From: derek gatherer (dgatherer2002@yahoo.co.uk)
Date: Wed 29 Oct 2003 - 09:11:19 GMT
> This seems to be true for Y, but I don't think it
> can be shown to be the
> case for the rest of the genome.
But it does seem to be true for at least those other
parts of the genome that have been sufficiently well
analysed, eg.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8640220&dopt=Abstract {œ
Anyway, let's suppose that that there is some truth in
the regional continuity hypothesis and that modern
non-African populations do have some steppe erectus or
neanderthal genes in them. I still don't see how
evolutionary pressures on northern erectus populations
can have had much effect on modern human brains as a
whole. You could postulate that non-African brains
are in some way different to the brains of Africans,
but surely that is not what Calvin is arguing....?
The only other alternative would be that the changes
in erectus brains that happened on the Eurasian
steppes somehow, by gene flow or back-migration into
Africa, got incorporated in African brains too.
Of course, as I said, I haven't actually read the
book, so perhaps I have the wrong end of the stick entirely......
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