LIFE NOTE

"池谷そして、もうひとつ味わい深い事実がありまして、人類って遺伝子的にいうと、大雑把に２種類いるんです。つまり、黒人と、黒人以外なんですけど。糸井そうなんですか。池谷はい、かなり粗い分類..."

kaidamo — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 11:32:50 -0500

“池谷そして、もうひとつ味わい深い事実がありまして、
人類って遺伝子的にいうと、
大雑把に２種類いるんです。
つまり、黒人と、黒人以外なんですけど。糸井そうなんですか。池谷はい、かなり粗い分類ですが、
２種類に分けられるんですよ。
つまり、たぶん、こういうことです。
そもそも、私たちの祖先である人類は
アフリカで生活していました。
そして、10万年くらい前にアフリカを出て行くまで
ずっとアフリカで生活していたんです。
約10万年、アフリカを出て行った人類は、
ヨーロッパやアジア圏に移り住み、
それぞれ、白人と黄色人種になりました。
アフリカに残った人類は、アフリカ黒人になりました。糸井ほう、ほう。池谷一方、そのまえに誕生したネアンデルタール人は、
やはりアフリカで誕生したあと、50万年以上前に、
ヒトよりも先にアフリカを出て行ってるんです。
これがなにを意味するかというと、
つまり、その後、アフリカを出て行ったヒトが、
ヨーロッパやアジア圏で
ネアンデルタール人と出会った。
そして、交雑が起こったわけです。
だから、いまのアフリカの黒人たちには、
ネアンデルタール人の遺伝子は残ってないんですよ。糸井はーーーー！池谷ということは、種としての純粋性で見たら、
彼らのほうは純血の血統書付きで、
我々は雑種なんですよ。糸井なるほど、なるほど。
いやー、そうか。池谷そのあたりをね、考えていくと、
ものすごく味わい深くって。糸井たしかに、たしかに。池谷だって、ネアンデルタール人の
ゲノム解析した研究者たち自身が
驚いたと言っていますからね。
「うわー、自分たち、混血なんだ」って。糸井いや、それは、語りたくなる話題ですね。
研究者ばかりじゃなく、一般人にとっても。池谷ええ、ふだんは研究の話は
自宅ではほとんどしないんですけど、
この話題に関しては妻と盛り上がりました（笑）。”

- ほぼ日刊イトイ新聞-脳の気持ちになって考えてみてください。〜「やる気」と「脳」の話を、池谷裕二さんと。〜 (via highsea)

jhellden: Age estimation from teeth Eruption of deciduous (baby...

kaidamo — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:41:41 -0500

jhellden:

Age estimation from teeth

Eruption of deciduous (baby or milk) teeth and permanent (adult) teeth occurs at fairly regular intervals during the subadult years of development (see the figure above, deciduous teeth are shaded). Therefore, age estimation of subadults based dental eruption is quite accurate.

While tooth wear and permanent tooth loss can occur in subadults, these degenerative changes are usually associated with adults. Loss of permanent teeth and accompanying bone resorption of the alveolar bone of the maxilla and/or mandible are often associated with old age. Tooth wear or dental attrition most often occurs in adults, but the age of onset depends on diet and other environmental factors. This process leads to loss of outer white tooth enamel and exposure of the yellowish dentine of the pulp cavity, especially on the cusps of the teeth. The older an individual is, the more dentine is exposed due to tooth wear.

Image is scanned from Tim D. White, Michael T. Black & Pieter A. Folkens: Human Osteology, Academic Press, 3 ed. (2011)

anthropologydaily: Previously Unknown Population Explosion of...

kaidamo — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 04:36:50 -0400

anthropologydaily:

Previously Unknown Population Explosion of Human Species 40,000 Years Ago —Discovered

DNA sequencing of 36 complete Y chromosomes has uncovered a previously unknown population explosion that occurred 40 to 50 thousand years ago, between the first expansion of modern humans out of Africa 60 to 70 thousand years ago and the Neolithic expansions of people in several parts of the world starting 10 thousand years ago. This is the first time researchers have used the information from large-scale DNA sequencing to create an accurate family tree of the Y chromosome, from which the inferences about human population history could be made.

“We have always considered the expansion of humans out of Africa as being the largest population expansion of modern humans, but our research questions this theory,” says Ms Wei Wei, first author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the West China University of Medical Sciences. “The out-of-Africa expansion, which happened approximately 60,000 years ago, was extremely large in geographical terms with humans spreading around the globe. Now we’ve found a second wave of expansion that is much larger in terms of human population growth and occurred over a very short period, somewhere between 40,000 to 50,000 years ago.”

Read More

tumble-of-life: Spread of homo sapiens

kaidamo — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 18:21:55 -0400

tumble-of-life:

Spread of homo sapiens

Archaeological News: Core sample sends carbon clock farther back in time

kaidamo — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:19:57 -0400

Archaeological News: Core sample sends carbon clock farther back in time:

archaeologicalnews:

The carbon clock is getting reset. Climate records from a Japanese lake are set to improve the accuracy of the dating technique, which could help to shed light on archaeological mysteries such as why Neanderthals became extinct.

Carbon dating is used to work out the age of organic material —…

Archaeological News: Oldest Ivory Workshop in the World Discovered in Saxony-Anhalt

kaidamo — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:19:21 -0400

Archaeological News: Oldest Ivory Workshop in the World Discovered in Saxony-Anhalt:

archaeologicalnews:

Excavations at the mammoth hunting site of Breitenbach near Zeitz have uncovered a 35,000-year-old ivory workshop.

During this year’s campaign, site directors Dr. Olaf Jöris and Tim Matthies and their team found the oldest evidence for clearly distinct working areas which are interpreted as…

Did Neandertals Truly Bury Their Dead?

kaidamo — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:47:32 -0400

Did Neandertals Truly Bury Their Dead?:

During excavations in the French Dordogne beginning more than 100 years ago, French archaeologists discovered the skeletons of seven Neandertals, including four children and infants, and the most complete adult Neandertal skull ever found. They concluded that all were deliberately buried, making this site pivotal to contentions that Neandertals had symbolic capacities. Until now, that is. New excavations at La Ferrassie are in part designed to reexamine this question, which many researchers had long thought was itself dead and buried.

Archaeological News: Most Neanderthals Were Right-Handed Like Us

kaidamo — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 08:42:05 -0400

Archaeological News: Most Neanderthals Were Right-Handed Like Us:

archaeologicalnews:

Right-handed humans vastly outnumber lefties by a ratio of about nine to one, and the same may have been true for Neanderthals. Researchers say right-hand dominance in the extinct species suggests that, like humans, they also had the capacity for language.

A new analysis of the skeleton of a…

rhamphotheca: Did Humans Mate With Neanderthals? (no, probably...

kaidamo — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 08:41:36 -0400

rhamphotheca:

Did Humans Mate With Neanderthals? (no, probably not)

by Megan Gannon

There has been a long-standing debate over whether humans had sex with Neanderthals and recent studies have pointed to shared genes as evidence of such interspecies dalliances.

But new research claims that common ancestry, not interbreeding, better explains why people of European and Asian descent share 1 to 4 percent of their DNA with Neanderthals. Some of us may not be part caveman after all.

The new version of events, as told by scientists at the University of Cambridge, looks like this: Neanderthals and modern humans once shared a common ancestor who is thought to have lived across Africa and Europe about half a million years ago. But then 350,000 to 300,000 years ago, the European range and the African range of this ancestral species became separated. The European range evolved into Neanderthals, while the African range became modern humans…

(read more: Live Science) (image: Mauro Cutrona)

Archaeological News: Excavation reveals ancient hair fashion

kaidamo — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 15:29:44 -0400

Archaeological News: Excavation reveals ancient hair fashion:

archaeologicalnews:

Archaeologists conducting excavations in the northwestern province of Çanakkale’s Ayvacık district have discovered hairpins thought to be over two millennia old, proving that ancient societies also had a pronounced desire to “look good,” according to researchers.

“The hairpins show us that there was a high demand for them in ancient times. Maybe their existence shows us that there was a small atelier for hair pin production here,” said Professor Nurettin Arslan of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, the head of the excavations, adding that women of the age placed great importance in being well-groomed and stylish.

Arslan said the hairpins had been found in many places in the ancient city but that the most were in the agora, which has been the site of the school’s ongoing dig.

Noting the unique designs on the hairpins, Arslan said, “They date back to the second century B.C. They are nearly 2,200 year old.”

Read more.

steroge: ‘The Birth of Religion’: Göbekli Tepe - oldest known...

kaidamo — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 10:39:57 -0400

steroge:

‘The Birth of Religion’: Göbekli Tepe - oldest known man-made religious structure, built some 11,600 years ago (10th millennium BC) in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey

sinkme: A brain in near-perfect condition is found in a skull...

kaidamo — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 10:36:48 -0400

sinkme:

A brain in near-perfect condition is found in a skull of a person who was decapitated over 2,600 years ago.

A human skull dated to about 2,684 years ago with an “exceptionally preserved” human brain still inside of it was recently discovered in a waterlogged U.K. pit, according to a new Journal of Archaeological Science study. The brain is the oldest known intact human brain from Europe and Asia, according to the authors, who also believe it’s one of the best-preserved ancient brains in the world.

gwebarchaeology: fuckyeahforensics: French archaeologists...

kaidamo — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 07:49:57 -0400

gwebarchaeology:

fuckyeahforensics:

French archaeologists excavating a Neolithic grave south of Paris have found evidence of a successful, infection-free amputation performed 6,900 years ago during the Linearbandkeram period when European hunter-gatherers were just settling down to subsistence farming. Considering that they didn’t even have blades back then, that’s pretty damn impressive.

The amputee was elderly, someone of stature in the community, and he lived for at least months, possibly years, after the surgery.

The patient was important: his grave was 2m (6.5ft) long — bigger than most — and contained a schist axe, a flint pick and the remains of a young animal, which are evidence of high status.

The most intriguing aspect, however, was the absence of forearm and hand bones. A battery of biological, radiological and other tests showed that the humerus bone had been cut above the trochlea indent at the end “in an intentional and successful amputation”. Mrs Buquet-Marcon said that the patient, who is likely to have been a warrior, might have damaged his arm in a fall, animal attack or battle.

“I don’t think you could say that those who carried out the operation were doctors in the modern sense that they did only that, but they obviously had medical knowledge,” she said.

The surgical tool would have been a sharpened flint. Archaeologists speculate that pain-killing plants would have been used to keep the patient still during the amputation. Antiseptic plants such as sage could have kept the wound from getting infected.

Neolithic people are known to have practiced trepanation — the surgical removal of a piece of skull — but that’s a more rudimentary kind of medicine. The earliest evidence of Stone Age trepanation is on 7,000-year-old skulls. They were performed by scraping away the bone with sharpened flint or obsidian stones. Later trepanations were done by primitive drilling tools, also made from sharpened rocks.

But it’s a big step from scraping or drilling a few holes in the skull to severing a forearm with its major arteries and nerves without killing the patient. This find suggests Stone Age farmers were significantly more medically advanced than previously realized.

Immigration in the Stone Age | ScienceNordic

kaidamo — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 14:44:49 -0400

Immigration in the Stone Age | ScienceNordic

Archaeological News: Ancient Hunter-Gatherers Kept in Touch

kaidamo — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:30:57 -0400

Archaeological News: Ancient Hunter-Gatherers Kept in Touch:

archaeologicalnews:

Until about 8500 years ago, Europe was populated by nomadic hunter-gatherers who hunted, fished, and ate wild plants. Then, the farming way of life swept into the continent from its origins in the Near East, including modern-day Turkey. Within 3000 years most of the hunter-gatherers had…

Archaeological News: Pottery fragments found in south China cave confirmed to be 20,000 years old

kaidamo — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:11:14 -0400

Archaeological News: Pottery fragments found in south China cave confirmed to be 20,000 years old:

archaeologicalnews:

BEIJING - Pottery fragments found in a south China cave have been confirmed to be 20,000 years old, making them the oldest known pottery in the world, archaeologists say.

The findings, which will appear in the journal Science on Friday, add to recent efforts that have dated pottery piles in…

iolteus: This is true. (I can’t tell you how many people think...

kaidamo — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 08:08:58 -0400

iolteus:

This is true.

(I can’t tell you how many people think I study dinosaurs when I mention archaeology.)

zesper0: Ain Ghazal Figures from the Jordan archaeological...

kaidamo — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 10:53:58 -0400

zesper0:

Ain Ghazal Figures from the Jordan archaeological site.

c. 7000 BCE- 5000 BC

middlesavagery: Proper number forms for international...

kaidamo — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:46:37 -0400

middlesavagery:

Proper number forms for international archaeology! http://instagr.am/p/K76Kb0voDV/

Archaeological News: Bronze Age 'Facebook' discovered by Cambridge experts

kaidamo — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:39:38 -0400

Archaeological News: Bronze Age 'Facebook' discovered by Cambridge experts:

archaeologicalnews:

Ancient rock art has been likened to a prehistoric form of Facebook by a Cambridge archaeologist.

Mark Sapwell, who is a PhD archaeology student at St John’s College, believes he has discovered an “archaic version” of the social networking site, where users share thoughts and emotions and…

LIFE NOTE

"池谷 そして、もうひとつ味わい深い事実がありまして、 人類って遺伝子的にいうと、 大雑把に２種類いるんです。 つまり、黒人と、黒人以外なんですけど。糸井 そうなんですか。池谷 はい、かなり粗い分類..."

jhellden: Age estimation from teeth Eruption of deciduous (baby...

anthropologydaily: Previously Unknown Population Explosion of...

Previously Unknown Population Explosion of Human Species 40,000 Years Ago —Discovered

tumble-of-life: Spread of homo sapiens

Archaeological News: Core sample sends carbon clock farther back in time

Archaeological News: Oldest Ivory Workshop in the World Discovered in Saxony-Anhalt

Did Neandertals Truly Bury Their Dead?

Archaeological News: Most Neanderthals Were Right-Handed Like Us

rhamphotheca: Did Humans Mate With Neanderthals? (no, probably...

Archaeological News: Excavation reveals ancient hair fashion

steroge: ‘The Birth of Religion’: Göbekli Tepe - oldest known...

sinkme: A brain in near-perfect condition is found in a skull...

gwebarchaeology: fuckyeahforensics: French archaeologists...

Immigration in the Stone Age | ScienceNordic

Archaeological News: Ancient Hunter-Gatherers Kept in Touch

Archaeological News: Pottery fragments found in south China cave confirmed to be 20,000 years old

iolteus: This is true. (I can’t tell you how many people think...

zesper0: Ain Ghazal Figures from the Jordan archaeological...

middlesavagery: Proper number forms for international...

Archaeological News: Bronze Age 'Facebook' discovered by Cambridge experts

"池谷そして、もうひとつ味わい深い事実がありまして、人類って遺伝子的にいうと、大雑把に２種類いるんです。つまり、黒人と、黒人以外なんですけど。糸井そうなんですか。池谷はい、かなり粗い分類..."