Confidence intervals for estimates of human mtDNA sequence diversity, chimpanzee-human mtDNA sequence divergence, and the time of splitting of the pongid-hominid lineages are presented. Consistent with all the data used in estimating the coalescence time for human mitochondrial lineages to a common ancestral mitochondrion is a range of dates from less than 79,000 years ago to more than 1,139,000 years ago. Consequently, the hypothesis that a migration of modern humans (Homo sapiens) out of Africa in the range of 140,000 to 280,000 years ago resulted in the complete replacement, without genetic interchange, of earlier Eurasian hominid populations (Homo erectus) is but one of several possible interpretations of the mtDNA data. The data are also compatible with the hypothesis, suggested earlier and supported by fossil evidence, of a single, more ancient expansion of the range of Homo erectus from Africa, followed by a gradual transition to Homo sapiens in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Humans are a part of the complex system of life. This consists of a multitude of feedbacks among all parts of living systems. In the case of human origins, many feedbacks became positive rather than homeostatic, thus producing self-amplifying effects in basic morphological and behavioural characteristics of emerging humans: erect bipedalism, social structure, tool-making, food procurement and environmental management, symbolic communication, sexuality, extended childhood, and mental capacities. These, plus many other human characteristics, changed gradually, though at varying rates, over the last 6 million years, producing directional variation in extant morphological and behavioural characteristics of what are considered modern humans. The change through time and geographic space of those characteristics is an ongoing dynamic process, thus it is futile to pose essentialist questions about the precise date and place of the modern human origins. Modernity is a process, not an endpoint.

Creation and subsequent abandonment of a number of earlier species considered human ancestors: Eoanthropus dawsoni, Hesperopithecus haroldcooki, Homo gardarensis and Ramapithecus punjabicus is presented using cases from the history of science. This review indicates that the fossil evidence for these species has been questionable from the beginning but that mental images – memes – they invoked were attractive to students of human evolution and as such persisted even if not confirmed by further finds, with new research still being disputed. Against this background the status of the recent construction of the hominin species “Homo floresiensis” is discussed showing that despite dubious interpretations of the objective data and a relatively long time of non-confirmation due to paucity of newly discovered skeletal remains, the “species” still exists in minds of scholars and in the scientific literature extending into textbooks.

Our thesis is that the reason many of us today are inclined toward socialism (explicit cooperation) and against laissez-faire capitalism (implicit cooperation) is because the first type of behavior was much more genetically beneficial during previous generations of our species. There is, however, a seemingly strong argument against this hypothesis: evidence from human prehistory indicates that trade (implicit cooperation) previously was widespread. How, then, can we be hard-wired in favor of socialism and against capitalism if our ancestors were engaged in market behavior in past millennia? Although trade which is self-centered and beneficial (presumably mutually beneficial to all parties in the exchange) did indeed appear hundreds of thousands of years ago, benevolence was established in our hard-wiring very substantially earlier, literally hundreds of millions of years ago, and is therefore far more deeply integrated into the human psyche.

The calcar femorale (CF), a plate of dense bone internal to the lesser trochanter, is visible on computed tomographic images of the 6 million-year-old femoral fragment BAR 1003'00 (from the taxon Orrorin tugenensis), among the oldest specimens relevant to reconstructing the evolution of human bipedal locomotion. A strongly expressed CF has been used previously as an indicator of bipedality. If true, then there should be a quantifiable difference in the CF among hominoids. Absolute and normalized CF lengths were measured from computed tomographic images at five anatomical locations along the proximal portion of BAR 1003'00 in addition to samples of nine H. sapiens and ten P. troglodytes femora. The span of the CF superiorly to inferiorly within the proximal femur was measured by counting the number of cross-sections on which the CF occurred. A Bayesian approach was used to classify the BAR 1003'00 sample based on normalized lengths. The P. troglodytes femora were more variable both in the occurrence of the trait and, where present, its span in the proximal femur. The H. sapiens sample exhibited CF lengths that were consistently larger at each location than the P. troglodytes in absolute terms, but the normalized lengths overlap substantially. The Bayesian posterior probability test classifies the CF of BAR 1003'00 with H. sapiens. The BAR 1003'00's calcar femorale has a strong anatomical similarity to the H. sapiens sample, supporting the conclusion that O. tugenensis is an early bipedal hominin. Anat Rec, 301:1834-1839, 2018. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Nelson and Masel (1) present a general mathematical model that describes effects of somatic cell changes on aging bounded by juxtaposed loss of cellular vigor and uncontrolled cell growth. The formulation reflects observations on a wide range of multicellular organisms, from Caenorhabditis elegans to Homo sapiens , incorporating the Picard–Lindelof and Frobenius theorems, and using the Price equation to describe general effects of intercellular competition over organismal lifespan. The authors propose further comparisons: across taxa, among individuals of the same population, among tissues of the same individual, and across developmental time. Here we document parallel patterns bounded by vigor vs. proliferation developmentally mediated above intercellular levels. Our constructive perspective includes and extends research (2) on a unique human subpopulation defined by the common developmental genetic signature of Down syndrome (DS), trisomy-21. Phenotypically, DS … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: eyl{at}psu.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

癌细胞与正常的人体细胞不同.根据体细胞突变理论(SMT),癌细胞是基因突变的结果.该理论还采用达尔文主义的基本原理,假设癌细胞生长是自然选择下“适者生存”的结果.与此相反,我们采用Margulis的演化理论来解释癌症的起源,并提出癌细胞由遗传而来:癌基因组起源于寄生在原核生物宿主中的细菌;在大约20亿年前的“氧气革命”期间,癌基因组与原核生物基因组因内共生作用而融合;后来宿主演化成为真核生物(原生生物、真菌、植物和动物),每种真核生物都具有其独特的基因组;经过同样的时间间隔,原寄生细菌基因组则演化成为真核生物内的癌干细胞基因组.当前SMT假设人类基因组的突变导致癌症,但该理论无法识别编码肿瘤生长的基因组序列,也无法解释:突变为何会造成癌细胞失控性生长及复制？癌症为何是一种代谢性疾病？癌症死亡率为何与亚硝酸盐污染有关？中国用不含亚硝酸盐的公共供水源的试验为何竟可以拯救许多癌症患者的生命？SMT没能充分回答许多“神秘”的癌症问题.相反,我们提出的生物演化理论可以回答这些相关事实,包括那些SMT不能充分解释的问题.我们的理论根据是:癌基因组图谱(TCGA)的科学家未能在正常的人类基因组序列中发现突变或未突变的癌基因组.是癌基因组编码了癌细胞的生长及复制和一种不同的代谢模式.我们的理论假设,癌症起源于“休眠中”的癌干细胞因为受亚硝酸盐的影响而被激活,其中一个癌基因组编码了厌氧或缺氧的代谢模式,为癌细胞的生长及复制提供能量和生物量,其他基因组则编码了癌细胞的失控性生长及复制和其他癌症特征.亚硝酸盐以10-9级别的浓度干扰人体正常的代谢和复制等机能.事实说明,亚硝酸盐可被定义为一种毒药.识别慢性中毒的困难可以用孟加拉国公共供水造成的砷中毒作为例证.癌症应被视为由亚硝酸盐中毒引起的疾病来进行治疗是一个假说,它可以解释为什么当中国部分地区的正常公共供水改用标准化深井水(SDWW)时,癌症死亡率可以减半.这个假说需要另一个假设来解释亚硝酸盐中毒并不影响所有饮用公共供水的人,而只影响其中一部分人.我们必须假设癌症的产生是由于干细胞,其中包括一个癌干细胞,被召唤去以修复细胞的损伤.将这些打破常规的假说放在一起,很多专家认为我们的生物演化理论是天方夜谭而不予理会.实际上,这个假说已由中国过去的SDWW实验所证实.一些医院的试验也证实,若癌症晚期患者每天饮用不含亚硝酸盐的水,癌症可以被治愈.我们对癌症晚期不可治愈这一论断提出质疑,并假定癌症是慢性亚硝酸盐中毒所致.我们呼吁其他科学家进行实验和临床试验来验证这一假说,使至少一半的晚期癌症患者,当他们的饮用水供应源不含亚硝酸盐时,可以被治愈.与此同时,我们应该将过去半个世纪以来献身医学的科学家们的成果,整合为一个“新的体系”.