I had previously anticipated (in mid-2010) that more human ancestors and cousins would turn up:

Based on recent discoveries, I wouldn’t be surprised if 6-10 human species are determined to have lived in the last 50,000 years – and I reckon an additional species for the last 10,000 years is quite likely.
http://survive2012.com/news/2010/07/siberia-hominin-530.html

Finding human fossils is a difficult task, and many species (if not widespread and long-lasting) would probably avoid being fossilized. So for every discovered species, there’s going to many more of which there is no record.

Newly discovered:

The fossilized remains of a partial foot has led scientists to speculate that there were several species of pre-humans living in Africa at the same time.

A team from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History discovered the eight bones from an unknown species of hominid in the central Afar region of Ethiopia.

…”On the one hand the foot has a very divergent big toe, a bit like a chimpanzee. So it was probably very good at grasping and climbing trees,” he said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-29/fossilised-footprint-sheds-light-on-pre-humans/3921534

And this, also from this month:

The remains of what may be a previously unknown human species have been identified in southern China.

The bones, which represent at least five individuals, have been dated to between 11,500 and 14,500 years ago.

But scientists are calling them simply the Red Deer Cave people, after one of the sites where they were unearthed.

…In general, the individuals had rounded brain cases with prominent brow ridges. Their skull bones were quite thick. Their faces were quite short and flat and tucked under the brain, and they had broad noses.

The BBC article goes on to say there are three possibilities for where they came from:

• Evolved in Africa, moved to Asia
• Evolved in Asia
• Hybrid of prior human species

Attempts are being made to extract DNA from the remains. This could yield information about interbreeding, just as genetic studies have on the closely related human species – the Neanderthals and an enigmatic group of people from Siberia known as the Denisovans.

And their unearthing all adds to the fascinating and increasingly complex story of human migration and development.

Here Come The Homonids is a post from: 2012 Blog

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Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence (more at Wikipedia).

There is a lot of evidence that epigenetic modifications can last two generations. For example, if your mother was a Holocaust survivor, you could be more prone to post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as your children. Researchers have been trying to discover if such changes can last longer, and become a permanent genetic fixture. Evolution in other words.

This is of great interest to catastrophists – it could mean that global cataclysms were a major ingredient in human evolution. And could again…

DNA extracted from the bones of an extinct bison shows that the environment influenced the way the animal’s genes worked without altering the genetic code. It is the best evidence yet that such epigenetic changes can be fossilized.

…most of the methylations they found were in exactly the same spots as methylations in the same genes of modern cattle.

It’s the first evidence that the environment (in this case the Ice Age) has caused epigenetic modifications that have become evolution.

——

I don’t think scientists can ever be 100% sure about this, but new research suggests an impending supereruption can be detected decades in advance, giving us enough time to prepare. Reported at the BBC:

The evidence comes from analysis of crystals in pumice rock from the Santorini site, which the researchers in France, Switzerland and Singapore analysed using modern instrumentation including electron and ion microprobes.

“What we found was that all the crystals in the magma grew within a few decades of the eruption.”

“The new evidence from mineral grains appears to strengthen the idea, which has been developing in recent years, that large magma systems appear to awaken from long periods of repose only shortly (months, years or decades) prior to eruption.

Epigenetics Update / Supervolcano Alert is a post from: 2012 Blog

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In the Chinese calendar, 2012 is the year of the dragon. It is the only of their 12 years that is named after a fictional animal. So are dragons really fictional?

I have investigated the possibility that dragons lived in historical times, primarily because a good book on the topic didn’t exist – see my 6 pages about Did Dragons Exist? I found that dragon myths can be found worldwide, and aside from the very obvious Komodo Dragon, there is another candidate that could explain dragons:

Megalania prisca, as we have learned from fossil evidence, lived in Australia, grew to be a staggering seven metres in length and weighed 600 kgs!

Finally someone has written a proper book on the topic, and I’m pleased to see that the author, trained zoologist Richard Freeman, agrees with me:

“I am absolutely certain, having reviewed many ancient reports of dragon activity, that many sightings – perhaps two or three hundred years ago and probably further back – were genuine encounters, but where the witnesses were seeing what I believe to have been huge snakes, giant crocodiles, and the Australian ‘monster lizard’ Megalania.”

Dragons: More Than a Myth is available at Amazon.

But what do dragons have to do with 2012?

The last two times the Long Count calendar ended, humans seem to have made great advances, and I have speculated that we evolved mentally, 5,000 and 10,000 years ago. A global cataclysm involving the Sun, the Earth’s magnetic field or a Galactic Superwave could include a mass influx of cosmic rays, leading to DNA damage and perhaps evolution.

Many evolved species could have been short-lived, because they weren’t quite right. Perhaps the unicorn and dragon were just that, mutated species that stuck around just long enough to become legend, but not long enough for us to have found fossil evidence?

2012: Year of the Dragon is a post from: 2012 Blog

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Ever wondered why we are hairless compared to other apes? Or why our tears are salty? Or even why we have breasts?

Elaine Morgan has devoted decades to the topic of Aquatic Apes, and I’ve been keenly following her work – here’s a 2009 talk she gave at TED:

What does this have to do with 2012? Well, it dovetails nicely with punctuated equilibrium, global cataclysms and evolution via habitats being flooded. A similar cataclysm in 2012 could lead to further human evolution. Do you want to evolve (with no guarantees it will be for the better) or hide??

Elaine Morgan on Aquatic Apes is a post from: 2012 Blog

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I have a lot of respect for Rupert Sheldrake, and his work is scientifically valid, yet it is mostly mentioned in the realms of New Age. This is a shame because I feel he could hold the key to evolution without realizing the extra factor involved.

Morphic resonance

Essential to Sheldrake’s model is the hypothesis of morphic resonance. This is a feedback mechanism between the field and the corresponding forms of morphic units. The greater the degree of similarity, the greater the resonance, leading to habituation or persistence of particular forms. So, the existence of a morphic field makes the existence of a new similar form easier.

Sheldrake proposes that the process of morphic resonance leads to stable morphic fields, which are significantly easier to tune into. He suggests that this is the means by which simpler organic forms synergetically self-organize into more complex ones, and that this model allows a different explanation for the process of evolution itself, as an addition to Darwin’s evolutionary processes of selection and variation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Sheldrake#Morphic_resonance

So, we combine two ideas. Firstly mine (but not solely mine, I think James Jeans first thought of it):

Cosmic Ray Bombardment = Evolution. Cosmic Rays cause DNA mutations. Not as much as background radiation, but still a significant factor. And a massive factor if the amount of cosmic rays arriving rises – not impossible seeing as scientists are unsure where the most energetic rays are coming from. It is a fact that an increase in cosmic rays will equal an increase in mutations. For evolution to occur, we’d need the mutations to be aligned in some way. Well, we have a DNA repair system that seems to selectively repair DNA damage, seemingly making choices, which implies intelligence. I’ve figured that our repair systems make the same choices, and bulk cosmic rays = bulk mutations = selective repair = the same mutations getting through = evolution.

And now Sheldrake:

With each mutation, a morphic field is created. With each subsequent same mutation, the morphic field gains strength. The initial decisions to not repair the DNA become standard practice for all such mutations. Suddenly we have an entire species electively mutating and evolving in a similar manner.

An example:

There’s a gene in the giraffes of old that regulates neck length. The DNA repair system has decided that repairing mutations of this particular gene is non-critical; neck length probably won’t matter much, and if we get it wrong, natural selection will sort things out.

A cosmic ray bombardment would create more mutations. Consequently more DNA repair decisions would me made, and more necks would end up longer. This decision process would become a morphic field. It would then become almost automatic for giraffe necks to grow longer, on average. It feeds back upon itself.

Punctuated equilibrium has been put forward as a cause for rapid evolution, and it most likely is an important factor. But if you introduce morphic fields, then the rate of evolution becomes exponential, and the reliance on punctuated equilibrium diminishes.

And what if the force behind a cosmic ray bombardment is the one and same force that creates natural disasters which separates groups of a species and leads them towards punctuated equilibrium?

Rapidity.

Sorry if I am rambling, but I am drinking Cab Sav on a Full Moon Eclipse (aren’t they always?) during a thunderstorm…

Morphic Resonance and Evolution is a post from: 2012 Blog

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I’ve read a lot of books about the Nephilim, ancient astronauts, and the possibility of aliens mating with humans, as described by the Bible. I’ve rejected the alien aspect, because I think the same logic could be used if we had another human species in the mix – the Mysterious Elders perhaps. Either way, if the other species is too far removed from humans, it is understood that the resultant hybrid children would be sterile, like mules. Well, some mule mares have had foals – but generally hybrids are not expected to fare well evolution-wise.

Now for the weird news, via New Scientist:

Metamorphosis, like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, is more commonplace than generally known. For example it can be found in 15 different phyla of marine animals. Some scientists now believe that metamorphosis may have been the driving force behind the Cambrian explosion,  when most phyla suddenly appeared in the fossil record.

The larva of Luidia sarsi is a semi-transparent diaphanous sprite that feeds on algae and grows to a remarkable 4 centimetres. Then something extraordinary happens. Instead of changing shape to become an adult, a cluster of cells lining the larva’s internal cavity grows, like an alien invader, and out of these a starfish is born. Floating free from its other self, the adult form settles on the ocean floor, where it survives and grows by hunting down other starfish in the dark of night. Meanwhile, the larva continues its vegetarian existence, grazing the surface waters above.

It sounds like two different species in the one organism!

From this emerged his controversial “larval transfer” theory, which proposed that widely separated evolutionary lineages had occasionally come together to form hybrid species. In other words, the larval and adult forms of marine invertebrates often look like entirely different organisms because that is exactly what they used to be…

The researchers concluded that hybridization has major potential as an evolutionary mechanism.

Some hybridization has been achieved in the laboratory, where the resultant hybrid undergoes a series of changes, with each change resembling one of the parents.

Humans don’t undergo metamorphosis, and I don’t think we have successfully bred with any other species. The article doesn’t go into the mating mechanisms between different species either. Still, scientists have brought up the possibility that hybridization could be an evolutionary factor. And as a highly evolved species, that suggests that somewhere along the way humans were a hybrid. That provides a little believability to the Biblical stories that say:

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them.

It also has me wondering about Gilgamesh, where we had

Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, “two-thirds god and one-third human… terrifying” in his perfection, and his “noble” companion Enkidu, the domesticated savage…

… and I’m wondering which of the characters is the human, or are we a mix of both?

Alien-Human Hybrids Possible? is a post from: 2012 Blog

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Probably a child with a deformity, potentially an alien and possibly an example of a different human species…

More pics at guanabee.com

At RPP (in Spanish) experts are claiming that it is an alien:

Riquelme Davila explained that the body is 50 centimeters tall, triangular head, eye cavity too large, open fontanelle, which is only characteristic of children up to 1 year and has molars, which show that there is a tremendous gap that is not common in humans.

“It looks not human because the head is triangular and tremendous, indeed, the head is about the size of body and thought I was a kid but Spanish and Russian doctors have come and we have confirmed that this is indeed an extraterrestrial” , said through RPP Noticias.

The discoverer is based in Cusco, but the news items don’t say where the body was found…

Another Alien Skull? is a post from: 2012 Blog

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Image via Wikipedia

I’m a fan of panspermia, particularly the idea the mushroom spores traveled to Earth and gave humans a little extra something. The concept was given a real boost this week with news that components of DNA, nucleobases, have been found in meteorites:

In laboratory experiments, Callahan and colleagues showed how the nucleobases could have formed inside meteorites. Simple chemical reactions involving ammonia, water and hydrogen cyanide — all ingredients found in meteorites — produced the wide range of nucleobases the scientists found in the space rocks.

…Scientists have also found other building blocks of life — most notably amino acids, the links that form proteins — inside meteorites.

While Bernstein said that it’s impossible to discern whether the first life on Earth was built on chemicals that fell from the sky, that possibility is now stronger. “These molecules are at the core of [life’s] blueprints,” Bernstein said of the nucleobases. “It’s possible that the presence of these molecules in meteorites made us what we are today.” [Source: Washington Post]

The other possibility is that those ingredients helped life form elsewhere in the universe, and that life itself arrived on Earth, rather than forming in the primordial soup. As time goes on,  evidence (and theories from the likes of Mike Baillee)  is growing, and it seems certain that past humans have been affected by bombardments from space. Which means comets, meteorites, dust, red rain, or even mushrooms from space will return one day…

DNA Comes From Outer Space is a post from: 2012 Blog

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Image via Wikipedia

You may have come across hormesis previously:

• charcoal water is often used when people have overdosed on their medications, but too many charred steaks increases your cancer risk
• many ancient sites (i.e. stone circles) have people who believe that they have curative properties, yet they have heightened naturally occurring levels of radiation
• cancer can be cured by radiation therapies
• small amounts of DNA damage can lead to evolution, large amounts can kill

The last on the list is of particular interest to me. I think that evolution is partially driven by increases in cosmic radiation, that evolution and global cataclysms quite likely go hand-in-hand, and therefore the cataclysms include a component of cosmic radiation (suggesting a cause from beyond Earth). While a major increase in cosmic radiation could decimate life on our planet, a lesser increase could cause a beneficial, evolutionary rise in mutations.

Research in hormesis is growing rapidly in recent years, according to Science (Vol 237, 29 January 2010):

Many biologists have noticed that when they feed a plant or animal a tiny amount of a poison, the result is the opposite of what they see at higher doses – the plant grows faster, for example, or the mouse develops fewer tumors than it normally would. That “biphasic” phenomenon is known, among other terms, as hormesis.

…A search of the Web of Science database finds that citations of papers using the term “hormesis” or “hormetic” have soared from about 200 in 1999 to more than 2400 in 2009.

Come a SHTF event, I won’t be basking in cosmic rays, hoping to evolve. I quite like humans just how they are, and would rather observe any changes we undergo, rather than be part of the evolution/devolution. Well wishes to those who deliberately choose to evolve.

A little poison helps, a lot harms – “hormesis” is a post from: 2012 Blog

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While it certainly wasn’t the focus or intention of the article, this is how part of it reads:

If Andersson’s theory is correct, it may turn out to have intriguing implications for our own species. Harvard biologist Richard Wrangham has theorized that we, too, went through a domestication process that altered our biology. “The question of what is the difference between the domestic pig and a wild boar, or the distinction between a broiler chicken and a wild jungle fowl,” Andersson told me, “is very similar to the question of what is the difference between a human and a chimpanzee.”

That is some suggestion. Obviously it is coming from the direction of “did we somehow evolve via processes of domestication”, yet anyone who has read Sitchin would read it as “aliens have messed with us”.

I don’t quite know what to make of this next part, but it is very interesting, and it brought up a human disorder I had not heard of before:

The finding that made headlines was that dogs originated from gray wolves not in East Asia, as other researchers had argued, but in the Middle East. Less noticed by the press was a brief aside in which Wayne and his colleagues identified a particular short DNA sequence, located near a gene called WBSCR17, that was very different in the two species. That region of the genome, they suggested, could be a potential target for “genes that are important in the early domestication of dogs.” In humans, the researchers went on to note, WBSCR17 is at least partly responsible for a rare genetic disorder called Williams-Beuren syndrome. Williams-Beuren is characterized by elfin features, a shortened nose bridge, and “exceptional gregariousness”—its sufferers are often overly friendly and trusting of strangers.

After the paper was published, Wayne says, “the number one email we got was from parents of children suffering from Williams-Beuren. They said, Actually our children remind us of dogs in terms of their ability to read behavior and their lack of social barriers in their behavior.”

So, for those who are into alien intervention theories, the implication is clear – DNA manipulation was used to domesticate dogs/wolves, and the same techniques were used to make humans more compliant. Personally I prefer a combination of cosmic rays and self-determining genes that selectively repair or not repair mutations. Regardless, something seems to have happened.

Nat Geo: Were Humans Domesticated? is a post from: 2012 Blog

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