From: "Alberto Monteiro" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Michael Harney wrote: > > > >> It depends on how you define "humans". If we consider the separation from > >> the chimpanzee(s), it would be _much_ earlier, 1 to 7 million years ago. > > > > I was speeking of humans as a species (homo sapiens), > > > But we don't know _for sure_ if Homo erectus was a race of Homo > sapies or a different species. There are some hints that it was possible > to exchange genes from H. erectus to H. sapies - this would place > the origin of humans back to 1 million years ago. > > > just as I was talking > > about bottlenose dolphins as a species (tursiops truncatus). If you want > > to go from when the family first formed and species branched off, then > > delphinidae (the family which bottlenose dolphins belong to) started about > > 10 Million years ago. > > > Again, we don't know if the Tursiops truncatus is the same species > for such a long time. I don't think there's any useful DNA to check > Look, we can speculate until we are blue in the face, I'm just basing the dates I gave on the best information available. Could bottlenose dolphins as they exist now be a totally different species than they were 2-5 million years ago? Maybe. Could humans of today be genetically compatible with Homo erectus or an even earlier species? Perhaps. Heck, bottlenose dolphins *are* genetically compatible with other species of dolphins, and have, in captivity, produced viable hybrids (viable meaning the hybrid is capable of producing offspring). The species classification system is not perfect, and the fossil record isn't perfect either. I'm just using the best information available (based mostly on fossil records), and that information says Homo sapiens has only been around for about 200,000 years, and Tursiops truncatus has been around for about 2-5 million years. Michael Harney [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
