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If we killed off other humanlike species because they terrified us, wouldn't we have also killed off other species that terrify us, like snakes, rats, cockroach
by iacvlvs 15y ago
If we killed off other humanlike species because they terrified us, wouldn't we have also killed off other species that terrify us, like snakes, rats, cockroaches and spiders?
I can't find a reference right now but I remember reading somewhere that European Homo Sapiens contain genetic evidence of interbreeding with Neanderthals, and Asian Homo Sapiens contain genetic evidence of a second, later round of more interbreeding with Neanderthals. I think that suggests we didn't find them all that horrifying :)
- rvkennedy 15y agoThis is a very recent discovery - the findings come from sequencing the Neanderthal genome by the Max Planck Institute. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8660940.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8660940.stm
- oflannabhra 15y agoWhoa, I had no idea we had done that. Have we sequenced genomes from any human species? edit: wikipedia and google searches haven't revealed any positives. Thanks for that link though, very interesting.
- maxklein 15y agoSnakes, rats, cockroaches and spiders are very difficult to kill off. If we could, we would wipe them off, but even with modern technology, we can't get rid of them, back in the past it would not have been possible. The reference to interbreeding with neanderthals is a single DNA study, and it does not say what you think it says. It says that non-african humans share a more DNA with neanderthals than africans. The shared DNA could have come from the exit point from Africa or some other location where everyone leaving Africa passed through (like the horn of Africa). The neanderthal breeding theory is not credible at all, because the strongest overlap between neanderthals and modern humans on a DNA basis comes from the far east, where there is no skeletal history of neanderthals existing.
- ImprovedSilence 15y agokilling off spiders would be a god terrible idea. then who would kill your bugs?
- andrewflnr 15y agoWe would, of course. Then we would manually polinate flowers and break down plant waste with chemicals.
- maxklein 15y agoYou can read more about this here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Neanderthal_admixture_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Neanderthal_admixture_theo...
- Roritharr 15y agoIs there actually a demand for killing off snakes, rats and cockroaches entirely? I'm sure if we really thought long and hard...
- ericd 15y agoAll of those other species you mentioned can hide from us easily, can reproduce relatively quickly, and/or can live in environments that humans can't survive in. Not so with humanoids.