Remix.run Logo
mc32 6 months ago

Still a lot of holes: When did the pop in Africa spread out within Africa? When did the many ‘Edens’ happen and why?

Why were the previous expansions out of Africa dead ends? Presumably they mean ones that ended up being Denisovans and Florensis.

netcan 6 months ago | parent | next [-]

>Why were the previous expansions out of Africa dead ends?

Richard Dawkins would say that descendants are common. Ancestors are rare. Most populations of all species leave little or no genetic trace.

The first human radiation was georgicus... 1.8mya. That is arguably the original homo species. Arguably pre-homo, if not for some long legged or large brained individuals in the tribe.

They may be ancestral to later Eurasian species of homo... even the erectus lineage as a whole. But likely not.... because ancestors are rare.

The recent/last great out of Africa population is one of those rare ancestor populations. Most lineages are dead ends.

We don't know much about them. We don't know which bones are theirs, or where they lived before dispersal. We don't know if they had been a distinct population for long... or a recent admixture homogenized before dispersal.

usrnm 6 months ago | parent | prev [-]

> Why were the previous expansions out of Africa dead ends?

They were very successful, at least, some of them. Not as good as us, but expanding to another continent and surviving there for hundreds of thousands of years is not exactly a complete failure. Unfortunately for this planet, our species is just too good at procreating and killing everything on our way

yapyap 6 months ago | parent | next [-]

> Unfortunately for this planet, our species is just too good at procreating and killing everything on our way

In a general sense it’s more like unfortunately for us, the planet will endure after we die as a species and then blossom again eventually, just without us.

nkrisc 6 months ago | parent | prev [-]

I do not believe that humans are capable of completely sterilizing the planet, even if we wanted to. Life will persist even after us, and if not, it won’t be because of us. We are absolutely not capable of destroying the planet itself.

Barring some cataclysmic natural event beyond our control, humans will cause the extinction of humans (or not).

dmd 6 months ago | parent [-]

Here are some ways to do it: https://qntm.org/destroy

nkrisc 6 months ago | parent [-]

And which of those methods of destruction do you think we are capable of?