Why It Might Be Time to Rethink the Human Family Tree

Discussion (5 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

m3047•about 1 hour ago

Research is coming out specifically regarding the COVID genome which suggests missing sequence data was routinely filled in from baseline reference sequences. In turn, the reference sequences suggest during later analysis constant reversion back to the baseline. These gaps are the (dot) product of limitations of PCR * computer processing algorithms. No reason to believe the problem is limited to COVID.

bibimsz•about 2 hours ago

isn't it kind of suspect that there was all this diversity and branching conveniently right up to today and then it stopped. seems ideological.

sokoloff•about 1 hour ago

On a chart section spanning around 5 million years, are you asking about the millions of years where there was “all this diversity and branching” as contrasted with the last ten thousand years or so where there is less observed branching?

Around 15 branches in 5,000,000 years and 0 in the last 10,000 years seems more likely statistical than ideological to me.

guywithahat•21 minutes ago

I don't think anyone can look at the incredible diversity of humans we have now and say they're all the same species, while looking at birds or other animals and say they deserve to all be different species. One of those trains of thought are wrong, and humans seem to be the outlier.

That said, I don't want to be the one to have to tell people they're another race. I think calling all humans the same race simplifies a lot of life, and there's no reason we can't treat ourselves differently.

ThrowawayTestr•44 minutes ago

Are you not aware of the multiple genetic bottlenecks homo sapiens have gone through?

Why It Might Be Time to Rethink the Human Family Tree

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Discussion (5 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews