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The Daily Fail has scored yet another notch in the "WTF?" category with this article:
'Humans evolved after a female chimpanzee mated with a pig': Extraordinary claim made by American geneticist
- Dr Eugene McCarthy points to features that distinguish us from primates
- He says that the only animals which also have these features are pigs
- Controversial hypothesis has been met by significant opposition
(It's here, in case you're bored enough to read it...)
Just in case you were under any delusions that the DM was a serious newspaper (never mind that the biological impossibility of such a mating is compounded by the fact chimpanzees have 48 chromosomes, humans have 46 but pigs a mere 38)...
Perhaps unsurprisingly, while the top rated comments are mocking it, flick to the worst rated comments and you're greeted by Creationists.
Comments
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...Hahaha.
I'm not sufficiently bored as to actually read the article though. This geneticist has got to be joking, or is it trolling? Thanks for the laugh. : )
Gee, that reminds me!
That reminds me of an odd public speech I just happened upon years ago.
"Pigs are unholy animals, because they come from an unnatural mating of a cat and a dog." I wonder if he went to the same school as this geneticist.
That came to my mind as well
I think that was THEM (The Honorable Elijah Muhammad).
There are some good laughs in the comments
I did like the "hambulance" - I'd never heard that one.
The DM did manage to include a photo of a naked women,
just as a show of good faith, I guess.
Kaleigh
Do people buy that ...
... rag and take it seriously. My grandmother, who was born in the 1890s, called it the Daily Liar, so it's always been a bit on the dodgy side in some circles.
It occurs to me that the male participant in the strange coupling would probably have been a male chauvinist pig :)
Robi
Unfortunately...
It's the second most widely read rag in the UK (Jan 2013 circulation: 1.86m), only being beaten by The Currant Bun (2.28m). It seems to have the editorial stance of Chicken Licken, blaming anyone and everyone not in its target demographic for the woes of the world. Rather ironically, the dead tree version often proclaims to be some sort of moral guardian (e.g. campaigning against the sexualisation of youngsters and campaigning for ISPs to implement porn filters turned on by default but opt-outable), while the online edition seems to be a celebrity gossip magazine (conflict of interests there?!) with a joke of a newspaper attached. I'm sure the online edition gets several readers outside the target demographic, who are only browsing it for hilarity value (and to play the game of "Spot the articles where the comments disagree with the editors"). A few years ago they caused much fun on social media when they experimented with a daily poll... but couldn't resist highly leading questions. Needless to say, they attracted lots of people deliberately voting the wrong way - which may be why the facility was pulled after a few weeks...
Incidentally, it's also colloquially known as the Daily Fail, Daily Wail and Daily Heil (it quite liked Adolf during the 1930s and for a few years supported a UK fascist movement).
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Have Porcines Sprouted Aerial Lift Devices?
That's about the only reason I could think of an ape would want to mate with them!?;0
Besides, any creationist should know that pork is strictly verboten among some of the larger religious groups.
Please don't send nasty PMs!!!
Just pointing out Irony.
Hugs To All,
Jonelle
[email protected]
An "Expert" In What?
Love the way the Daily Mail calls him a leading expert. (Meanwhile, "Professor" Irwin Corey, was billed as "The World's Foremost Authority." A great comedy act! Look him up if you've never seen it.)
All I could find that McCarthy has published are some papers on the evolutionary history of rice. He may be a foremost expert in the evolutionary history of rice, but that appears to be it.
Anyway, if he's not busy one afternoon, he might want to drop by one of the very fine natural history museums in this country. Man did not suddenly appear one day. Primate evolution is pretty well documented over a couple million years. Modern Man and Chimpanzees share over 99% of our genetic material, but one is not descended from the other. We're both descended from a common ancestor. Nor is there room in the model for any sort of recent hybridization event.
With all we are learning from DNA research and sequencing, Dr. Eugene McCarthy's type of genetic research is all but obsolete, and the University of Georgia is not on the cutting edge of any field of science. The football field, certainly, but other than that, nothing.
I always wondered where my bad eating habits came from.
As Artie Johnson always said on "Laughin" - "Very interesting, but shtupid."
with love,
Hope
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
Not Worried
Though I have slept with a pig.
:)
G
I've met some people that
I've met some people that make me think that he may be right and they are throwbacks...
Well.....
I don't think, that is really fair to the chimps or pigs.
Humans can some how mange to be so much lower then animals at times.
Don't you think?
*grins*
Unlikely & Almost Impossible
There is almost no difference genetically between humans and apes. Nearly 99% of our DNA is the same as those of the pigmy chimpanzee.
There are many main differences, including:
1. Our brain is larger
2. We have less hair
3. We have an oppose-able thumb
4. We can (learn to) swim
5. We live in caves and change the environment, even to build our caves
6. Our birth canal is twisted, forcing cooperation
7. We have true language, although an ape can learn sign language
8. Childhood last longer
There are several similarities
1. We both see color
2. We can climb trees
3. We are social animals
4. We carry our children when young
5. Our noses are similar
6. Fossil records, although a scarcity, show a definite connection
7. As I mentioned above, our DNA is closer
We have major differences from the pig.
1. We have no tail
2. We don't have a split hoof (cloven foot)
3. We walk on two feet, except at either end of life (see Oedipus)
4. Our noses have different designs
5. Fat is more normal on the pig
With today's genetic abilities and those of the future it will be easier to change an ape into a human or vice versa than to change a pig into a human, although we may use pig parts for transplants into humans. Either way don't show your pearls to the pig.