The genomic revolution is an increasingly challenging, long-standing human evolution orthodoxy. An international team of geneticists headed by Matthias Meyer (pictured right below) of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany reported in the journal Nature earlier this month.
The team studied the mtDNA of 28 fossilized hominins estimated to be 400,000 years old from the Sima de Los Huesos cave in northern Spain‘s Alapuera Mountain range (pictured left).
Meyer’s team, which included legendary Swedish geneticist Svante Paabo, analyzed the genetics of these fossils collected during the 1970s. The study report, entitled “A mitochondrial genome sequence of a hominin from Sima de Los Huesos,” unexpectedly concluded that the fossils were genetically similar to the Denisovans, even though they morphologically resembled Neanderthals. Sima de los Huesos means “Pit of the Bones.”
Origin of Life scientists will assemble next month in Galveston, Texas, for the “Understanding the Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth and the Galaxy” conference hosted by Gordon Research Conferences (GRC), a non-profit organization started in 1931.
GRC gives scientists a forum to discuss “frontier research in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences, and their related technologies.” Access to the conference, however, is restricted. Only those sent an invitation can register − not even the press. The conference attendees must agree not to quote anyone. GRC is concealing the origin of life research. Australian news reporter, Suzan Mazur, concerned about the lack of transparency, published an interview with the conference organizer Steve Benner posted on the Huffington Post, noting:
“So I decided to have a chat with Steve Benner about the upcoming Texas Origins meeting.”
Radiometric dating is one of the most popular techniques in paleontology to establish the age of materials like stones and bones. Reported dates often fall in the millions or billions of years.
However, questions surround the art of radiometric dating − for good reasons.The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) recently ran the story “1.8 million-year-old skull may revise understanding of human evolution.”
Since the skull was unearthed in a medieval ninth-century A.D. village in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia known as Dmanisi, the obvious question centers on the validity of the million-year radiometric dating of the skull found within the same geological stratum as the village.
For more than two decades, international teams of paleoanthropologists have been discovering human-like fossils from a medieval archaeological site in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia known as Dmanisi.
A new human Georgian skull fuels the dilemma further. In 1991, David Lordkipanidze of the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi discovered the first four human-like fossils.
Increased archaeological interest in this Georgian site began in 1936 following the discovery of ancient and medieval artifacts.
Scientists have long known that extremely low levels of free-oxygen [< 10-5] atmosphere on early Earth are critical for any viable origin of life model of evolution.
The controversy surrounding the atmospheric concentration of oxygen in the origin of life stems from the laws of organic chemistry.
The autonomous assembly of complex organic molecules has only been observed in an oxygen-free atmosphere.
However, the evidence for an oxygen-free Earth atmosphere has a checkered history.
As a student at Christ’s College in Cambridge (1827-1831), Charles Darwin was reported given his first microscope by one of his insect-collecting friends, John Maurice Herbert. Today, scientists use satellite nanoscopes to study intracellular molecular dynamics and signaling networks between cells.
While loop networks have long been used in architecture, Uri Alon of the Weizmann Institute of Science is credited with discovering them in biology.
In 2002, Alon published a by entitled “Network motifs in the transcriptional regulation network of Escherichia coli” in the April edition of the journal Nature Genetics. These newly recognized loop networks, however, challenge the theory of evolution.
Geographical isolation is a driving force of speciation, hypothesized by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species by means of natural selection. The emergence of new species is “chiefly grounded on the laws of geographical distribution, that forms now perfectly distinct [species] have descended from a single parent-form,” Darwin argued.
The University of California Berkeley (UCB) Evolution 101 hosts the website page “Causes of Speciation.” Their argument for the theory is logical:
“Scientists think that geographic isolation is a common way for the process of speciation to begin: rivers change course, mountains rise, continents drift, organisms migrate, and what was once a continuous population is divided into two or more smaller populations.”
The only known sister Rhinoderma species, Rhinoderma rufum, was discovered by French zoologist André Marie Constant Duméril (1774 – 1860) in Argentina. In 2004, the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed R. rufum as “critically endangered” and R. darwinii as “vulnerable.”
The history of the evolutionary tree of life, from Greek philosophers to twenty-first-century scientists, gives insights into the theory’s origin and transition through Western civilization.
While approaches have been diverse, elements progressing into increasing complexity over time are a constant theme.
Porphyry (234–305 BC), a third-century Greek philosopher, composed the first known tree of life in his work entitled Isagoge while living in Sicily. Isagoge is an “Introduction” Porphyry edited into Aristotle‘s (384–322 BC) text known as Categories.
Charles Darwin started the debate over where humans originated. In the 19th century, most evolution scientists believed humans originated in Asia–the Out-of-Asia model. In the 6th Edition of The Origin of Species (1872), while Darwin mentions “humans” ten times, he never discusses the origin of humans.
Darwin, Then and Now, the Most Amazing Story in the History of Science, chronicles Darwin's life, how he developed his hypothesis, specifically what he said, and what scientists have discovered since the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859.
The book traces the rise and fall of evolution's popularity as a scientifically valid theory. With over 1,000 references from Darwin and scientists, Darwin Then and Now retraces developments in the most amazing story in the history of science.
Darwin Then and Now is an educational resource focusing on understanding the intersection of evolution and science to develop basic skills for analyzing and assessing the theory of biological evolution.
The genomic revolution is an increasingly challenging, long-standing human evolution orthodoxy. An international team of geneticists headed by Matthias Meyer (pictured right below) of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany reported in the journal Nature earlier this month.
Origin of Life scientists will assemble next month in Galveston, Texas, for the “Understanding the Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth and the Galaxy” 
Geographical isolation is a driving force of speciation, hypothesized by 
In December 1834, during the five-year voyage of the 
The history of the evolutionary tree of life, from 
Charles Darwin started the debate over where humans originated. In the 19th century, most evolution scientists believed humans originated in Asia–the 