Yue Peng’s Post

💡 What’s Hidden in Your DNA? The Fascinating Origins of Spanish Ancestry Did you know that Spanish DNA is more European than Turkish? It’s true—and the story behind it is nothing short of surprising. Here’s where it gets even more fascinating: 60% of modern Spanish DNA actually traces back to ancient farmers who lived in Turkey thousands of years ago. These early agricultural communities, long before the rise of modern civilizations, played a crucial role in shaping what we now know as the genetic makeup of Spain. But that’s just the beginning. A remarkable 35% of Spanish DNA comes from warriors of the Eurasian steppes—legendary figures who traveled and conquered vast regions, leaving their mark on the genetic landscape of Spain. What’s even more intriguing is that between 5-15% of Spanish DNA connects to ancient Western European gatherers, who roamed the wild, untouched landscapes of Europe long before the dawn of agriculture. And just when you think the story couldn’t get any more complex, we find that up to 10% of Spanish DNA links to North Africa, specifically to ancient populations that settled in the Canary Islands, further enriching this genetic tapestry. Here’s the real twist: A mysterious group, the BASQUES, almost like a genetic time capsule, carries DNA that has remained largely untouched for thousands of years, revealing traces of ancient lineages that are still alive today. 🔍 So, what is your DNA hiding? What does your blood say about your past? The complexity of our genetic heritage goes far beyond what we can see in the mirror. Each of us carries a story—one that’s shaped by millennia of migration, survival, and adaptation. If we dig deeper, who knows what ancient stories are hidden in our own DNA? #Genetics #Ancestry #SpanishDNA #HistoryInTheBlood #CulturalHeritage #Innovation #Science #DNAStories #PersonalDiscovery

Anthropology and geospatial data? Here it comes, a preprint by Kim et al., title 𝐃𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝𝐰𝐢𝐝𝐞: "Our analysis revealed that global mythologies exhibit both geographic and thematic nesting across different scales, manifesting in a layered structure. The largest geographic clusters correspond to the New and Old Worlds, which further divide into smaller bioregions. This hierarchical manifestation closely aligns with historical human migration patterns at a large scale, suggesting that narrative themes were carried through deep history. At smaller scales, the correspondence with bioregions indicates that these themes are locally adapted and diffused into variations across cultures over time." Read more: https://lnkd.in/dEGBA7vE Which mythical animal is your favorite from your home country?

"R1a-Z93" (or simply R1a-Z93) is a genetic subclade of the R1a Y-DNA haplogroup, which is commonly found in certain populations. Haplogroups are used in genetic genealogy to trace paternal ancestry, and R1a-Z93 is particularly associated with populations from Central and South Asia. Here’s a brief overview of R1a-Z93: - **Geographic Spread**: It is found predominantly in South Asia, Central Asia, and to some extent in Eastern Europe. It is also linked to ancient steppe populations, such as the Indo-Iranians. - **Cultural Significance**: R1a-Z93 is often mentioned in studies of ancient migrations, particularly in relation to the spread of Indo-European languages and the Indo-Iranian branch. If you're looking for more specific or detailed information about this haplogroup, let me know!

https://lnkd.in/gngMU9mh Explore the fascinating relationship between biological anthropology, earth science, and environmental science in this video! Discover how human evolution has been shaped by geological events, climate change, and environmental pressures over time. Learn about the adaptations humans made to survive extreme environments and what we can learn from ancient civilizations about sustainability. Key topics covered: How climate and geology influenced human evolution Adaptations to extreme environments (altitude, climate) The collapse of ancient civilizations like the Maya due to environmental mismanagement How these lessons guide modern sustainability efforts This video is perfect for students, educators, and anyone interested in the intersection of human evolution, earth sciences, and environmental challenges. Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more insightful videos on anthropology, evolution, and environmental science! #HumanEvolution #EarthScience #EnvironmentalScience #BiologicalAnthropology #Sustainability #AncientCivilizations #ClimateChange #AnthropologyExplained #Unfinished_Curious_Miles #YouTube #LinkedIn

What is the Clade and Outgroup A clade from the Greek 'branch', also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic _ that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants _ on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, the equivalent Latin term cladus (plural cladi) is often used in taxonomical literature. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population, or a species (extinct or extant). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed monophyletic (Greek: "one clan") groups. Over the last few decades, the cladistic approach has revolutionized biological classification and revealed surprising evolutionary relationships among organisms. Increasingly, taxonomists try to avoid naming taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not monophyletic. Some of the relationships between organisms that the molecular biology arm of cladistics has revealed include that fungi are closer relatives to animals than they are to plants, archaea are now considered different from bacteria, and multicellular organisms may have evolved from archaea. The term "clade" is also used with a similar meaning in other fields besides biology, such as historical linguistics; see Cladistics In disciplines other than biology. Youtube video: https://lnkd.in/dF4E8uPe #nikolaysgeneticslessons

Prehistory isn't just the story of human evolution. Here are a few key insights from The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins, by Stefanos Geroulanos. #evolution #prehistory #anthropology #ethics #history #prehistoric https://lnkd.in/gC_Evbjv

Two years ago I wrote “From Speciesism to Theriocide: Wildlife Trade and Industrial Animal Farming as Embodiments of the Genocide–Ecocide Continuum”. Victimizing billions of animals every year, industrial animal farming and wildlife trade appear to me as the main organized forms through which we confine, exploit, torture, and massacre nonhuman animals. I explore why these criminal sectors should be treated as a continuum between genocide and ecocide, not as normal, necessary, legal economies. My paper is a chapter in the book 𝘓𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘥𝘰𝘮: 𝘈𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘦. You can read my paper here: https://lnkd.in/dVB2kbmc

Two biological anthropologists analyze archaeological and physiological evidence to debunk enduring assumptions about the gendered division of labor in ancient times. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gMmj-6Ki

The emergence of #human #warfare: Current perspectives by Marc Kissel | Nam C. Kim (2018) Abstract The origins of warfare have long been of interest for researchers across disciplines. Did our ear- liest ancestors engage in forms of organized violence that are appropriately viewed as approximations, forms of, or analogs for more recent forms of warfare? Assessed in this article are contrasting views that see warfare as being either a product of more recent human societies or a phenomenon with a much deeper chronology. The article provides an overview of current debates, theories, and methodological approaches, citing literature and data from archaeological, ethnographic, genetic, primatological, and paleoanthropological studies. Synthetic anthropological treatments are needed, especially in efforts to inform debates among non-academic audiences, because the discipline's approaches are ideally suited to study the origins of warfare. Emphasized is the need to consider possible forms of violence and intergroup aggression within Pleistocene contexts, despite the methodological challenges associated with fragmentary, equivocal, or scarce data. Finally, the review concludes with an argument about the implications of the currently avail- able data. We propose that socially cooperative violence, or “emergent warfare,” became pos- sible with the onset of symbolic thought and complex cognition. Viewing emergent warfare as a byproduct of the human capacity for symbolic thought explains how the same capacities for communication and sociality allowed for elaborate peacemaking, conflict resolution, and avoidance. Cultural institutions around war and peace are both made possible by these changes. Accordingly, we suggest that studies on warfare's origins should be tied to research on the advent of cooperation, sociality, and communication. https://lnkd.in/e__aAh86

Summer Class Alert! We just added a lab credit class to this summer session 1, ANT 104 Introduction to Biological Anthropology! Check it out on campus connect, while seats are still available! This course will examine the biological history of the human species culminating with an exploration of human biological variation in the modern world. Principles of evolutionary theory and genetics will first be presented to provide a framework for the study of human evolutionary biology. The fossil evidence for human evolution will then be considered using comparative data from nonhuman primate ecology to help reconstruct prehistoric lives. Finally, features of biological modernity will be discussed. Particular attention will be given to how human populations utilized biological and behavioral mechanisms to adapt to their environments throughout evolutionary history. The course includes labs.