Why We're The Only Humans On Earth

[Randy]

Scientists Present a Theory Explaining Why We're the Only Humans on Earth

I found this article captivating.

It's easy to forget that we're a single species within the genus Homo because everyone else is dead. Currently, it looks like Homo — a group of hominins that includes ancient beings like Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis — is a family of seven, though that number is debatable. Regardless, Homo sapiens are the only humans alive, and the reason why is still a mystery. In a 2018 paper, scientists float a new explanation: The reason our ancestors avoided extinction was because they could explore and adapt.

[xSilverPhinx]

Fascinating read. 

[Icarus]

^ Brain fodder. Most interesting speculation.

[Dark Lightning]

I'll go read the article later, but my first take is that we were the most vicious of the predators.

[Ecurb Noselrub]

I'll go read the article later, but my first take is that we were the most vicious of the predators.

Smart, vicious predators win.

[Randy]

Supposedly it's our "generalist/specialist" combination. And our time may be coming for extinction.

[Ecurb Noselrub]

Look at Trump.  The ruthless, unprincipled, and clever strongman rises to the top.  Our constitution is apparently powerless to stop him.  It's up to the voters, and even that is hanging in the balance.  Predators win, unless the victims rise up together.

[No one]

The town ain't big enough for two of them.

[Recusant]

Good article--thank you for posting it, Randy! The paper is a couple of years old but I don't know of any attempts at critiquing the idea, beyond the comments offered in the article. I found a PDF of the paper for further reading, if any are interested.

"Defining the 'generalist specialist' niche for Pleistocene Homo sapiens" | Nature Human Behaviour

Abstract:

Definitions of our species as unique within the hominin clade have tended to focus on differences in capacities for symbolism, language, social networking, technological competence and cognitive development. More recently, however, attention has been turned towards humans' unique ecological plasticity. Here, we critically review the growing archaeological and palaeoenvironmental datasets relating to the Middle–Late Pleistocene (300–12 thousand years ago) dispersal of our species within and beyond Africa. We argue, based on comparison with the available information for other members of the genus Homo, that our species developed a new ecological niche, that of the 'generalist specialist'. Not only did it occupy and utilize a diversity of environments, but it also specialized in its adaptation to some of these environmental extremes. Understanding this ecological niche provides a framework for discussing what it means to be human and how our species became the last surviving hominin on the planet.

[Link to full paper.]

[billy rubin]

Look at Trump.  The ruthless, unprincipled, and clever strongman rises to the top.  Our constitution is apparently powerless to stop him.  It's up to the voters, and even that is hanging in the balance.  Predators win, unless the victims rise up together.

william penn always seems to have thought about and expressed things in clear ways that seem obvious to us all many years later. here's what he had to say about ^^^that, bruce:

Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them, and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men, than men upon governments. Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad; if it be ill, they will cure it. But if men be bad, let the government be never so good, they will endeavour to warp and spoil it to their turn.

[Dark Lightning]

Another potential confounding factor for the demise of Neandertal-

Less ability to fight off Covid has been found in people with some Neandertal genes (on Chromosome #3). Maybe that would be for more than just one coronavirus?

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200930094758.htm

[No one]

I'd say modern humans have a few barely upright apes among them.

[Icarus]

I'd say modern humans have a few barely upright apes among them.

Those pix make me shudder in fear..... and anger too.

[Randy]

As I said earlier, homo sapiens may become extinct. However, at the rate of stupidity in the world and willful ignorance seems to be growing it may be due to our own hands.

[Magdalena]

I'd say modern humans have a few barely upright apes among them.

May I add another one?

Yes?

OK.