Posted by:
runswithturtles
at Sun Nov 22 11:51:55 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by runswithturtles ]
FR, that all sounds good to me, it is pretty clear that something needs to be done. Even the old idea that two species can't breed and reproduce or if they do the offspring will be infertile is wrong. Or at least it is wrong if we except the way things are classified now.
Don't get me wrong, I think we need way more genetic testing. I think genetics is a valid part of finding the pieces of the puzzle.
But, all too often a study is done and before they have been thorough enough and really tested enough specimens and or enough of them over enough of the range and so on, I see they publish there findings in a way as to make it look like they have solved the puzzle altogether, when in fact all they did is find another piece to the puzzle.
We need a system that uses all of the different types of information and sheds light on the pieces together. Anytime we just look too hard at only one piece we miss a lot and get to going in the wrong direction again.
Point in case. There was a DNA study done to find and map the origins of human populations. A man that was clearly African American was among those tested. His results came back and lo and behold the data said he was Caucasian. Yet he had dark skin, had black kinked hair and brown eyes. He thought of himself as African American and as far back in his family as he knew all of his ancestors were African American.
So how did this happen? Well they had only tested the male side of the DNA in his family tree and one of his Great, Great Grandfathers was a Caucasian man.
When the mothers side of the DNA was tested of course it came back African American. But if we were just looking at the piece of paper that said he was Caucasian then wouldn't you be surprised at who showed up for dinner when you actually saw him?
After several generations of diluting the genes from his Causation great, great grandfather with African American genes the family tree had lost the Caucasian look but still retained some of the genes.
The thing is the data is important but how you take it read it and interpret it is what makes all of the difference.
Most if not all of the species we have today are relict hybrids from past hybridizations. Nature pushes things together and then pulls them apart again. When populations are put under stress hybridizing becomes more frequent. This is probably natures way of making sure that in case neither parent types can make it through the stress that there hybrid offspring that have a wider gene base have a better chance of making it through the tuff times. It is a complex puzzle and will take more than one study of one side of the DNA to figure it out. Eric
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RE: a good read... - runswithturtles, Sun Nov 22 11:51:55 2009