Shedding our penis spines helped us become human, DNA study hints (Genetic Engineering?!)

Genetic comparison with chimps suggests that losing chunks of DNA – including one associated with penis spines and facial whiskers – played a crucial role in making us human

Scientists have identified a clutch of subtle genetic changes that have shaped our minds and bodies into the unique form that sets humans apart from chimpanzees and the rest of the animal kingdom. The work by researchers in the US represents a landmark in a search that has occupied philosophers and scientists for millennia and one that goes to the heart of understanding what it means to be human. The findings offer up the humbling conclusion that the secret of human success may owe more to what we lost along the path of evolution, rather than anything we gained.

When the human genome was first deciphered more than a decade ago, some scientists expected to find extra genes that explained why humans had an intellectual edge over their closest living relatives and other species. But since diverging from chimpanzees around seven million years ago, it turns out that our human ancestors lost several hundred snippets of DNA, which together led to traits that are uniquely human, the researchers claim.

In ditching these chunks of DNA, our ancient ancestors lost facial whiskers and short, tactile spines on their penises. The latter development is thought to have paved the way for more intimate sex and monogamous relationships. The loss of other DNA may have been crucial in allowing humans to grow larger brains.

Intriguingly, hardly any of the lost DNA was from genes, which make the proteins that are the building blocks of life. Instead, the missing DNA came from areas of the genome that regulate where and when certain genes are active. "Like someone looking for their keys under a lamp post, the genes were the easiest place to look for differences between humans and chimpanzees, and in many respects those have been studied pretty well," said Philip Reno, a co-author on the study at Penn State University.

In the years since the human genome project was completed it has become clear that humans and chimps share around 96% of their DNA. Of the three billion pairs of "letters" that make up the human genetic code, genes account for less than 2%.

The loss of penile spines may have allowed our ancient ancestors to copulate for longer, a development thought to have nurtured monogamous couples and paved the way for more complex social structures.

When the scientists checked their genetic discoveries against the Neanderthal genome, they found the same chunks of DNA were missing, meaning the DNA was lost more than 800,000 years ago, which is when our human ancestors split from the Neanderthal lineage

Source: www.guardian.co.uk...enis-spines-human-genetics-chimps

Okay anon72, why did you put this in the UFO/Alien forum? Well.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f3ca77d52a89.jpg[/atsimg]
Ever since I joined ATS and read my 1st thread on Ancient Alien Genetic Alterinations etc, I have been interested however, I wanted something more from the Scientific community. I feel this is it, or at least a stong indicator that maybe, just maybe, there is something to the whole UFO/Alien aspect.

Please, read the whole article and discuss then. I saw a History Channel Ancient Aliens show this year that discussed this very thing and I have to tell you, it makes more sense to me that some intelligent being (humanoid or otherwise) decided to alter some existing speicies that made us whatever they were seeking to design in a human than us starting off with two made beings in a Garden in Iraq!!!!

But, something went wrong or they just left etc. Here we are..... With the history as we are taught in schools, we are told of the human migration from Africa into Eupore to Asia to the Americas etc. B.S.

I believe it is clearly demostrated here on ATS that there is sufficient evidence to indicate Humans were here a long, long time ago. Many races may have come and gone-leaving what is left today. Who knows but anyway, this type of story of our history/beginnings is.

And, the time line. 800,000 years ago. Perfect! Anyway, that is why I posted the thread here, hoping to spark some debate on Alien Genetic alterations/manipulations to the Neaderthal race to make the Human race (possibly)

Been posted www.abovetopsecret.com...

Yours was better presented as usual though.

reply to post by anon72


Is your train of thought that if a species evolves from point A to point B, any member of the species after point B should contain all of the genetic material from their entire evolution? Like, a discarded set of DNA from our evolution points towards someone tampering?

reply to post by anon72



well they forgot about me.

i'm a big hit a parties tho!

but seriously folks, common, maybe we had that a million years before we were even close to the road to being human.

i seriously doubt ANY homo S. had spines. i doubt apes have them too.

as to which came first, the brain or no spines i say it's a no brainer.

dogs don't have spines. cats do coz that is cool for them.

call BS!

reply to post by dalan.


Well, close. I can't say ALL but, in the article it indicated 510 missing items from us to them. That is one heck of a fluke of nature-IMO.

And, going on that, if we are a fluke of nature, then no, there isn't aliens etc and we are here in this big universe-as an error/mistake/fluke. That sucks.

Penis spines?
Oooh - ouch!

Well, it seems they were not really spines, but more like tiny bumps, and both mice and chimps still have them.
In fact, here is a very academic illustration of the "spines" on the mouse penis:
amanwithaphd.wordpress.com...enis-spines/
Oh those 19th century scientists with their "spines" and their "maiden hair" moss (hint, the hair of the maiden was not on her head).
Bunch of perverts.

I read a theory that we may have lost our fur and animalistic qualities through cannibalism.
Eating human brains caused mental and physical changes, and it was even slightly addictive.
Those who did not partake became the Bigfoot and Almas, and they still hide from us today.
That's just another theory, although the evidence for cannibalism is there, both in Neanderthals and humans.
Head-hunting and cannibalism was ubiquitous across cultures into modern times.

But really, I think it was evolution that fashioned the modern penis.
If one compares a nice human penis to the carrot-like organ of a Chimpanzee, it is really remarkable.
It was all our great ancestral heterosexual women who did us the favor.
The penis they chose and liked mated more, and passed on its genes, and thus it was forged.
(Although strangely, I've read that gay men have a larger penis on average than heterosexual men - go figure.)
So the female brain and taste liked it without bumps, and so they gradually avoided "bumpy" males until it was all gone.
Nevertheless, the gene could apparently be re-activated - it still lurks somewhere.

I suppose dangling breasts in females (and all those obese American men we see on TV every day) and a dangling male genitalia were side-effects of our standing erect. We signaled sex and gender from a mile away.

But are we really just ape-like? People born with atavistic tails have long, spindly tails - more like a reptile.
So there may be something to the alien intervention theory.

Originally posted by anon72
reply to post by dalan.

 

Well, close. I can't say ALL but, in the article it indicated 510 missing items from us to them. That is one heck of a fluke of nature-IMO.

And, going on that, if we are a fluke of nature, then no, there isn't aliens etc and we are here in this big universe-as an error/mistake/fluke. That sucks.

Well, I was curious because it does make sense.

I found a video about some genetic researches who were trying to recreate dinosaurs in a very "Jurassic Park" type manner. Although their method of going about extracting dinosaur DNA was very different from the movie. The researches had emu eggs I believe (its been a while since I watched the documentary), and they were observing the growth of the emu embryos in the eggs. The embryos went through, what appeared to be, every stage of the evolution of their species. A few of those stages happened to look very dinosaur like, lending credence to the theory that dinosaurs did indeed evolve into modern birds. So what the researches did was inject the eggs with specific enzymes to block the newer DNA from doing anything. In that way, the embryos would form up to a point in their evolution, thereby growing into whatever manner of creature they happened to be at that stage.

If the research has any validity, then the DNA of the emus has to contain every genetic sequence from the beginning of their species for the experiment to work. If that is the natural occurrence of evolution, for any member of a species to retain every aspect of the genetic code traced back to their beginning, then human beings having discarded parts of our own would seem to lend credence to the ancient alien/astronaut theories.

If I can find the video of the research mentioned above I'll post it here, and any updates I can find.

reply to post by halfoldman


Interesting post, where did you read about the cannibalistic traits in humans?

reply to post by SystemResistor

Firstly in a disputed book The Beginning was the End: Intelligence can be eaten"
en.wikipedia.org...
Some parts are blatantly ridiculous, but the central thesis is worthy of consideration.
Other occult sources as well as tribal cultures (the real tribal realities, not politically correct versions) also speak of related topics.

reply to post by halfoldman


Its strange, I have a natural empathy, as well as a connection to animals, and I take it for granted. I often get the feeling, when im around certain people, that they somehow want my life, or my "vital force" - like vampires or something to that extent, they seem to crave my animal innocence... Its the best way that I can explain it. When I do express my more animalistic emotions, often people will stare at me like im some kind of weirdo, its like they are machines... In terms of the reptile thing, sometimes I feel to that effect, kind of like a "charmingness" - it usually expresses itself in me when im in a darker mood... Its very strange, the "monkey" in me, when it expresses its innocence, is often preyed upon by many people, like I have some kind of energy that they can't produce themselves. I often become scared, and thats when the "reptile" part of myself takes over and shields me from their attempts. I don't know, a lizard protecting a monkey from a bunch of cannibalistic, brain-eating, emotion-sucking zombies... I often feel like I am standing up for all the primitve creatures...

reply to post by anon72


Ok, it took me a minute, but I found the video series. I'll post part 1 and 2 here and you guys can watch the rest from youtube if you're interested:





I'll keep looking to see if I can find updates on the research, but it does seem to me that the assumption here is that to recreate the dinosaurs using modern birds, the birds have to have all of the genetic material from the very beginning of their species for this to work.

You have to wonder, if it is true for birds, is it true for all species to contain all the genetic material from the beginning of their evolution; and if we are the exception, why?

reply to post by dalan.

Will watch clips later, but this is true.
I saw on a doccie how some chickens had teeth in their beaks, and others had scales in small places instead of feathers.
The whole issue is called back-engineering by combining chicken (or Emus) with recessive, atavistic qualities.

I wanted to make a thread on it, but I first did an ATS search, and there were already several threads with great pics and info.

Most of them are relatively old, and the whole excitement around this seems to have waned.
I wonder why?

And I always thought the old Afrikaner farmers were talking rubbish when they spoke of rare chickens with razor-like teeth.
There's even an Afrikaans saying for something that is difficult to find: "Dis so skaars soos hoender tande" - It is as rare as chicken's teeth.
Yeah, they already had a little tail on a chick.
Amazing.

We also share 50% of our DNA with bananas, DNA has not really helped out the evolution theory at all let alone shown us anything about human DNA being tinkered with.

reply to post by anon72


there is zero evidence that alleged " genetic engineering " has ever been employed in the evolutin of hominids

simply put , ` penis spine less ` hominids proved more sucessful than ` spined penis` hominids , thus they prevailed

the [ IMHO ] killer argument agaist alleged ` genetic engineering ` is the disadvantageous features of the human genome that an alleged ` genetic engineer ` COULD have rectified

a few include :

inability to synthisise vitamin C

lactose intolerance

the male prostate

inability to directly metabolise fat stores for energy [ canines can do this ]

muscle efficiency - per kg body mass humans are the weakest of all primates

etc etc

reply to post by halfoldman


Say listen, i have seen a mouse growing a human ear for transplant so i wonder if those mouse-skin spines could be transplanted to a human penis, how about a mouse-skin foreskin? Think about it, you could really bring out the animal in yourself or your mate. You might also get some weird reactions from the local cats.....

reply to post by anon72


anon72, aside from the lighthearted comments posted in this thread, I do feel you located clues to the genetic minipulation of the species current (man) by others. S&F

I dont know about the human engineering but im personally glad the spine has been removed. Fellas, could you imagine if you slipped a 'disk'?

Originally posted by anon72
Genetic comparison with chimps suggests that losing chunks of DNA – including one associated with penis spines and facial whiskers – played a crucial role in making us human
.............

It's hard for me to picture 1 million years. It's hard to picture 100 years. So many have come before us... It really is sobering. Perhaps hte knowledge that so many have come before us can bring some comfort when we approach the shadows of death. In our final moments we will know that where we're going many have gone before. Some of them were just like us. We're never alone.

You know you're on ATS when a thread title begins

"Shedding our penis spines helped us become human..."