Religion and Ethics Forum

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Sriram on February 07, 2018, 02:43:44 PM

Title: Cheddar Man
Post by: Sriram on February 07, 2018, 02:43:44 PM

Congratulations folks!   Scientists now know how early Britons looked like.....10000 years ago.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42939192

Cheers.

Sriram
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Robbie on February 07, 2018, 02:55:35 PM
Yes, I saw that earlier.
It's how I imagined people looked then except I thought they'd be hairier.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: floo on February 07, 2018, 02:57:10 PM
Congratulations folks!   Scientists now know how early Britons looked like.....10000 years ago.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42939192

Cheers.

Sriram

I hope that revelation puts the nasty white supremacists in their place.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Robbie on February 07, 2018, 03:06:20 PM
It's been known a for a long time that people indigenous to this part of the world had swarthy complexions.

I like the blue eyes contrast with brown skin, most people with dark-ish skin and hair are brown eyed.









Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Nearly Sane on February 07, 2018, 03:07:31 PM
Yes, I saw that earlier.
It's how I imagined people looked then except I thought they'd be hairier.
Esentailly at 10,000 years there is little difference. It's a nothing in evolutionary terms.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: jeremyp on February 07, 2018, 03:13:55 PM
I hope that revelation puts the nasty white supremacists in their place.

Unfortunately, it won't. Since all humans descend from Africans, either they are reconciled to the fact that the first humans weren't (in their eyes) the best humans,, or they ignore science when it suits them just like everybody else.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 07, 2018, 07:50:01 PM
It's been known a for a long time that people indigenous to this part of the world had swarthy complexions.

I like the blue eyes contrast with brown skin, most people with dark-ish skin and hair are brown eyed.

The previous model of Cheddar Man in1998 showed him as white skinned and scientists have described this recent discovery as a surprise, so not sure about your first comment. Also, what do you mean by indigenous?
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Robbie on February 07, 2018, 07:58:25 PM
Indigenous means :-
"originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native"

I've seen pictures of how people believed earlier man looked, swarthy skinned and hairy. Can't remember the publication.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Rhiannon on February 07, 2018, 08:09:08 PM
Indigenous means :-
"originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native"

I've seen pictures of how people believed earlier man looked, swarthy skinned and hairy. Can't remember the publication.

He wasn't indigenous. He was a migrant.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Robbie on February 07, 2018, 08:29:20 PM
I suppose he or she was, settling in Britain after one of the ice ages.
Fascinating stuff.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Walter on February 07, 2018, 08:52:02 PM
He wasn't indigenous. He was a migrant.
we're all migrants . Earth was set up as a penal colony by beings from a distant planet some six and a half thousand years ago and abandoned never to be visited again
It's all true !
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Walter on February 07, 2018, 08:53:32 PM
All the details get a bit cheesy after that
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Robbie on February 07, 2018, 08:59:54 PM
to a grater degree
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Walter on February 07, 2018, 09:24:41 PM
to a grater degree
Robbie you're on fire tonight (too long under the grill) 😂
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Robbie on February 07, 2018, 09:36:24 PM
Get awhey! Your rare bit of humour started it.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 08, 2018, 03:08:55 AM
Indigenous means :-
"originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native"

I've seen pictures of how people believed earlier man looked, swarthy skinned and hairy. Can't remember the publication.

Yes, I know what the dictionary definition is, I was wondering what you meant in this situation since humans migrated here from europe and earlier had migrated from the Middle East into Europe.

Earlier man was dark skinned, yes, but it was thought that by the time people had reached here they were light skinned. This shows different and is new.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Robbie on February 08, 2018, 06:49:13 AM
I don't remember where I read or saw pictures, many years ago, Maeght.  Just had the impression that people who came to 'Britain' after the last ice age were darkish (& hairy) but I could have remembered it wrongly. Certainly fair people came here but I thought that was later.

No matter. You probably know more than I.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: ippy on February 08, 2018, 10:14:27 AM
The colour bit's simple to understand, nowadays it's not the problem it used to be for people with dark skin, black even, but in times past the darker skinned people wouldn't have been manufacturing enough vitamin D, and would have been suffering from rickets and all of the associated disadvantages, due to the lack of photosynthesised vitamin D where the weaker sunlight found it more difficult to penetrate the skin of darker people, evolution then took over and favoured lighter skinned people that wanted to live in the more northerly climes and that's why we're the now so called white people, it was just down to survival.(I'll end up with a permanent train spotters voice if I do any more of these explanations, like the Did you know voice of Peter Cook's).

Regards ippy

Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 08, 2018, 10:33:25 AM
This shows its a complex story

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/04/how-europeans-evolved-white-skin
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: floo on February 08, 2018, 10:49:11 AM
I wonder how many of the ghastly white supremacist mob get their skin tanned, by the sun or artificial means?
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 08, 2018, 10:52:14 AM
I wonder how many of the ghastly white supremacist mob get their skin tanned, by the sun or artificial means?

What has a tan got to do with it?
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: floo on February 08, 2018, 10:52:43 AM
What has a tan got to do with it?

They can't think a dark skin is too bad then.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 08, 2018, 10:53:58 AM
They can't think a dark skin is too bad then.

They are of course not the samer thing.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Anchorman on February 08, 2018, 11:10:02 AM
The black skin isn't really news- we've known that for decades ('Britain First' probably can't read anyway). The recon thing though - that's a bit iffy. I'm not criticising the effrt, nor disputing the result; just noting that if you take three different teams using the same skull and modern tech, you can get three quite differnt faicial reconstructions - which only help to raise the blood pressure in the ivory towers. In my own interest, I'm on several groups where the argument over a recon of the facer of as controversial mummy identified in some quarters as Nefertiti, is causing ructions....wrong skin colour, that sort of thing.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: floo on February 08, 2018, 11:35:27 AM
They are of course not the samer thing.

Why do they look down on people who don't have white skins?
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 08, 2018, 12:04:14 PM
Why do they look down on people who don't have white skins?

Obviously its about race not whether they have a tan or not. Are you on a wind up?
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: floo on February 08, 2018, 12:09:53 PM
Obviously its about race not whether they have a tan or not. Are you on a wind up?

I have no idea what you are talking about!
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 08, 2018, 12:13:36 PM
The black skin isn't really news- we've known that for decades ('Britain First' probably can't read anyway). The recon thing though - that's a bit iffy. I'm not criticising the effrt, nor disputing the result; just noting that if you take three different teams using the same skull and modern tech, you can get three quite differnt faicial reconstructions - which only help to raise the blood pressure in the ivory towers. In my own interest, I'm on several groups where the argument over a recon of the facer of as controversial mummy identified in some quarters as Nefertiti, is causing ructions....wrong skin colour, that sort of thing.

Was it known for decades that Cheddar man was dark skinned? My understanding is that is relatively new. I thought it was still thought that by the time man had migrated this far north that their skin was lighter until fairly recently. Is that incorrect?
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: floo on February 08, 2018, 12:20:31 PM
Maybe all humans started out with dark skins, but they got lighter the further north you lived, as the climate got colder.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Sriram on February 08, 2018, 12:33:15 PM
Maybe all humans started out with dark skins, but they got lighter the further north you lived, as the climate got colder.


European homo sapiens are believed to have developed lighter skins because of cross breeding with Neanderthals...who were light skinned. That was much earlier to the Cheddar man (50000 BP). So how Cheddar man has dark skin as late as 10000 years ago is not clear.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Harrowby Hall on February 08, 2018, 01:31:45 PM
Maybe all humans started out with dark skins, but they got lighter the further north you lived, as the climate got colder.

Maeght (#18)  has already provided a link to a scientific article which considers the process by which white skin has become prevalent in Europe.

(http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/04/how-europeans-evolved-white-skin)

A subsequent note by the author of the above link adds:

Scientists get their first look at ‘Cheddar Man,’ one of England’s oldest modern humans
By Ann GibbonsFeb. 7, 2018 , 12:55 PM

Quote
Researchers have put a face on one of the oldest modern humans in England—the 10,000-year-old “Cheddar Man” from Gough’s Cave in Cheddar Gorge—and they reveal he had blue eyes and dark skin and hair. The as-yet-unpublished ancient DNA from the nearly complete skeleton of this individual will show that he lacked genetic variants for light skin that spread later in Europeans, according to researchers at the Natural History Museum in London who have unveiled a new reconstruction; they say a scientific paper is coming later this month. Researchers already knew that some Europeans of this time had dark skin and blue eyes, but Cheddar Man reveals that previous assumptions that early inhabitants of the British Isles had lighter skin and hair were wrong—and that those traits didn’t spread through England until the past 4800 years or so.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: ippy on February 08, 2018, 03:07:05 PM
The black skin isn't really news- we've known that for decades ('Britain First' probably can't read anyway). The recon thing though - that's a bit iffy. I'm not criticising the effrt, nor disputing the result; just noting that if you take three different teams using the same skull and modern tech, you can get three quite differnt faicial reconstructions - which only help to raise the blood pressure in the ivory towers. In my own interest, I'm on several groups where the argument over a recon of the facer of as controversial mummy identified in some quarters as Nefertiti, is causing ructions....wrong skin colour, that sort of thing.

I think you'll find there's a group of scientists from Belgium that are using their ability to read genes which in turn is also helping with the reconstruction of how people looked, colour of the eyes skin etc.

Amazing, I'll have to give up robbing banks sideline soon because I'll only have to leave a small amount of my D N A and they'll have a likeness of myself printed out all over the media the next day, it's about time I gave it up anyway.

Regards ippy   
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 08, 2018, 04:26:59 PM

European homo sapiens are believed to have developed lighter skins because of cross breeding with Neanderthals...who were light skinned. That was much earlier to the Cheddar man (50000 BP). So how Cheddar man has dark skin as late as 10000 years ago is not clear.

Don't think that is right Sriram. Did you read the link I posted? Take a look at this one too https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22308-europeans-did-not-inherit-pale-skins-from-neanderthals/
Modern DNA testing is changing our understanding of this in recent years.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Sriram on February 09, 2018, 04:37:36 AM
Don't think that is right Sriram. Did you read the link I posted? Take a look at this one too https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22308-europeans-did-not-inherit-pale-skins-from-neanderthals/
Modern DNA testing is changing our understanding of this in recent years.


Yeah.. I agree.  I took my info from some articles like...

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129542-600-neanderthal-human-sex-bred-light-skins-and-infertility/

But it is true that there are many complex possibilities.  And I guess the last word has not been said on this yet.

Thanks...Maeght.




Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Humph Warden Bennett on February 09, 2018, 12:19:28 PM
We need to remember that without the aid of a time machine we cannot exactly know what people of the past looked like with their. Assume that Homo Ergastor was hairy, & he looks more like an upright ape than a human. Assume that his body hair was more like our own, & he looks more like us.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 09, 2018, 08:52:56 PM

But it is true that there are many complex possibilities.  And I guess the last word has not been said on this yet.

Probably true. Interesting stuff.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Anchorman on February 09, 2018, 09:40:59 PM
Was it known for decades that Cheddar man was dark skinned? My understanding is that is relatively new. I thought it was still thought that by the time man had migrated this far north that their skin was lighter until fairly recently. Is that incorrect?



Trying to find an online link, but I have papers written by Mortimer Wheeler (yes, I'm that old) which I read at Uni in 1980, where Wheeler maintained that the first hunter-gatherers who migrated to this part of Northern Europe - we were still joined to the continent by both the land bridge and 'Doggerland' - had to have been African in appearance, as there was not enough time for the paler sins to evolve.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 10, 2018, 02:40:10 AM


Trying to find an online link, but I have papers written by Mortimer Wheeler (yes, I'm that old) which I read at Uni in 1980, where Wheeler maintained that the first hunter-gatherers who migrated to this part of Northern Europe - we were still joined to the continent by both the land bridge and 'Doggerland' - had to have been African in appearance, as there was not enough time for the paler sins to evolve.

There is a difference between one person maintaining something and it being known though isn't there. I think the majority view was different, but the more recent evidence shows Wheeler was correct.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 11, 2018, 08:27:32 PM
Was reading more about this today and thought there was some interesting info. It was saying that the Vitamin D link to pale skin didn't apply to hunter gatherers because they got enough Vitamin D from their diet. It suggested the pale skin gene came later when farming people came across from europe 6,000 years ago. It said due to the different diet of these people which was low in Vitamin D pale skin, allowing the vitamin to be better synthesized from sun light, gave a survival advantage. The reason pale skins became dominant was due to numbers arriving and the subsequent change in life style.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 21, 2018, 08:57:13 PM
More stuff about the genetic makeup of Britons in the news today with confirmation that changes that saw the Beaker culture enter these islands around 4,500 years ago  was as a result of an influx of people rather than ideas. Not particularly an invasion but a gradual increase in movement of people from the continent.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Sriram on February 22, 2018, 03:18:55 PM



We must remember that Europeans differ from Africans and Asians not only in skin colour.  There are many other differences.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Humph Warden Bennett on February 22, 2018, 03:25:32 PM
We must remember that Europeans differ from Africans and Asians not only in skin colour.  There are many other differences.
[/quote]

And there are Native Australians, and those from wider Australasia/Oceania.

You disappoint me Sriram. It is not just a matter of "Whites" "Blacks" and "Asians".



Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Sriram on February 22, 2018, 03:29:14 PM
We must remember that Europeans differ from Africans and Asians not only in skin colour.  There are many other differences.


And there are Native Australians, and those from wider Australasia/Oceania.

You disappoint me Sriram. It is not just a matter of "Whites" "Blacks" and "Asians".


ALright....you can always add to the list. How does that change the spirit of what I am saying?!   
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Humph Warden Bennett on February 22, 2018, 03:45:28 PM

ALright....you can always add to the list. How does that change the spirit of what I am saying?!

Because the outdated "British" idea of "whites" "blacks" and "asians" ignores the vast changes over the past few years. I silenced a Muslim when he claimed to be an "ethnic minority" when I pointed out that my kids are, thanks to Ukip, "Anglo Romanians".

"Brown" people ain't the only ethnic minorities anymore. Sorry to take your ball away.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Nearly Sane on February 22, 2018, 03:49:01 PM


We must remember that Europeans differ from Africans and Asians not only in skin colour.  There are many other differences.
Are any of them, including skin colour,  significant?
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Sriram on February 22, 2018, 03:51:43 PM
Because the outdated "British" idea of "whites" "blacks" and "asians" ignores the vast changes over the past few years. I silenced a Muslim when he claimed to be an "ethnic minority" when I pointed out that my kids are, thanks to Ukip, "Anglo Romanians".

"Brown" people ain't the only ethnic minorities anymore. Sorry to take your ball away.



What are you talking about HWB?!  I was merely pointing out that its not just about how white skin developed, vitamin D and all that stuff. Its also about other features that differentiates Europeans from others.   That is all.   You are going off at a tangent!
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 22, 2018, 04:01:48 PM
I think the science is showing that there was much more movement of people rather than just ideas in the past, meaning we are all a greater mix of different DNAs than we might imagine.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Sriram on February 22, 2018, 04:17:17 PM
I think the science is showing that there was much more movement of people rather than just ideas in the past, meaning we are all a greater mix of different DNAs than we might imagine.


Yes...but racial differences are real. I understand that even from a skull the race of a person can be identified. So, how these racial differences (not just skin colour) arose if we all are from Africa, is really an interesting issue.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 22, 2018, 05:05:09 PM
Genetic mutations, natural selection, genetic mixing all lead to different genetically similar groups we call races, as I understand it.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: ippy on February 22, 2018, 05:37:39 PM

Yes...but racial differences are real. I understand that even from a skull the race of a person can be identified. So, how these racial differences (not just skin colour) arose if we all are from Africa, is really an interesting issue.

I think you're starting on this thread again Sriram, just because you're jealous of how good looking us blokes are that happen to live in the more northern climes of this world, :P :P 8)

Regards ippy
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Steve H on February 22, 2018, 05:42:43 PM
I wonder if the Cheddar man had a pet Cheshire cat...
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 22, 2018, 10:00:08 PM
Why?
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Steve H on February 22, 2018, 10:01:45 PM
Joke. Cheese.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Maeght on February 22, 2018, 10:15:16 PM
Joke. Cheese.

Right.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Gordon on February 23, 2018, 10:59:13 AM
Cheese puns need to be deployed caerphilly.
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Humph Warden Bennett on February 23, 2018, 02:48:02 PM
Cheese puns need to be deployed caerphilly.

Round of applause for the best pun for a long time  :)
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: ippy on February 23, 2018, 03:27:11 PM
Round of applause for the best pun for a long time  :)

I have to agree with you H W, annoyingly I can't think of anything that would anywhere near top that one, or equal it.

Regards ippy

Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: Walter on February 23, 2018, 03:59:16 PM
I have to agree with you H W, annoyingly I can't think of anything that would anywhere near top that one, or equal it.

Regards ippy
did you bring an apple for him as well?   jeez!  ::)
Title: Re: Cheddar Man
Post by: ippy on February 23, 2018, 08:03:39 PM
did you bring an apple for him as well?   jeez!  ::)

No apple, just credit where due.

Regards ippy