Posted on 05/05/2014 10:46:06 AM PDT by fishtank
Neandertal: The Answer Is Epigenetics Not Evolution
by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D. *
Recent genome reports show that the Neandertals are essentially fully human, causing scientists to reclassify them as "archaic humans."1,2 But what about the apparent subtle differences in anatomy that first caused scientists to claim that Neandertals were a completely different species? It turns out that the answer can be found in epigenetics, according to newly published research.3
Epigenetics, in the more modern sense, refers to the heritable chemical changes performed by cellular machines to DNA that alter gene function without actually changing the DNA nucleotide code. In the field of genomics, it is more accurately referred to as chromatin modification. Chromatin is the stuff chromosomes are made of which consists of the DNA molecule packaged around proteins called histones. Both the DNA and the histone proteins can be chemically modified to control how genes function and are regulated along the chromosome.
...more at link.
(Excerpt) Read more at icr.org ...
Interesting. If you search for "neanderthal needle," you find a bunch of anti-evolution sites claiming that one was found. (They're using it to try and show that Neanderthals weren't as primitive as they used to be depicted.) I can't find a reference to it on a straight science site, though.
This site says "no artifacts associated with sewing (e.g., needles and awls) have been found at Neanderthal sites." But this site has an image of Neanderthal points and blades
and the two at the top left certainly look like they could have been used as awls. And this place is offering for sale what they claim is a Neanderthal awl. Tools like this certainly could have been used to poke holes in hides through which hide strips could have been drawn--you don't really need a needle as such to sew to that extent.
You mean we’re all aliens? Of the legal or undocumented variety?
If Neanderthals hadn't had fur coats, there would be Neanderthal equivalents of those. There aren't any.
You keep saying that, but you're ignoring the fact that needles like that aren't necessary to lace hides together. Awls will do. Here's an image of the Neanderthal awl for sale I mentioned above:
That'd do for poking holes in hide.
The product of genes is proteins—molecules floating in cytoplasm. But there is nothing in genes which produces the overall shape.
This is a big problem for evolutionary theory.
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