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If we killed off other humanlike species because they terrified us, wouldn't we have also killed off other species that terrify us, like snakes, rats, cockroach
by iacvlvs 15y ago
If we killed off other humanlike species because they terrified us, wouldn't we have also killed off other species that terrify us, like snakes, rats, cockroaches and spiders?
I can't find a reference right now but I remember reading somewhere that European Homo Sapiens contain genetic evidence of interbreeding with Neanderthals, and Asian Homo Sapiens contain genetic evidence of a second, later round of more interbreeding with Neanderthals. I think that suggests we didn't find them all that horrifying :)
- rvkennedy 15y agoThis is a very recent discovery - the findings come from sequencing the Neanderthal genome by the Max Planck Institute. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8660940.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8660940.stm
- oflannabhra 15y agoWhoa, I had no idea we had done that. Have we sequenced genomes from any human species? edit: wikipedia and google searches haven't revealed any positives. Thanks for that link though, very interesting.
- maxklein 15y agoSnakes, rats, cockroaches and spiders are very difficult to kill off. If we could, we would wipe them off, but even with modern technology, we can't get rid of them, back in the past it would not have been possible. The reference to interbreeding with neanderthals is a single DNA study, and it does not say what you think it says. It says that non-african humans share a more DNA with neanderthals than africans. The shared DNA could have come from the exit point from Africa or some other location where everyone leaving Africa passed through (like the horn of Africa). The neanderthal breeding theory is not credible at all, because the strongest overlap between neanderthals and modern humans on a DNA basis comes from the far east, where there is no skeletal history of neanderthals existing.
- maxklein 15y agoYou can read more about this here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Neanderthal_admixture_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Neanderthal_admixture_theo...
- Roritharr 15y agoIs there actually a demand for killing off snakes, rats and cockroaches entirely? I'm sure if we really thought long and hard...
- 5l 15y agoHas anyone else got a crawling sensation on their skin?
- scythe 15y agoPerhaps not, but there is a demand for killing off mosquitoes entirely, and in fact we've tried many times now...
- ams6110 15y agoWe came close to succeeding with DDT, until emotions got the better of us.
- scythe 15y agoNot quite -- we simply drew down the population of Anopheles enough that malaria was unable to spread. DDT is a very effective insecticide, but resistance has been described and can spread if it is overused; in fact it is estimated that agricultural use of DDT causes more deaths from malaria by contributing to DDT resistance in Anopheles and thereby affecting vector control operations. See: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v293/n5829/abs/293181a0.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v293/n5829/abs/293181a0... -- http://localhostr.com/file/itFWMaa/zzz.pdf http://localhostr.com/file/itFWMaa/zzz.pdf "it can be estimated that at current rates each kilo of insecticide added to the environment will generate 105 new cases of malaria" In short, it just ain't that easy.
- ericd 15y agoAll of those other species you mentioned can hide from us easily, can reproduce relatively quickly, and/or can live in environments that humans can't survive in. Not so with humanoids.