Scientists use DNA to Prove Age of Humans/Neanderthals
By
Gary Primo
July 6, 2017
Scientists now believe that through DNA evidence they can prove the age of modern day humans is around a quarter of a million years and that they shared some of the same DNA evidence with Neanderthals. As we all know by now DNA evidence has been hailed as the scientific “miracle” of the ages. How is any Scriptural student to argue the age of man in the face of these scientific findings? Well, I am going to give it a try.
The following is the article that appeared in the National Post (Canada) on the above date.
How are Neanderthals related to humans? Finally, an answer
The common ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans spread across Europe and Asia over half a million years ago. Gradually the eastern and western populations parted ways, genetically speaking.
The New York Times
July 5, 2017
12:48 PM EDT
With fossils and DNA, scientists are piecing together a picture of humanity’s beginnings, an origin story with more twists than anything you would find at the movie theater.
The expert consensus now is that Homo sapiens evolved at least 300,000 years ago in Africa. Only much later — roughly 70,000 years ago — did a small group of Africans establish themselves on other continents, giving rise to other populations of people today.
To Johannes Krause, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Human History in Germany, that gap seems peculiar. “Why did people not leave Africa before?” he asked in an interview. After all, he observed, the continent is physically linked to the Near East. “You could have just walked out.”
In a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications, Krause and his colleagues report that Africans did indeed walk out — over 270,000 years ago.
Based on newly discovered DNA in fossils, the researchers conclude that a wave of early Homo sapiens, or close relatives of our species, made their way from Africa to Europe. There, they interbred with Neanderthals.
Then the ancient African migrants disappeared. But some of their DNA endured in later generations of Neanderthals.
“This is now a comprehensive picture,” Krause said. “It brings everything together.”
Since the 1800s, paleontologists have struggled to understand how Neanderthals are related to us. Fossils show that they were anatomically distinct, with a heavy brow, a stout body and a number of subtler features that we lack.
The oldest bones of Neanderthal-like individuals, found in a Spanish cave called Sima de los Huesos, date back 430,000 years. More recent Neanderthal remains, dating to about 100,000 years ago, can be found across Europe and all the way to southern Siberia.
Then, 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals vanish from the fossil record.
As a graduate student in the mid-2000s, Krause traveled to museums to drill bits of bone from Neanderthal fossils. In some of them, he and his colleagues managed to find fragments of DNA that they could study.
Skulls found in China were part modern human, part Neanderthal — and could be a new species
Neanderthal microbes reveal surprises about what they ate — and whom they kissed
Oldest homo sapiens fossils discovered in Morocco with a mixture of modern and primitive traits
Scientists who study ancient genes search for two kinds of genetic material. The vast majority of our genes are in a pouch in each cell called the nucleus. We inherit so-called nuclear DNA from both parents.
But we also carry a small amount of DNA in the fuel-generating factories of our cells, called mitochondria. We inherit mitochondrial DNA only from our mothers, because a father’s sperm destroys its own mitochondrial DNA during fertilization.
Years ago, Krause and his colleagues started their search for ancient Neanderthal genes in a fossil by looking for mitochondrial DNA. After discovering mitochondrial DNA in some fossils, they later managed to find nuclear DNA.
The genes held some surprises. For example, bits of DNA in living people of non-African ancestry come from Neanderthals. When modern humans expanded out of Africa, they seem to have interbred several times with Neanderthals.
Those children became part of human society, passing on their genes.
But a finger bone and a tooth from a Siberian cave called Denisova left Krause and his colleagues with a baffling puzzle.
Inside those fossils, the scientists found sequences of mitochondrial DNA that were not human or Neanderthal, but something else — a distant branch of the family tree. The Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA was much closer to our own.
Later, the researchers recovered the nuclear DNA from the Denisovan finger bone, which showed Denisovans and Neanderthals were more closely related to each other.
As scientists found ancient DNA in more fossils, our history has come into sharper focus. Scientists now estimate that the common ancestor of modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans, lived between 550,000 and 765,000 years ago.
About 445,000 to 473,000 years ago, that common ancestor’s descendants split into two lineages. One eventually led to modern humans, while the other led to Neanderthals and Denisovans.
After years of investigation, however, Krause still did not understand why the nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA of Neanderthals seemed to have different histories. The former pointed to a link with Denisovans, the latter to humans.
The mystery only deepened in 2013. Another team of researchers retrieved mitochondrial DNA from a Neanderthal-like fossil at Sima de los Huesos, dating back 430,000 years.
The researchers had expected the DNA to resemble that of later Neanderthals in Europe. Instead, the mitochondrial DNA looked like it belonged to Denisovans — even though the Denisova cave was 4,000 miles away in Siberia.
Last year, the researchers announced that they had gathered a small fraction of the nuclear DNA from the same Sima de los Huesos fossil. That genetic material looked like it belonged to a Neanderthal, not a Denisovan.
Krause and his colleagues have now discovered new Neanderthal DNA that they believe can solve the mystery of this genetic mismatch.
In 2013, one of Krause’s graduate students, Cosimo Posth, examined a Neanderthal fossil from a German cave called Hohlenstein-Stadel. He was able to reconstruct all of its mitochondrial DNA.
Posth estimated that the Neanderthal fossil was 120,000 years old and, more important, that it belonged to a branch of the Neanderthal family tree with a long history. He and his colleagues determined that all known Neanderthals inherited their mitochondrial DNA from an ancestor who lived 270,000 years ago.
All the data pointed to a sequence of events that could solve the puzzle that had bedeviled Krause for so long.
The common ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans spread across Europe and Asia over half a million years ago. Gradually the eastern and western populations parted ways, genetically speaking.
In the east, they became Denisovans. In the west, they became Neanderthals. The 430,000-year-old fossils at Sima de los Huesos — Neanderthals with Denisovanlike genes — capture the early stage of that split.
At some point before 270,000 years ago, African humans closely related to us moved into Europe and interbred with Neanderthals. Their DNA entered the Neanderthal gene pool.
Over many generations, most of that new DNA disappeared. But the mitochondrial DNA survived, passed down from mothers to their children. In fact, eventually all the Neanderthals inherited it, for some reason discarding the mitochondrial DNA that the species once had.
Posth said it was possible that early members of our own species moved from North Africa into Europe. Supporting this idea was the discovery reported last month of fossils of Homo sapiens in Morocco dating back 300,000 years.
But Posth said it was too soon to rule out another possibility: that these migrants belonged to another species in Africa closely related to us that scientists have yet to document.
“I feel uncomfortable to give a name to these humans,” Posth said.
Adam C. Siepel, a geneticist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island who was not involved in the new study, said the hypothesis fit the evidence. “I think that’s absolutely possible,” he said.
The new study raises a host of tantalizing implications about human history.
It is not possible to know just how many times these early Africans interbred with Neanderthals. But somewhere in prehistory, at least one female human from Africa must have carried the child of a male Neanderthal.
“Now you have this hybrid child, which is probably pretty unusual-looking,” Siepel said. “One way or another, this hybrid individual was absorbed into Neanderthal society.”
Siepel warned that the hypothesis hinges on the new DNA found in the Hohlenstein-Stadel fossil. Krause and his colleagues are now trying to retrieve nuclear DNA from the fossil.
The research at Sima de los Huesos shows just how far back in time scientists can now search for genes. The most revealing DNA might come from the mountains of Morocco.
There, scientists may be able to find genes from the earliest Homo sapiens, which they can then compare to Neanderthals’.
“These are things that I never thought possible five years ago,” Krause said.
(End of article)
Naturally, since most scientists whole-heartedly believe in the Theory of Evolution, the direction of their studies will lean towards proving their theories. The question we have before us is, do we believe the scientists or Elohim?
According to the Book of Genesis and Hebrew record keeping, Elohim created modern man close to 6,000 years (Hebrew calendar). Before that happened, the Earth was completely covered in water. It is not mentioned whether that water was in the form of ice (the Ice Age), or liquid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age
Ice age
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about a generic geological period of temperature reduction. For the most recent glacial period commonly referred to as the Ice Age, see Last glacial period and Pleistocene. For other uses, see Ice age (disambiguation).
An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Within a long-term ice age, individual pulses of cold climate are termed "glacial periods" (or alternatively "glacials" or "glaciations" or colloquially as "ice age"), and intermittent warm periods are called "interglacials". In the terminology of glaciology, ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheetsin both northern and southern hemispheres.[1] By this definition, we are in an interglacial period—the Holocene—of the ice age. The ice age began 2.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene epoch, because the Greenland, Arctic, and Antarctic ice sheets still exist.[2]
As you can see, scientists have divided these glacial periods into two categories, “glacial” and “interglacial”. So the Scriptures pretty much paint the same picture. Everyone assumes that when the Scriptures mention that the earth “was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”, it was talking of water in liquid form, but it could have just as easily been in its solid state. And, indeed, geological studies that have been done imply that the earth has gone through more than one of these cooling (glacial) and warming (interglacial) periods. Whether they all resulted in an “ice age” or not is not known.
We also have the scriptural record of the Noatian flood. According to that report, Elohim caused a world-wide flood that is also borne out by geographical evidence. Before that flood, the Scriptures record that the average life-span of man was close to 1,000 years. Following the flood, that life-span was shortened to 120 years. Was there a physical reason for that change?
A Christian scientist, who calls himself Dr. Dino, believes he has the answer, and his theory is that the Earth yielded a great deal more oxygen before the flood than it did afterward. He used this theory to explain the size of dinosaurs and some human remains of gigantic stature, as well as the difference in human longevity. Dr. Dino theorizes that because of that level of oxygen, mankind lived longer, grew taller, and dinosaurs, which are reptiles, did not stop growing for as long as they were alive. Since the same is true of reptiles today, I felt there was much credence to this theory. Yet again, it is just a theory, which is based more on belief and faith than actual evidence.
However, if this theory is true, how would it affect the results of such methods as carbon dating and DNA evidence? Dr. Dino theorized that because of the atmospheric change, carbon dating is only accurate back to the time of the flood. If true, could the same be said about DNA? I mean, there is quite a discrepancy between 6,000 years and a quarter of a million.
2 Thes. 2: 8 - And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom Yahuwah shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 - Even him, who’s coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 - And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 - And for this cause Elohim shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 - That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Could things such as carbon dating and DNA simply be types of these strong delusions talked about here? It is easy to claim, but harder to prove. I will admit I am at a loss to explain this DNA evidence. After all, I am not a scientist. I do my best to adhere to the Word of Yahuwah and base my beliefs in faith. Such faith is derived from my personal experiences in first being converted by the Word from a total atheist to a Believer, and by the miraculous events in my life, following that conversion. I am sure that we all share similar experiences.
One other theory, that I lean towards, is what is known as the “Gap Theory” that is promoted by some. This theory promotes the idea that there is an undetermined length of a gap between Genesis 1:1 and verse 2. This would certainly address the questions put forth by the scientific community concerning the scriptural account. Again, this is just a theory without any cooborating proof. However, common sense demands that there must have been a great cooling off period between when the earth was first formed until it could be populated with life.
As far as a link between Humans and Neanderthals, I can see that being true. After all they were similar in many ways. Does that mean that they mated with one another and walked the earth at the same time? Maybe, or maybe not! I mean, for example that even the Aborigines in Australia today somewhat resemble Neanderthals (no offence intended). Has anyone studied their DNA?
The following comes from this site:
Does the DNA tell the whole story?
No.
Mitochondrial DNA is just a portion of the human genetics. These genes are passed only from mother to child, so represent only maternal lineages, say scientists.
Furthermore, Llamas says, ancient specimens that the researchers can extract DNA from are limited. In this study, most of the ancient individuals are from Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. So, he says, "there may have been some kind of bias in our sampling."
As such, "The conclusions that we have drawn from this dataset may change in the future when we gather more data," he says. "It's an ongoing story."
Dr. Jenkins agrees that more research and more genetic data is necessary to fill out the picture. "I think that DNA in archeology is just going to get stronger as time goes on and I would hope that more archeologists would begin thinking and sampling in such ways that we can explore the genetic evidence that's around us all the time," he says. "It's going to become a really great tool for archeology."
"Ancient DNA is critical for understanding these details because it provides us with a direct snapshot of genetic diversity in the past, which can then be used to infer details about human history, including estimates of past population size, ancestor-descendent relationships, and population divergence. These are details which aren’t necessarily obtainable from archaeological or paleo-climate data," Jennifer Raff, a biological anthropologist at the University of Kansas who was not part of this study, tells the Monitor in an email.
Dr. Walker adds, "The use of DNA from pre-Columbian people is very innovative, it makes a lot of sense."
And this research won't just inspire more ancient DNA research, "Speaking as an archaeologist, I would see it as a reason to do more archaeological research" to confirm their models, Walker says.
DNA studies are in their infancy and there is much more study still needed to verify its legitimacy. Meanwhile, as with all other scientific studies, the results can be tainted by the bias of the one doing the interpreting. Not all scientists agree on every issue. Especially at odds are non-believing scientists and Christian scientists. Naturally, one would expect their conclusions to differ due to their biases.
Is it possible that a previous attempt to bring life to this planet occurred; and for whatever reason was wiped out by the Ice Age? I would concede that it is possible. Yet, I would also query as to whether such a creation was of Yahuwah or HaSatan (the elohim of this world). Was this part of the Satanic rebellion that threw the entire universe into a state of chaos and confusion? Only time will give us these answers.
My conclusion is that we do not know what we do not know. There is only One who knows everything and that is Yahuwah. One day we will know all things, but for now Yahuwah only provides us with the information we need to know in our relationship with the Creator today. And, that is cool with me. Instead of querying about the past, we should concentrate on our future inclusion into the New Creation and hold fast to the faith in Yahuwah’s word.
Yahuwah Bless
G.P.
Other sites of interest:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/evolution/female-ancestor.htm
https://www.livescience.com/38613-genetic-adam-and-eve-uncovered.html
https://realtruth.org/articles/090203-006-science.html