Frozen Hair Yields First Ancient Human Genome

Live Science ^ | Feb 10, 2010 | Andrea Thompson

[decimon]

A few tufts of hair frozen in the permafrost of Greenland for more than 4,000 years have allowed scientists to sequence the genome of an ancient human for the first time.

The hairs belonged to a member of the ancient Saqqaq culture of Greenland, the first humans known to inhabit the icy island. Scientists have long wondered where the Saqqaq came from and whether or not they were the ancestors of today's modern Inuit and Greenlanders. The new findings, detailed in the Feb. 11 issue of the journal Nature, have helped to settle that question.

The hairs also tell about the individual, which scientist have dubbed "Inuk," meaning "human" or "man" in the Greenlandic language, giving us insight into what our ancient human ancestors looked like.

The results suggested Inuk was a male with brown eyes, dark skin, type A+ blood, shovel-shaped front teeth and was genetically predisposed to baldness and dry earwax. (Because Inuk clearly still had hair when he died, the scientists think he must have died young.) He also likely had a metabolism that was well-adapted to a cold climate.

[dblshot]

whats the alternative to “Darwinian Theory”? There doesn't have to be one since Darwinian Theory seems to evolve every time something new is discovered that indicates Darwin was incorrect. There are more gaps in his theory than in a Brits teeth.

[TheThirdRuffian]

Well, no (or very little) change over a 4000 year period is what the Darwinist would predict.

So, unknowingly or no, you agree with them.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Wow! 4,000 years. I’m looking forward to the artist’s
conception of what he/she looked like - and of course
the endearing name they will give him/her when she appears
on the cover of Time.

[LTC.Ret]

Fairly simple, from my personal perspective:

God created all the different species of animals -— yes, every single one of them. They all lived happily together in Eden, because they all were herbivores there. There was incredible variety of interrelated and unrelated species. Then we humans got stupid. After we got kicked out of Eden, and death entered the world, one by one the species began to die off -— and it is still happening today.

[rahbert]

Are you claiming that humans and trilobites existed coincidently?

[muawiyah]

So, what if you have both?

[James C. Bennett]

“The difference in cerumen type has been tracked to a single base change (a single nucleotide polymorphism) in a gene known as “ATP-binding cassette C11 gene.” In addition to affecting cerumen type, this mutation also reduces sweat production. The researchers conjecture that the reduction in sweat was beneficial to the ancestors of East Asians and Native Americans who are thought to have lived in cold climates.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=117800

Yoshiura K, Kinoshita A, Ishida T, et al. (March 2006). “A SNP in the ABCC11 gene is the determinant of human earwax type”. Nature Genetics 38 (3): 324–30. doi:10.1038/ng1733

[LTC.Ret]

Call me crazy, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that they did. Science thinks it knows quite a bit more than it actually does, as we find out from time to time.

Of course, no one expected to find out that elephants, golden moles, aardvarks, and tiny elephant shrews were phylogenetically closely related until we were capable of actually running and reading the DNA -— SURPRISE!!!

Who says God doesn’t have a sense of humor!!!

[muawiyah]

"Chuckchis and the Koryaks" ~ these are considered the indigenous peoples of NE Siberia. There are others who live in the vast spaces between population centers ~ e.g. the Evenks and the Yakuts.

Two things struck me. The Chuckchis and Koryaks are Reindeer Herders "inland" and Fishermen on the coast. They differ primarily in language, but it's all part of a small group.

Fishing and reindeer herding (as distinct from hunting) are not big time activities in Greenland ~ if at all ~ so that meant these people were living on nothing but seal and dogmeat. Although they were "cold adapted" I doubt they were totally devoid of a need for something besides fat and protein. Neither were their dogs. Maybe they found a source of seaweed. When it died out they died out. Or maybe modern Eskimo decendents of the Yakut/Sakha had them over for dinner?

[Defiant]

World’s first mullet.

[muawiyah]

Which means, of course, if you are capable of producing both types you probably have the allele type antecedent to both the East Asian and the West Asian populations ~ and that would require a separation from either at least 15,000 years ago, or just a tad before the big meltdown of the glaciers.

There are two major populations with that history ~

[Mercat]

isn’t male pattern baldness a european trait?

[blam]

"The results suggested Inuk was a male with brown eyes, dark skin, type A+ blood, shovel-shaped front teeth and was genetically predisposed to baldness and dry earwax. "

Shovel shaped teeth (Sinodontry) are peculiar to North Asians and Native Americans. Dry earwax is peculiar to Europeans and Africans...Asians have sticky ear wax.

[aruanan]

(Because Inuk clearly still had hair when he died, the scientists think he must have died young.)

Well, it was from a tuft of hair, so he could have been middle-aged.

[decimon]

isn’t male pattern baldness a european trait?

My personal experience would support that.

[TheThirdRuffian]

“isn’t male pattern baldness a european trait?”

Maybe. It’s caused by DHT, a testosterone-by-product.

High test = bald.

Bet most badasses of the ancient world were bald.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

...a male with brown eyes, dark skin, type A+ blood, shovel-shaped front teeth and was genetically predisposed to baldness and dry earwax.

The shovel-shaped incisors is characteristic of existing Asian and surviving descendants of the American tribes -- but the latter are almost entirely Type O.

[wildbill]

If anyone had told me I’d ever be reading a thread whose main subject of discussion was earwax and its consistency, when the economy is on the edge of an abyss, I’d have called him mad.

Maybe we need to be rethinking our parameters.

[SunkenCiv]

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