Science confirms – 8. Collection of scientific articles. Андрей ТихомировЧитать онлайн книгу.

      ISBN 978-5-0067-1845-6 (т. 8)

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      Formation of hominids

      All people are relatives! It has been scientifically proven that man is a mutated monkey (Homo sapiens) and the closest relatives to us according to the decoded genome are primates. Everything else (creationism, the «selectivity» of certain peoples) is nothing more than self-deception. Man, just like other beings, did not appear as a result of «divine forces», but only through mutations, genetic changes. The main mutation occurred about 2.4 million years ago in a gene that controls the development of jaw muscles and in modern humans is called MYH16. As a result of this seemingly small change in the genome, the jaw muscles of our ancestors began to weaken, which forced the use of the first tools – a digging stick and a nucleus (processed stone), the future prototype of the scepter and the power of royalty. It was the change in the jaw muscles, which, having become less powerful, exerted less pressure on the skull, which ensured its different structure, allowing the development of a much larger brain, because only human cubs have non-overgrown places on the head (fontanelles), which are delayed over time by 3—5 years. No other living beings have this! According to the latest scientific research, all modern diverse humanity comes from one small African tribe. But there were other types of people: Neanderthals, Pithecanthropus, Synanthropus and others, some of them died out, some assimilated with Homo sapiens.

      There is also a mathematical proof of kinship, in this case from the point of view of increasing the number of relatives exponentially (with an average difference between generations of 25—35 years): any person has 1 two parents 2, they also have two parents, that is, it turns out four 4, further 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048… 8 589 934 592 In other words, 1000 years ago, any living person had more ancestors than now lives on the whole globe. The answer to the paradox is simple: in fact, there are many times fewer ancestors, since people entered into incestuous contacts (incest), often without knowing about it. If you go back to more ancient times, then, of course, there will be even more ancestors.

      Andrey Tikhomirov, «Relatives. History in Photographs», «PoLyART», Orenburg, 2016

      Scientists have named a new human ancestor

      A new species of human ancestor that lived on the territory of present – day Ethiopia in the Middle Pleistocene received its official name – Homo bodoensis, from the place where his skull was found. The article was published in the journal Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews.

      In the Middle Pleistocene, covering the time interval from 774 to 129 thousand years ago, the species Homo sapiens was laid in Africa, and its closest relatives, the Neanderthals, appeared in Europe. However, this period, which is extremely important from the point of view of anthropology, is very poorly studied.

      An international group of researchers led by a paleoanthropologist at the University of Winnipeg, Dr. Mirjana Roksandic, announced the naming of a new species of human ancestor Homo bodoensis. The name comes from the place Bodo D’ar in Ethiopia, where the skull was found.

      The authors believe that Homo bodoensis, which lived in Africa in the Middle Pleistocene, about half a million years ago, was the direct ancestor of modern man. According to their proposed classification, most Homo finds from Africa and some from Southeastern Europe should be attributed to the new species, while most people of this time from the European continent should be more correctly classified as Neanderthals.

      Traditionally, these fossils were attributed to either Homo heidelbergensis or Homo rhodesiensis, both of which had several – often contradictory – definitions.

      «It became impossible to talk about human evolution in this period of time due to the lack of proper terminology that recognizes the geographical differences of a person,» Miryana Roksandich said in a press release from the University of Winnipeg.

      Recently published DNA analysis data showed that some fossils in Europe, called Homo heidelbergensis, actually belonged to early Neanderthals. It does not match their DNA and the fossils of ancient people from Asia. In the light of all these data, according to the authors, the name «Heidelberg man» is generally redundant and should be excluded from the classification.

      By the same logic, the authors propose to abandon the name Homo rhodesiensis, which is attributed to the African finds of this period. Scientists believe that the selection of a new species will clarify the confusion reigning in evolutionary schemes.

      «In science, the terms should be clear to facilitate communication. They should not be regarded as absolute if they contradict the fossil record,» says another author of the article, Predrag Radovic from the University of Belgrade.

      The researchers hope that the new name, approved by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, will be accepted by the community of anthropologists.

      Scientists have identified the genetic differences between humans and other mammals

      American biologists have found out that in the zones of accelerated development – areas of the human genome that differ significantly from similar segments in the genome of other mammals – mainly genes that determine the evolutionary development of the brain are concentrated. The results of the study are published in the journal Neuron.

      There are more than three thousand sites in the human genome that strongly distinguish humans from other mammals, including primates. Geneticists call them zones of accelerated development in humans, or HAR (Human accelerated regions).

      Researchers from Harvard University, together with colleagues from other universities and institutes in the USA, conducted a systematic analysis of all 3171 previously identified HAR sites and studied the role of these regions in the regulation of genes in cells and tissues of various types in humans and mice. The results showed that more than half of them played an important role in the accelerated evolution of the human brain.

      «What makes us human? This is probably one of the most interesting questions of neuroscience, – the words of the head of the study Christopher Walsh from Harvard University and the Allen Center for Research on the Evolution of the Human Brain at Harvard Medical School are quoted in the press release of the publishing house. – In particular, what distinguishes the human brain from the brain of other closely related species? Considering the zones of accelerated development in humans has provided us with a purposeful way to study this issue from a genetic point of view.»

      Previously, it was known that many HARS function as regulators of gene expression in the brain, but scientists knew very little about what types of brain cells they work in, and at what time during a person’s life they turn on.

      «Our goal was to fill in the gaps in knowledge about which HARS play a key role in the brain, and which one, to take the most important „brain“ HARS and conduct more in – depth tests of their evolutionary function,» explains another author of the study Ellen DeGennaro, an employee of the Department of Genetics and Harvard Medical School genomics.

      To cope with this task, Walsh and his colleagues have developed a new applied approach called CaptureMPRA, based on the capture with a probe of molecular inversion of target HAR sequences and their surrounding DNA.

      After that, they identified important differences in the functions of similar sections of the genome between humans and chimpanzees. Combining the results obtained with epigenetic data on HAR in human fetal nerve cells, the authors identified HARS that play an important role in controlling human brain development.

      It turned out that many HARS actually act as enhancers of the development of the nervous system, and the data obtained indicate that as these human sequences diverged from the sequences of other mammals, their role as neuronal enhancers increased.

      «Our work represents an important step forward in the study of many parts