The recent explosion of genetic research has propelled DNA, genes, and genetic determinism into the public consciousness. It wasn't until I took a course on functional genomics that I began to understand how oversimplified the public’s (myself included) understanding of DNA, genes, and phenotype is in contrast to reality.

Genes are important but they are hardly the only element that determines the physical features that we each develop over a lifetime.

Mark Blumberg discussing genes, genetic determinism, evolution, and more:

The Reactome is a visual pathway database for anyone that wants to get lost in the weeds:

https://reactome.org/PathwayBrowser/#/R-HSA-211000&SEL=R-HSA-426486&PATH=R-HSA-74160

Gene silencing micro RNAs (miRNAs):

Gene regulation and transcription factors (RNA):

The research for two upcoming projects recently had me wondering about sex biased dispersal and female autonomy in Neanderthals. Fully understanding the answer requires putting Neanderthal behavior in context with that of both modern humans and other mammals. That was what I attempted to do here.

References

General

Prugnolle & Meeus – 2002 - Inferring sex-biased dispersal from population genetic tools: a review.

Secretarybirds

Whitecross et al. – 2019 – Dispersal dynamics of juvenile Secretarybirds Sagittarius serpentarius in southern Africa.

Elephants

Roca et al. – 2014 – Elephant natural history: a genomic perspective.

Grey Wolves

Mech – 2020 - Unexplained patterns of grey wolf Canis lupus natal dispersal.

Asian Black Bears

Takayama et al. – 2023 - Timing and distance of natal dispersal in Asian black

bears.

Owl Monkeys

Duque – 2009 - Natal Dispersal in Monogamous Owl Monkeys (Aotus azarai) of the Argentinean Chaco.

Black Crested Gibbon

Guan et al. – 2018 - Dispersal and female philopatry in a long-term, stable, polygynous gibbon population: Evidence from 16 years field observation and genetics.

White-handed Gibbons

Matsudaira et al. – 2018 - Short dispersal distance of males in a wild white-handed gibbon (Hylobates lar) population.

Orangutans

Buckley – 2014 – Male orangutan dispersal and ranging: implications for mating system mechanics.

Western Lowland Gorillas

Manguette et al. – 2020 – Female dispersal patterns influenced by male tenure duration and group size in western lowland gorillas.

Chimpanzees

McCarthy et al. – 2018 – Genetic analysis suggests dispersal among chimpanzees in a fragmented forest landscape in Uganda.

Rhianna Drummond-Clarke – 2023 – Issa Chimpanzees: Times are changing

Bonobos

Claramunt – 2021 – Flight efficiency explains differences in natal dispersal distances in birds.

Toda et al. – 2022 - Do female bonobos (Pan paniscus) disperse at the onset of puberty? Hormonal and behavioral changes related to their dispersal timing.

Homo sapiens

Lee – 1972 – !kung Spatial Organization: An Ecological and Historical Perspective.

Neanderthals

Hajdinjak et al. - 2018 - Reconstructing the genetic history of late Neanderthals.

Mafessoni et al. - 2020 - A high-coverage Neandertal genome from Chagyrskaya Cave.

Meyer et al. - 2016 -Nuclear DNA sequences from the Middle Pleistocene Sima de los Huesos hominins.

Skove et al. - 2022 - Genetic insights into the social organization of Neanderthals.

Slon et al. - 2018 - The genome of the offspring of a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father.

The power of a new subfield of ancient DNA (aDNA), known as environmental DNA (eDNA), is growing. In this episode I explore a study released in 2021 that reconstructs an ancient Siberian ecosystem from 50,000 years ago to the present. The ability to answer long held questions from a handful of dirt is quite the feat.

Studies mentioned in the episode:

* Late Quaternary dynamics of Arctic biota from ancient environmental genomics by Yucheng Wang et al., 2021. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04016-x

* DNA pulled from thin air identifies nearby animals by Erik Stokstad, 2021. DOI: 10.1126/science.abl5425

* When did mammoths go extinct? by Joshua Miller & Carl Simpson, 2022. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05416-3

* Reply to: When did mammoths go extinct? By Yucheng Wang et al., 2022. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05417-2

* A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA by Kurt H. Kjær et al., 2022. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05453-y

Recently Dan Carlin, of the Hardcore History podcast, released an episode exploring prehistory. I found a history guy’s perspective on prehistory fascinating. There were many points I agreed with and some I didn’t. I thought it would be worthwhile to explore some of the points Dan made and add a little anthropological depth to the discussion.

References in Order of Appearance

* Growth, Development, and Life History throughout the Evolution of Homo. By Gary Schwartz, 2012. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/667591

* Mobile elements reveal small population size in the ancient ancestors of Homo sapiens. By Chad Huff and colleagues, 2010. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0909000107

* The Old Way: A Story of the First People. By Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, 2007. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031242728X/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

* The Secrets of Chimpanzee and Bonobo Societies. By The Leakey Foundation featuring Dr. Liran Samuni, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/live/alR-JmkpU0s?feature=share&t=3123

* Nuclear DNA sequences from the Middle Pleistocene Sima de los Huesos hominins. By Matthias Meyer and colleagues, 2016. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature17405

* Khoe-San Genomes Reveal Unique Variation and Confirm the Deepest Population Divergence in Homo sapiens. By Carina Schlebusch and colleagues, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaa140

* Podcasts by Razib Khan, Unsupervised Learning https://razib.substack.com/podcast The Insight https://insitome.libsyn.com/website

* Namkwa: Life Among the Bushmen. By Hans-Joachim Heinz , 1979. https://www.amazon.com/NAMKWA-Marshall-Lee/dp/039527611X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Namkwa+Life+Among+The+Bushmen&qid=1614567228&sr=8-1

* Did Our Species Evolve in Subdivided Populations across Africa, and Why Does It Matter? By Eleanor Scerri and colleagues, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2018.05.005

* A weakly structured stem for human origins in Africa. By Aaron Ragsdale and colleagues, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06055-y

* Beyond multiregional and simple out-of-Africa models of human evolution. By Eleanor Scerri, Lounes Chikhi, and Mark Thomas, 2019. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-019-0992-1

* First Peoples’ knowledge leads scientists to reveal ‘fairy circles’ and termite linyji are linked in Australia. By Fiona Welsh et al., 2023. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-01994-1

* The Hunters: Scarce Resources in the Kalahari. By Richard Lee, 1968. http://people.morrisville.edu/~reymers/readings/ANTH101/Scarce_Resources-Lee.pdf

* Peace Among Primates. By Robert Sapolsky, 2007. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/peace_among_primates

* Chimpanzee genomic diversity reveals ancient admixture with bonobos. By Marc de Manuel et al., 2016. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5546212/pdf/nihms865600.pdf

* Epigenetics and locust life phase transitions. By Ulrich Ernst, 2015. https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/218/1/88/13606/Epigenetics-and-locust-life-phase-transitions

* Raiding pastoral livelihoods: motives and effects of violent conflict in north-western Kenya. By Janpeter Schilling and colleagues, 2012. https://pastoralismjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/2041-7136-2-25

* Where people live in harmony with lions. By Anthony Ham, 2021. https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210913-where-people-live-in-harmony-with-lions

* Cape buffalo mitogenomics reveals a Holocene shift in the African human–megafauna dynamics. By Rasmus Heller et al., 2012. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2012.05671.x

While researching for a separate project I was confronted with the variation of life histories across the hominin lineage. This variation is quite fascinating as it makes one wonder which of these are requisite to being a "modern human" and how did this variation affect the perceptions and experiences of these species?

Studies mentioned in the episode:

Schwartz - 2012 - Growth, Development, and Life History throughout the Evolution of Homo.

Meyer & Haeusler - 2015 - Spinal cord evolution in early Homo.

Turecek, Lehnert1 & Ginty - 2022 - The encoding of touch by somatotopically

aligned dorsal column subdivisions.

Baab et al. - 2021 - Assessing the status of the KNM-ER 42700 fossil using Homo erectus

neurocranial development.

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Humans seek to understand the world around them by using narrative and story as explanatory tools. In this episode I explore how narrative often oversimplifies the past. Using three examples; hominin species length, genetic admixture between modern humans and an archaic human species, and the group history of determined from one Neanderthal skeleton; I explore the how considering time in addition to evolutionary narrative expands our understanding of the past.

Music by Shane Ivers - The Wonders Of Science - https://www.silvermansound.com