20-06-2003 04:59									#31
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quote: Originally posted by MrFun Anyway, before Boris pooped on this thread to ruin the fun, anyone have any insight to the questions I asked?

My posts so far have been the most fun in the thread!

	20-06-2003 05:01									#32
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quote: Originally posted by Boris Godunov My posts so far have been the most fun in the thread!

Ok -- but you can go masturbate now that you got me to say that I was irked by the word "cavemen."

Glad you got your high today.

	20-06-2003 05:02									#33
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look at the scratching girls

	20-06-2003 05:03									#34
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quote: Originally posted by MrFun Anyway, before Boris pooped on this thread to ruin the fun, anyone have any insight to the questions I asked?

Just to play devils advocate, its 5 million years to develop language and learn to use a thumb

	20-06-2003 05:04									#35
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quote: Originally posted by MrFun Since you know everything about everything, can you elaborate?

The last 5 million years on earth was a period of unusually active cycles of climate change, so there was a high degree of preferential selection in favor of ability to rapidly adapt to the resulting changes in local habitat and species mix up and down the food chain.

If you look at the number of extinctions in that time frame that we know about, it was exceptionally high.

	20-06-2003 05:04									#36
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quote: Originally posted by reds4ever Just to play devils advocate, its 5 million years to develop language and learn to use a thumb

We went through several human species in only 5 million years.

Is that unusually rapid evolution or not -- I don't know.

	20-06-2003 05:05									#37
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quote: Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat The last 5 million years on earth was a period of unusually active cycles of climate change, so there was a high degree of preferential selection in favor of ability to rapidly adapt to the resulting changes in local habitat and species mix up and down the food chain. If you look at the number of extinctions in that time frame that we know about, it was exceptionally high.

Interesting -- I need to find more time to read about human prehistory when I'm not in the middle of a book on the Civil War or Reconstruction.

	20-06-2003 05:11									#38
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quote: Originally posted by MrFun We went through several human species in only 5 million years. Is that unusually rapid evolution or not -- I don't know.

Since were the best studied species ( by a long way) maybe, maybe not.

Theres more 'species' of human because we're very picky on what we call human. In another animal, Erectus to Homo Sapien might be considered one species,let alone Homo Sapien and Homo Homo Sapien being considered distinct (as is the case)

	20-06-2003 05:13									#39
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quote: Originally posted by reds4ever Since were the best studied species ( by a long way) maybe, maybe not. Theres more 'species' of human because we're very picky on what we call human. In another animal, Erectus to Homo Sapien might be considered one species, let alone Homo Sapien and Homo Homo Sapien being considered distinct

So we tend to more broadly classify non-human species than in regards to our own human species?

	20-06-2003 05:13									#40
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quote: Originally posted by MrFun Ok -- but you can go mastrubate now that you got me to say that I was irked by the word "cavemen." Glad you got your high today.

Hey, that was almost funny! A little bitter, though, and the mispelling of "masturbate" throws it off a little.

7.6.

	20-06-2003 05:15									#41
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quote: Originally posted by Boris Godunov Hey, that was almost funny! A little bitter, though, and the mispelling of "masturbate" throws it off a little. 7.6.

done already?

	20-06-2003 05:16									#42
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thank god this spat is over

	20-06-2003 05:17									#43
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quote: Originally posted by MrFun So we tend to more broadly classify non-human species than in regards to our own human species?

I'm no expert but thats the arguement, and it makes sense to me.

	20-06-2003 05:20									#44
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quote: Originally posted by MrFun Interesting -- I need to find more time to read about human prehistory when I'm not in the middle of a book on the Civil War or Reconstruction.

At least you figured out ol' Abe was the Yankee's President, not our'n.

BTW, it's really not that exceptional an evolution rate - evolution is highly variable. Ants, flies, cockroaches and sharks are all exceptionally well adapted for what they do and where they do it, so they are very stable genera in their basic features.

	20-06-2003 05:23									#45
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quote: Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat At least you figured out ol' Abe was the Yankee's President, not our'n. BTW, it's really not that exceptional an evolution rate - evolution is highly variable. Ants, flies, cockroaches and sharks are all exceptionally well adapted for what they do and where they do it, so they are very stable genera in their basic features.

Would you be surprised to know that many former Confederate leaders realized they were in for a much more traumatic Reconstruction with Lincoln's assassination?

	20-06-2003 05:27									#46
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quote: No, it's not a matter of offense -- it's just a fact -- the word cavemen is inaccruate, isn't it? You call an orange an orange, because it's an orange -- you don't call it an apple, right?

The program is targeted at the general (ignorant?) interested public, that makes the title correct imo.

quote: BTW, no people ever actually lived in caves. Sometimes they'd hide there from a thunderstorm (and make their funny drawings), but actually living there was never possible, due to cold, humidity and beasts living there.

Hmmm? even today in Spain for example some people are still living in caves.

	20-06-2003 14:26									#47
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quote: Originally posted by reds4ever Since were the best studied species ( by a long way) maybe, maybe not. Theres more 'species' of human because we're very picky on what we call human. In another animal, Erectus to Homo Sapien might be considered one species,let alone Homo Sapien and Homo Homo Sapien being considered distinct (as is the case)

Yup,
there is also the big question if Neandertals belong to our own species or not.
Some scientists have the Opinion that it should be "Homo neandertalensis" which would mean that Neandertals are of a different human species, other argue that Neandertals are much closer linked to humans and should be called "Homo sapiens neandertalensis".
It is closely linked to the question if Neandertals contributed to the Gene-Material of our own species (if they are of a different human species it is unlikely that they could do it) or if they were exterminated by the Cro Magnon.

	20-06-2003 14:43									#48
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It seems we are not related to Neanderthals.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3023685.stm

As for rates of evolution, they vary a lot. After a mass extinction there is a burst of evolutionary development for a few million years, then it all more or less settles down again. The earth's climate has been very variable for the last few Ma so rapid changes in the available habitats mean rapid extinction and evolution.

At such periods the species such as homo sapiens that are adaptable generalists do well and specialist species die out. Once the climate settles down then the specialists do better. The difference is that for the last few thousand years we have been changing our environment to suit us, rather than just changing to suit our environment.

They showed the series here in the UK a few months ago. It wasn't bad but a bit too populist for my liking. Also I don't like Robert Winston as a presenter, far too much insincere sentimentality and anthropomorphising.