Science confirms – 8. Collection of scientific articles

© Андрей Тихомиров, 2025

ISBN 978-5-0067-1845-6 (т. 8)

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Formation of hominids

All people are relatives! It has been scientifically proven that man is a mutated monkey (Homo sapiens) and the closest relatives to us according to the decoded genome are primates. Everything else (creationism, the «selectivity» of certain peoples) is nothing more than self-deception. Man, just like other beings, did not appear as a result of «divine forces», but only through mutations, genetic changes. The main mutation occurred about 2.4 million years ago in a gene that controls the development of jaw muscles and in modern humans is called MYH16. As a result of this seemingly small change in the genome, the jaw muscles of our ancestors began to weaken, which forced the use of the first tools – a digging stick and a nucleus (processed stone), the future prototype of the scepter and the power of royalty. It was the change in the jaw muscles, which, having become less powerful, exerted less pressure on the skull, which ensured its different structure, allowing the development of a much larger brain, because only human cubs have non-overgrown places on the head (fontanelles), which are delayed over time by 3—5 years. No other living beings have this! According to the latest scientific research, all modern diverse humanity comes from one small African tribe. But there were other types of people: Neanderthals, Pithecanthropus, Synanthropus and others, some of them died out, some assimilated with Homo sapiens.

There is also a mathematical proof of kinship, in this case from the point of view of increasing the number of relatives exponentially (with an average difference between generations of 25—35 years): any person has 1 two parents 2, they also have two parents, that is, it turns out four 4, further 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048… 8 589 934 592 In other words, 1000 years ago, any living person had more ancestors than now lives on the whole globe. The answer to the paradox is simple: in fact, there are many times fewer ancestors, since people entered into incestuous contacts (incest), often without knowing about it. If you go back to more ancient times, then, of course, there will be even more ancestors.

Andrey Tikhomirov, «Relatives. History in Photographs», «PoLyART», Orenburg, 2016

Scientists have named a new human ancestor

A new species of human ancestor that lived on the territory of present – day Ethiopia in the Middle Pleistocene received its official name – Homo bodoensis, from the place where his skull was found. The article was published in the journal Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews.

In the Middle Pleistocene, covering the time interval from 774 to 129 thousand years ago, the species Homo sapiens was laid in Africa, and its closest relatives, the Neanderthals, appeared in Europe. However, this period, which is extremely important from the point of view of anthropology, is very poorly studied.

An international group of researchers led by a paleoanthropologist at the University of Winnipeg, Dr. Mirjana Roksandic, announced the naming of a new species of human ancestor Homo bodoensis. The name comes from the place Bodo D’ar in Ethiopia, where the skull was found.

The authors believe that Homo bodoensis, which lived in Africa in the Middle Pleistocene, about half a million years ago, was the direct ancestor of modern man. According to their proposed classification, most Homo finds from Africa and some from Southeastern Europe should be attributed to the new species, while most people of this time from the European continent should be more correctly classified as Neanderthals.

Traditionally, these fossils were attributed to either Homo heidelbergensis or Homo rhodesiensis, both of which had several – often contradictory – definitions.

«It became impossible to talk about human evolution in this period of time due to the lack of proper terminology that recognizes the geographical differences of a person,» Miryana Roksandich said in a press release from the University of Winnipeg.

Recently published DNA analysis data showed that some fossils in Europe, called Homo heidelbergensis, actually belonged to early Neanderthals. It does not match their DNA and the fossils of ancient people from Asia. In the light of all these data, according to the authors, the name «Heidelberg man» is generally redundant and should be excluded from the classification.

By the same logic, the authors propose to abandon the name Homo rhodesiensis, which is attributed to the African finds of this period. Scientists believe that the selection of a new species will clarify the confusion reigning in evolutionary schemes.

«In science, the terms should be clear to facilitate communication. They should not be regarded as absolute if they contradict the fossil record,» says another author of the article, Predrag Radovic from the University of Belgrade.

The researchers hope that the new name, approved by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, will be accepted by the community of anthropologists.

Scientists have identified the genetic differences between humans and other mammals

American biologists have found out that in the zones of accelerated development – areas of the human genome that differ significantly from similar segments in the genome of other mammals – mainly genes that determine the evolutionary development of the brain are concentrated. The results of the study are published in the journal Neuron.

There are more than three thousand sites in the human genome that strongly distinguish humans from other mammals, including primates. Geneticists call them zones of accelerated development in humans, or HAR (Human accelerated regions).

Researchers from Harvard University, together with colleagues from other universities and institutes in the USA, conducted a systematic analysis of all 3171 previously identified HAR sites and studied the role of these regions in the regulation of genes in cells and tissues of various types in humans and mice. The results showed that more than half of them played an important role in the accelerated evolution of the human brain.

«What makes us human? This is probably one of the most interesting questions of neuroscience, – the words of the head of the study Christopher Walsh from Harvard University and the Allen Center for Research on the Evolution of the Human Brain at Harvard Medical School are quoted in the press release of the publishing house. – In particular, what distinguishes the human brain from the brain of other closely related species? Considering the zones of accelerated development in humans has provided us with a purposeful way to study this issue from a genetic point of view.»

Previously, it was known that many HARS function as regulators of gene expression in the brain, but scientists knew very little about what types of brain cells they work in, and at what time during a person’s life they turn on.

«Our goal was to fill in the gaps in knowledge about which HARS play a key role in the brain, and which one, to take the most important „brain“ HARS and conduct more in – depth tests of their evolutionary function,» explains another author of the study Ellen DeGennaro, an employee of the Department of Genetics and Harvard Medical School genomics.

To cope with this task, Walsh and his colleagues have developed a new applied approach called CaptureMPRA, based on the capture with a probe of molecular inversion of target HAR sequences and their surrounding DNA.

After that, they identified important differences in the functions of similar sections of the genome between humans and chimpanzees. Combining the results obtained with epigenetic data on HAR in human fetal nerve cells, the authors identified HARS that play an important role in controlling human brain development.

It turned out that many HARS actually act as enhancers of the development of the nervous system, and the data obtained indicate that as these human sequences diverged from the sequences of other mammals, their role as neuronal enhancers increased.

«Our work represents an important step forward in the study of many parts of the genome at once. This helps us piece together a very complex but compelling picture of the evolution of the human brain,» says Walsh.

The results of the study show that the evolution of the human brain included changes in dozens and even hundreds of sections of the genome, and not just in one key gene.

The dragon’s skull. The Chinese have issued a new version of the origin of Homo sapiens

Several scientific groups announced the discovery of the remains of a species transitional between homo erectus, intelligent and its extinct relatives. It is possible that several sister evolutionary lines existed in China and the Middle East simultaneously with Homo sapiens. All this makes the history of the human race extremely complicated.

The discovery of a new kind of people

In 1933, during the reconstruction of the bridge in the Chinese city of Harbin, almost an entire skull of an ancient man was found. Only in 2018 it was transferred to the Geological University of Hubei Province. Three articles in the journal Innovation are devoted to the description of the find.

The skull is very massive, with archaic features that make it related to both the erect and Heidelberg man. At the same time, a large vault housed a large brain, a face almost like ours, only wider. A number of details resemble skulls found earlier in China. But the only preserved tooth looks more like Denisov’s.

All this explosive mixture of antiquity and modernity did not allow the find to be attributed to any known sapiens species, so the authors of the study decided that this was its sister line. She was named Homo longi, which means «dragon man».

The skull was located in layers formed 800—100 thousand years ago. Information about the exact location, stratigraphy has not been preserved, and to clarify the age, scientists analyzed the content of rare elements, the ratio of strontium isotopes in the inclusions of the rock. Compared with the results of studying the bones of humans and other mammals, presumably from the same horizons. In addition, micro-samples from the skull were dated using the thorium-uranium method. It turned out that the «dragon man» is at least 146 thousand years old. At that time, people of an unknown species lived on the territory of China, whose remains were found in Chinnyushan, Dali, Hualundong cave. And Denisovans lived in the high-mountain cave of Baishya.

The appearance of the «dragon man» was reconstructed. He was a round-faced man in his fifties with a low forehead, overhanging brow ridges and a wide nose. Most likely, the skin, hair and eyes were dark, like those of Neanderthals, Denisovans and early Sapiens.

When Homo sapiens left Africa

Some consider early humans in China to be transitioning from an upright man to an Asian lineage with modern anatomy. The authors of the work on Homo longi have a different opinion: the «dragon man» is an independent branch that arose in Africa about a million years ago.

Having no analysis of ancient DNA in their hands, scientists applied the Bayesian approach – a mathematical method that allows you to build an evolutionary tree based on heterogeneous source data. According to calculations, intelligent man lived on the territory of China already 400 thousand years ago. This contradicts the results obtained earlier.

In 1978, two incomplete human skulls and bone fragments were found during excavations in the Apidima cave in northern Greece. Anthropologists have determined that one belonged to early Homo sapiens, the other to a Neanderthal. The uranium-thorium method showed the age of the find – 210 thousand years. This is the oldest intelligent person outside the ancestral homeland. However, some researchers doubt that the skulls from Harbin and Apidima can be attributed to Homo sapiens, and criticize the dating.

And here is a new sensation – in Israel, several fragments of a 140—120 thousand-year-old skull were found in the Nesher Ramla cave. They combine archaic and advanced Neanderthal features, so scientists consider them as a special ancestral line of this kind of people. And given the general details with two more types of people, a hypothesis about a special line of Neanderthal ancestors, isolated about 400 thousand years ago and ended its existence in Nesher Ramla, suggests itself. At the same time, Sapiens had already settled in the caves to the north of them.

So far, the history of the human race is rather complicated and far from complete. The reason for this is a lot of finds not only in Europe and Africa, but also in the Middle East, in China. And, of course, this is not the limit. Different degrees of preservation, a variety of techniques open up a wide scope for interpretation. One thing is clear: for the last 200 thousand years, the planet has been inhabited by many populations of ancient people, including Homo sapiens. They actively migrated, exchanged technologies, and possibly interbred.

The earth, whether we want it or not, is invaded by monkeys who call themselves the first (primate from Latin. primatus is the first place, seniority) and whatever one may say, but the so—called intelligent people (Homo sapiens) are just one of the 200 species currently living – from lemurs to humans of the order of primates or monkeys. Well, what kind of monkeys, to one degree or another, many people know: loud, noisy, with a herd instinct, with a pronounced hierarchical system of dominance-subordination, matriarchy prevails in many species of monkeys. Emotions, grimacing, clowning, etc. in monkeys often prevail over reason. All this also takes place in man, the first monkey of the planet.

Finds of the remains of various humanoid creatures, such as Pithecanthropus, Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals, which modern science considers the ancestors of man, are not uncommon. Such finds are periodically made by archaeologists in very ancient layers – over 30, 50 and even 100 thousand years.

Modern science believes that the creation of man is associated with genetic mutations, ancient viruses. Various viruses embedded in the genome of ancient hominids (humanoid creatures) led to the formation of diverse humanoid creatures. Of these, eventually, in the course of an endless struggle for existence, the modern species – homo sapiens – won. At the same time, there were other types of hominid humanoid creatures, studies of recently discovered burial grounds in Kenya (east Africa) indicate that homo habilis (skilled man) and homo erectus (homo erectus) lived side by side. They could mate and, apparently, from this promiscuity (unlimited sexual relations), the modern species, homo sapiens, originated. And all the diversity of humanoid beings, modern races, is the result of an endless struggle for existence, when humanoid beings had sexual contacts with close species and not only, for example, various forms of sexual relations are known – bestiality, necrophilia, homosexuality, etc.

French scientists from the University of Rouen discovered a new strain of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 2009. According to them, it is transmitted to humans from gorillas. This is the first recorded case of HIV infection from primates, with the exception of chimpanzees – three known types of immunodeficiency virus have passed to humans from these primates. The virus was detected in a French-born woman living in Cameroon. She did not eat monkey meat, so scientists believe that the infection occurred sexually from another person.

Scientists from the Russian Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences claim that ancient viruses made a human from an ancient hominid. «Genes, as can already be argued, are similar in humans and monkeys, they secrete ordinary proteins, but viruses change their ratio, distribution and the time spent on it,» explained Vyacheslav Tarantula, deputy director of the Institute. Almost simultaneously with the Russians, the Americans voiced their theory of the transformation of monkeys into Homo sapiens. According to biologists and plastic surgery specialists from the University of Pennsylvania, they managed to discover a single genetic mutation, thanks to which the earliest human ancestors began to differ from their ape-like predecessors. In fact, we are talking about the moment of a person’s birth on planet Earth. This mutation, scientists say, occurred about 2.4 million years ago in a gene that controls the development of jaw muscles and in modern humans is called MYH16. As a result of this seemingly small change in the genome, the jaw muscles of our ancestors began to weaken, which forced the unfortunate to change their habits, menus, and look for the first tools. They had to adapt to the new features of the body, learn how to cook food, somehow process it. It was the change in the jaw muscles, which, having become less powerful, exerted less pressure on the skull, provided a different structure, allowing a much larger brain to develop, this powerful «computer» is serviced by well-developed sensory organs. As a result, the ape-like creature took a stick in its paws, and decided not to let it out of them anymore. This may explain the fact that the pathways leading from the brain to the spinal cord in humans intersect, so that the right hemisphere controls the left half of the body, and the left – the right. But the rest of the monkeys were deprived of such a mutation and still have powerful jaws and a weak brain relative to humans. In human cubs, the sutures connecting the bones of the skull can move apart as they grow and there are fontanelles – areas of the brain that are not covered by bone. With age, the fontanelles overgrow, and when the brain reaches a normal size, the size of the skull no longer increases. However, brain growth continues and many modern children’s fontanelles do not overgrow for a long time. The biblical story about the curse of Eve «in sickness you will give birth to children» goes back to the ancient «divine» explanation of why women give birth with pain. Monkeys and humans remained omnivores, not specializing in any kind of food, so their dental system is close to the original type, which was formed even in the ancient beast-toothed lizards – reptiles. Humans have color binocular vision, like monkeys. Great apes lived in a fairly constant climate and did not have a clearly defined breeding season, so women developed a menstrual cycle lasting 28 days, that is, conception is possible 13 times a year, the cycle is under the control of the endocrine system.

The mutation occurred only in one population of ancient hominids, the rest of the individuals from this population most likely died. The death may have occurred due to some disease, infection, radiation, infection, etc., which led to a significant reduction in the population of ancient hominids, the remaining (conditional Adam and Eve) were able to survive weakened and give offspring with genetically modified muscles of the cheekbones (the zygomatic arch is the legacy of the beast-toothed lizards), these genes turned out to be dominant by mating with close relatives from other populations, this mutation became fixed and developed further in human ancestors.

Previously, it was believed that the mystery is in those genes that are different in humans and monkeys, in 2006, even a section of the genome was discovered that changed the most in humans, but this did not clarify. It is possible that the differences between a monkey and a man lie not only in different genes, but also in the same ones. Ralph Hagood and his colleagues from Duke University were able to prove the correctness of this guess. Scientists analyzed 6280 genes that are present in humans, chimpanzees and macaques. It turned out that in 575 human genes, many of which were associated with brain function and, more surprisingly, nutrition, promoters have strong differences from their counterparts in monkeys. Promoters are silent genes that, under favorable conditions, perform a regulatory function, that is, they direct the work of other genes. Promoters, if necessary, produce proteins, which in turn affect the work of other genes. Scientists considered this a sign of positive evolutionary selection, which helped us become who we are. Interestingly, the sections of DNA that most strongly distinguish a monkey from a human are associated with brain function and nutrition. More than 100 genes from 575 distinct sites are associated with the metabolism of carbohydrates, and especially glucose. Heywood believes that once a person received energy for brain development due to changes in the diet – the transition from fruits to tubers and roots.

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