Coping With Change for Millions of Years; Chatty Chimps

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We've been learning a great deal about human origins in the last century: and discovering that there's much more to learn.

Scientists studying bones from a cave used by both Neanderthals and the current human model found DNA from a girl who was 'none of the above.' She's from a previously-unknown species, or sub-species, of human

Other scientists discovered that chimpanzees communicate in an unexpectedly 'human' way.

We live in an exciting era: or a disturbing one, depending on a person's assumptions and preferences....

...Denisovans lived in or near the Altai mountains about 41,000 years before we started playing baseball. Some scientists call them a different species, others say they're a subspecies of homo sapiens sapiens. Either way, they're part of the human family.

We don't know much about the Denisovans yet, apart from a bit of finger bone, two teeth, and a toe bone. That's not much to work with: but scientists found intact DNA in the bones: enough to trace Denisovan descendants among Melanesians and Aboriginal Australians. The odds are pretty good that many or most folks in southern and southeast Asia are related to Denisovans....

More at A Catholic Citizen in America.

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