A new incredibly subtle and elegant analysis of our living genomes reveals yet another major piece in the jigsaw of human evolution, completely hidden until now.
The music "remix" metaphor seems very appropriate - musical styles evolve independently - with many offshoots that peter out - then occasionally crash together to dominate for a while...
So what you are saying is that homo sapiens shagged their way to dominance. It wasn't because we were cleverer or fiercer but because we were more attractive. Do we owe our dominance to the busty blonds in our ancestry rather than the alpha males? I rather like that idea.
Thank you for the clear presentation of current thinking (or one strand of such..).
Your words of “slowly” moving across the planet dont sit with what I understand about the most recent out of Africa moment. Perhaps the thinking has changed. I thought the evidence points to around 60,000 BP for the exit from Africa but yet people were in Australia at almost the same point, which if so (both dates) suggests rapid movement.
“Perhaps streams and rivulets flowing through oceans of time is better. Some streams diverge forever, some peter out. Others separate but flow back into one other and reform a more robust river, and eventually coalesce into the only estuary that remains, which is us.”
Certainly a better metaphor, but textually doesn’t fit well on a t-shirt. Perhaps a nice illustration?
The music "remix" metaphor seems very appropriate - musical styles evolve independently - with many offshoots that peter out - then occasionally crash together to dominate for a while...
Excellent piece, thanks for sharing!
So what you are saying is that homo sapiens shagged their way to dominance. It wasn't because we were cleverer or fiercer but because we were more attractive. Do we owe our dominance to the busty blonds in our ancestry rather than the alpha males? I rather like that idea.
We are all so special. https://open.substack.com/pub/abforbes/p/consider-yourself-extremely-special?r=yn8c0&utm_medium=ios
Excellent article, but an extra 100 points for use of the beautiful word ‘eremite’
Thank you for the clear presentation of current thinking (or one strand of such..).
Your words of “slowly” moving across the planet dont sit with what I understand about the most recent out of Africa moment. Perhaps the thinking has changed. I thought the evidence points to around 60,000 BP for the exit from Africa but yet people were in Australia at almost the same point, which if so (both dates) suggests rapid movement.
A river delta seems a more appropriate visual metaphor. Sluggish flow, lots of branching and rejoining of streams.
A river delta seems a more appropriate visual metaphor. Sluggish flow, lots of branching and rejoining of streams.
Excellent read, thanks again. Just subscribed.
Fascinating
“Perhaps streams and rivulets flowing through oceans of time is better. Some streams diverge forever, some peter out. Others separate but flow back into one other and reform a more robust river, and eventually coalesce into the only estuary that remains, which is us.”
Certainly a better metaphor, but textually doesn’t fit well on a t-shirt. Perhaps a nice illustration?
Interesting. Nice summary. Thanks.