On Fri, 17 Jul 2009, Iain Strachan wrote:
> Sorry but I don't think it is evidence of apelike creature to human evolution.
>
> It is strong evidence that two chromosomes fused into one at a certain
> stage. But as we've seen from Dennis's and Darryl's explanation, it's
> not really a change that's a big deal; the genetic material is all the
> same. I don't know if we know when this fusion happened - but it is
> possible that the 48 chromosomed individuals were humans, not apes.
> (Doubtless someone more knowledgeable may be able to correct me on
> this, but from what I've read so far, it seems an implicit assumption
> that the 48 chromosome individual had to be an ape-like creature.
> That assumption has to be justified. Was the sequence 48(ape) ---->
> 46(ape) ----> Human, or was it 48(Human) ---> 46(Human).
>
This also occurred to me. In connection with this, have the Neandertal
fossils yielded DNA that can be checked for such features? This is far
from my field, and information about how far back we can find fossil DNA
that can be analysed is vague in my memory.
Gordon Brown (ASA member)
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Received on Fri Jul 17 19:39:21 2009
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