tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478664906099707316.post6142975328606038218..comments2023-08-16T02:59:07.053-07:00Comments on Writer's Daily Grind: Wolf x coyote hybrids find a niche in the Northeast?Anne Gilberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03045500116098233731noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478664906099707316.post-28628272115441978032009-09-26T13:01:54.088-07:002009-09-26T13:01:54.088-07:00Joan:
YOur question is not "ignorant" a...Joan:<br /><br />YOur question is not "ignorant" at all. Neandertals, as a distinct type, seem to have existed in Eurasia from about 230,000 years ago to about 25,000 years ago or so. "Modern" humans arose in AFrica about 200,000 years ago. Both groups coincided or coexisted in Europe for about 20,000 years until Neandertals died out. And the ancestor of both groups existed in Africa maybe 600,000 years or maybe 300,000 years ago, when one group of them wandered north and presumably Neandertals were their descendants. So yes, this is a long way of saying that N's both preceded, in a way, and later coexisted with "modern" humans.<br />Anne GAnne Gilberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03045500116098233731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478664906099707316.post-75567941053939702562009-09-25T22:24:02.905-07:002009-09-25T22:24:02.905-07:00Forgive my ignorance on this subject, but wasn'...Forgive my ignorance on this subject, but wasn't it once thought that neanderthals predated modern humans, but now there is some fossil evidence that shows both to have been around at the same time?Joanszhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00310350850882768819noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478664906099707316.post-44199366650728451662009-09-25T21:43:00.949-07:002009-09-25T21:43:00.949-07:00terryt:
This kind of hybridizing is common among ...terryt:<br /><br />This kind of hybridizing is common among Anas ducks, and I've seen examples of it, locally. And, as I said, it's common among Larus gulls, at least in the norhtern hemisphere. Many people are surprised, however, that it appears to be fairly common among certain mammals, and the genus Canis is one of them. My own belief, which I've expressed elsewhere, is that this was probably a fezature of the genus Homo, to, practically from the beginning. Again, this is something that is more or less implied in my book(s), but it's also one reason I consider them science fiction. I happen to be familiar, in a way, with Maju, though I'm not familiar with his website or blog or whatever it is. I'll be glad to check this out; he also contributes with some frequency to a blog called A Very Remote Period Inideed, which often has interesting "prehistoric" information. Oddly enough, there <b><i>are</i></b> "anthropological" people who are quite willing to consider the idea that Neandertals may have been part of the "mix" of at least some "modern" humans, even if that contribution was rather small, mainly due to the apparently small size of the Neandertal population. Be that as it may, I will check that Lehrensuge or leherensuge site out and see what I think.Anne Gilberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03045500116098233731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478664906099707316.post-42987763883672538512009-09-25T21:35:36.744-07:002009-09-25T21:35:36.744-07:00Joan:
Like I said, all members of the genus Canis...Joan:<br /><br />Like I said, <b><i>all</i></b> members of the genus Canis(and this includes domestic dogs, as well as wolves, coyotes, jackals, etc), can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. There have been experimental crossings of jackals x coyotes, that produce fertile offspring, for that matter. It wouldn't happen in the wild, since jackals live in Africa and Asia, and coyotes in the New World, but all members of this genus are closely related, and apparently relatively recently evolutionarily separated. Also many workers consider dogs a subspecies of wolf(Canis lupus familiaris, if you want to get techincal). Another point you brought up: I don't know all that much about genes and genetics, but I <b><i>do</i></b> know that (a) we are only just beginning to learn about the way a lot of DNA actually works, and (b) that environments -- which can include prenatal environments -- often have an effect on the way any particular gene is expressed and (c) a lot of genes may "work together" to produce a given characteristic in an organism. This makes the whole business of genetics very complicated and often subtle, in ways we yet know little about. But that's for a blog post, I guess, since some of these things are alluded to in my Great Medieval Science Fiction Masterpiece With Neandertals.Anne Gilberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03045500116098233731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478664906099707316.post-2068294706944615322009-09-25T20:43:56.294-07:002009-09-25T20:43:56.294-07:00"it appears that these sorts of 'mixings&..."it appears that these sorts of 'mixings' are more common in nature, at least under certain circumstances, than a lot of people like to suppose". <br /><br />And I'm absolutely flabbergasted that everyone doesn't yet automatically assume that to be so. I remember you commenting at a site where I pointed out the phenomenon was very common with Anas ducks, and probably more widespread than just for that genus. But I see that these days all references to the hydidising ability of ducks claim it to be unusual, virtually confined to them. Anything to avoid facing up to the reality that species cannot be rigidly defined and that we are not totally separate from all that has gone before. <br /><br />"And I have a feeling that there were human 'hybrid zones' from time to time during the course of prehistory, and yeah, Neandertals were part of this". <br /><br />I agree totally. Yet if anyone has the audacity to mention this on any anthropology sites one gets a very heated response I'm thinking especially of Maju's site, leherensuge, where I've been suffering that problem. Perhaps you'd like to join in. It's in his blog about the Acheulian in Europe being older than previously thought.terrythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17327062321100035888noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478664906099707316.post-11412284529730501782009-09-25T15:10:50.529-07:002009-09-25T15:10:50.529-07:00I live in Connecticut and I believe there are coyd...I live in Connecticut and I believe there are coydogs here (male coyote breeding with bitches), and like coywolves, they are fertile. Interestingly, a dog breeding with a female coyote is rarer and the offspring are classified as dogotes.<br /><br />From what I've read, the neanderthal genome is very similar to that of modern man, so even if we're able to recover a complete neanderthal genome from remains, it isn't certain that we'll be able to find any distinguishing markers.<br /><br />There's a whole new area of research called epigenetics, where scientists suggest that where the DNA is like the hardware of a computer, the epiDNA is the set of instructions that tells the hardware how to function. I just saw a program about this on one of the cable channels where some identical twins were studied where one of the twins had a very different outcome than the other twin. The scientists now think the reason is because something mutated in one of the twin's epiDNA. One example was where one girl had developed normally where the other had severe autism.<br /><br />Fascinating stuff.Joanszhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00310350850882768819noreply@blogger.com