The Post of Human Origins

PBS aired two episodes of the amazing First Peoples program last night.  These were episodes about the first peoples of America and Africa.  How very interesting!  I was hoping for some good archaic humans information, and PBS did not disappoint. There were also theories of modern human migration that turned on their heads the old ones that I had been taught.

One very interesting theme of both episodes was that the first peoples who settled America and Africa did not come out of solely one gene pool, such as in a Garden of Eden theory.  They told how remains have been found of people in the Americas who were dated as being here before the previously supposed first people who crossed the famous Bering Straight Land Bridge and who  hunted the great mammoths. This means there must have been at least one different route of human migration into the Americas other than the Land Bridge that we all learned about in elementary school? Interestingly, one of these ancients has been linked genetically to modern Native Americans. That is fascinating.

When we got to the Africa episode, they told of archaic humans!  These were the humans who lived before and with us, the modern humans.  There was a very cool story about an African-American family with an enslaved ancestor who may have been carrying DNA from an archaic human group in Africa.  The family learned this after doing some commercial DNA ancestry testing.

I am also interested in archaic humans due to DNA ancestry testing.  After many years of speculation of Asian or Native American genes in my mother's family, I forked over some money to  a company to test my genetic makeup and report for certain what is there.  Well, the results came back very heavily Southwest Virginia mountaineer by way of England, Ireland, Normandy and Germany.  That is what I had expected.  There was a tiny amount of Subsaharian Africian DNA, which also did not surprise me.  What did surprise me was a little Finnish ancestry.  Where did that come from?  Vikings?  And, the supposed Asian or Native American DNA?  Only teeny amounts showed up, like .001 percent.

The big surprise is that the company said I carry 3.2 percent Neanderthal genome DNA. Apparently this is high normal for a modern human of European ancestry.  Now I am a big Neanderthal fan and sometimes like to type like a Neanderthal, ugh. :)

Mom, whose maternal halogroup we now know, and I visited the Hall of Human Origins in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum this spring. We saw casts of Lucy and the hobbit and facial reconstruction of archaic humans.  When there was an opportunity for a photo shoot that merged my features with the Neanderthal reconstruction, I did it, with this result.  I think you could only be a male Neanderthal.

Thanks, Smithsonian!

Spider web Photos

Here are some spider webs early this morning, all wet from last night's rain.  Those dewy spider webs reminded me of autumn, but today was hot and humid and certainly did not feel like autumn.

I also like how the morning light was captured in the first two photographs.

A side note:

I love to drink bottled teas with natural ingredients and am currently having McCutcheon's Real Brewed Peach Iced Tea.  It is from Frederick, Maryland.

Blog is back with a post that is no bull!

I have decided to resurrect the nature blog. There are certainly many fascinating things happening in nature and science these days!  This post will not be about American chestnuts as promised in the last entry, however.  Perhaps later we will have a chestnut post. Get it, a chestnut post?! 
Let's move on.

Some of the biggest nature news lately is the upcoming papal encyclical on climate change.  This made me ask, what is an encyclical and how is it different from the papal bulls that we heard about in history class.

Well, I looked it up and an encyclical is a circulating letter written by the pope to bishops, archbishops, etc. Pope Francis said that this letter will be to all good people of the world though in addition to the clergy.  Sometimes an encyclical is written to end a theological debate.

When talking about older documents, a bull is a somewhat nonspecific term for a document from the pope. These were first written on round metal plates that reminded people of boiling bubbles.  Later, they had affixed lead seals.  Modern papal bulls may or may not have the metal seals. Modern papal bulls are the most formal documents currently issued by the Vatican.

It will be interesting to hear what Pope Francis says tomorrow.  He often seems to model and teach Christlike behavior.  

In other news, I am reading two science/ nature books this summer and hope to report here on them.  One is on sharks!

PS- I don't know how to make that white background above go away.  Sorry.