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Are we hybrids?

Discussion in 'Alley of Dangerous Angles' started by Paracelsi, Sep 3, 2013.

  1. Paracelsi

    Paracelsi Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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  2. Harbourboy

    Harbourboy Take thy form from off my door! Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    That is a long article! Fascinating, but I have no way of verifying any of the science he refers to. I wonder why the author is so against a test of his theory.
     
  3. Ofelix

    Ofelix The world changes, we do not, what irony!

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    The arguments and evidences seems to be pointing towards an Hybrid Human species, but just as Harbourboy I lack the necessary scientific knowledge to verify it. I have to say I find this theory fascinating though. It's not like the "we evolved naturally from primates (non hybrid)"* theory is beyond doubt. At any rate it's fascinating, if it's true then call me a hairless pig-monkey thing, if it's not then, I guess I'm just an hairless monkey.

    So... does this mean eating bacon is cannibalizing ? Damn, I love me some bacon !

    *Or however it's called, I 'unno.
     
  4. Splunge

    Splunge Bhaal’s financial advisor Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    T2Bruno's father was a goat herder. Guess what kind of hybrid T2 is...


    :p
     
  5. Darion

    Darion Resident Dissident Veteran BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    An interesting week.
    First we're from Mars and now Hybrids.
    Could be both for all we know. ;)
     
  6. Nakia

    Nakia The night is mine Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    Interesting. He does state that this is a hypothesis only and not proven fact. Before finishing the article and finding out what he considered our second parent I went over the list of traits on the second page and quickly realized what animal he considered our ancestor.

    Genesis tells us that Adam was made from dirt and divine spit. The therory of this scientist certainly makes more sense to me than that. That is just my opinion.
     
  7. Barmy Army

    Barmy Army Simple mind, simple pleasures... Adored Veteran

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    Stupid BA time again, but I don't understand what you mean by 'hybrid'? Do you mean pre-historic man mated with other species and made humans as we know? That's how my brain interprets the word!
     
  8. Ofelix

    Ofelix The world changes, we do not, what irony!

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    That would be the standard defenition, yes. Taking from the same website as the article:

    hybrid /'haɪbrɪd, -brəd/ n. (1) the offspring of genetically distinct parents; (2) the offspring of mating between individuals treated as separate species ; (3) a single strand of DNA annealed to a strand of complementary RNA; (4) a virus composed of units derived from two or more parental viruses.

    Source

    Taking from dictionary.reference.com (relevent bits)

    hybrid  
    hy·brid /ˈhaɪbrɪd/
    noun
    1.
    the offspring of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species, or genera, especially as produced through human manipulation for specific genetic characteristics.

    [...]

    Source

    Btw, I should point out that "especially as produced through human manipulation" doesn't mean exclusively through human manipulation
     
  9. Paracelsi

    Paracelsi Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Also a careless typo on my part. It should read "Are we hybrids?"
     
  10. Nakia

    Nakia The night is mine Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    Hybrid as used in this study means two different species, specifically a primate probably of the chimpanzee line and one of the early swine family. Thus producing some creature that after a period of six million years eventually evolved into homo sapiens..
     
  11. Gaear

    Gaear ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful

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    I was wondering about that. I kept reading it like a hybrid car tagline or something, similar to when nouns become verbs in cool-speak. Like "Do you hybrid?" ;)
     
  12. Barmy Army

    Barmy Army Simple mind, simple pleasures... Adored Veteran

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    So.... what is he/she actually saying?
     
  13. T2Bruno

    T2Bruno The only source of knowledge is experience Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Bunch of bunk. If hybrid with other species were possible for humans the porn industry would be filled with hybrid children ... just sayin'.

    I have very few memories of my father from childhood ... he was in the Navy for a while but he could have been a goat herder and I would never have known. :p
     
  14. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Well joking aside, that's not what the article is saying. In fact quite the opposite. The observation that humans do not hybridize with other species is evidence in favor of humans being a hybrid species because an aspect of hybrids is that they have lower fertility than non-hybrids (or so is the claim in the article).

    The claim of the article is that a chimpanzee (a supposedly non-hybrid species) hybridized with a pig (another supposedly non-hybrid species) to produce the hybrid species human (or some early ancestor).

    I would have expected the author to talk about the ancestors of pigs and chimps though... surprises me that he didn't.
     
  15. Nakia

    Nakia The night is mine Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    I did a search to see if I could get some bonafides for the scientist Eugene M McCarthy and came up with this article. http://phys.org/news/2013-07-chimp-pig-hybrid-humans.html

    I have no idea how much the site can be trusted though. It has quite a few scientific articles or are they quasi scientific articles? I have no idea.

    There are various theories of how we got here, how we evolved.

    We are descended from aliens.
    We are genetically produced by aliens from chimps.
    We evolved in a cabbage patch.
    The stork brought us.

    The big problem is that so far scientists have not found the missing link or links. At least this guy does seem to have some evidence to support his claim. Six million years is a long time. Maybe scientists should go pull out those bones the stuck in closets labeled "No idea what these things are" and check them out for chimp/pig possibilities.

    Personally I don't care about what happened six million years ago. I am here now how ever I got here. I woke up this morning, swore a little about its being morning, had my coffee, did what I need to do get myself started on a new day. Decided I was glad to be alive and then found this article here. I now have something interesting to upset people with thanks to Sorcerers Place and its fantastic members.
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2013
  16. Harbourboy

    Harbourboy Take thy form from off my door! Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    He also suggests that gorillas are the hybrid descendants of chimpanzees and the giant forest hog. He also talks about some mysterious unexplained apes that he says are the hybrids of gorillas and chimpanzees.
     
  17. coineineagh

    coineineagh I wish for a horde to overrun my enemies Resourceful Adored Veteran

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    The answer would be yes, we are hybrids. Hybridization is such a broad term, and is linked to the rather arbitrary and unclear definition of what we see as a species. Unless we narrow down what is meant by hybridization, the answer is simply yes.

    From what I read, the author thinks our ancestors might have come from a cross between chimpanzee and pre-humans. It's not impossible. Unfortunately, it's been a while since I've done any genetic analysis, and I don't have my study books at hand either. I can't say much about how sound his claim is.
     
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