literati that our genes were planted by aliens into our hairy ancestors eons ago. The literature is rich with what was once considered speculation. But the very repetition and consistent mantra has stood the test of time and proven itself worthy. Little green men (and possibly women) seeded our planet with the microscopic elements that transformed the destiny of some tree swingers; that is to create us.
Had this not been so, our simian ancestors would have evolved into a tr
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"So, show me where that hypothesis falls down."
South America.
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Thus the blacks were concentrated in Africa where they archived pretty well nothing, and the smarter European and North East Asians went on to develop world spanning civilisations.
Africa is a much easier place to survive without good planning and cooperation between different groups.
Humans get around (Score:2)
"Every place I go there's always something to remind of of another place and time...."
Yeah. Hello (Score:1)
I heard you were looking for me?
Species and hotness (Score:3)
The commentator above is correct; scientists define a group as a separate species only if it can't interbreed with other closely related groups.
Leave it to the lawyers to muddy the waters. The misnamed Endangered Species Act apparently defined a species as any separate breeding population (the Florida panthers, for example) in order to "extend the reach" of the law well beyond merely protecting endangered species. This is the usual example of lawyers and legislators using the law to try to redefine words for public relations purposes. The result is that the public- and the lawyers- now don't know what a species is. This is the left wing version of the unborn child gambit on the right.
Personally, I think Neanderthal girls are hot. I keep hoping to meet one at the beach. They're really good at beach volleyball. Do Neanderthals girls qualify for NCAA athletic scholarships?
Re:Species and hotness (Score:4, Funny)
They're really good at beach volleyball.
Ever driven a Saab 900? Notice how, when you pulled up to a stoplight, you couldn't see the fucking thing if it was close because the roof-line extends too far forward? Your Neanderthal girl wouldn't see the ball coming; her giant unibrow would get in the way.
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No, they don't. [wikipedia.org]
That aside, per basic epistemology (e.g. Aristotle), there is a justification for a separate category for an entity when there's a unique characteristic differentiating that entity from all other entities.
I'm going with "I have a soul" as my non-optional differentiating characteristic, as the most cursory analysis demonstrates there is no biological differentiator for the arbitrary distinctions between "hominids". Regardless of how many sc
The Denisovan Menace (Score:2)