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Shedding our penis spines helped us become human, DNA study hints
Guardian ^ | Wednesday 9 March 2011 | Ian Sample

Posted on 03/10/2011 1:50:12 PM PST by Cardhu

Genetic comparison with chimps suggests that losing chunks of DNA – including one associated with penis spines and facial whiskers – played a crucial role in making us human.

Scientists have identified a clutch of subtle genetic changes that have shaped our minds and bodies into the unique form that sets humans apart from chimpanzees and the rest of the animal kingdom.

The work by researchers in the US represents a landmark in a search that has occupied philosophers and scientists for millennia and one that goes to the heart of understanding what it means to be human.

The findings offer up the humbling conclusion that the secret of human success may owe more to what we lost along the path of evolution, rather than anything we gained.

When the human genome was first deciphered more than a decade ago, some scientists expected to find extra genes that explained why humans had an intellectual edge over their closest living relatives and other species. But since diverging from chimpanzees around seven million years ago, it turns out that our human ancestors lost several hundred snippets of DNA, which together led to traits that are uniquely human, the researchers claim.

In ditching these chunks of DNA, our ancient ancestors lost facial whiskers and short, tactile spines on their penises. The latter development is thought to have paved the way for more intimate sex and monogamous relationships. The loss of other DNA may have been crucial in allowing humans to grow larger brains.

Intriguingly, hardly any of the lost DNA was from genes, which make the proteins that are the building blocks of life. Instead, the missing DNA came from areas of the genome that regulate where and when certain genes are active.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Education; Science
KEYWORDS: getaspine; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; napl; penis; spinelessdick; spines
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To: Cardhu

21 posted on 03/10/2011 2:02:24 PM PST by frithguild (The Democrat Party Brand - Big Government protecting Entrenched Interests from Competition)
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To: Cardhu

Evolutionists will believe anything.


22 posted on 03/10/2011 2:02:34 PM PST by balch3
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To: lbryce

penis spines. sheesh. Can’t they ever calm down?

Every day it’s penis spines this & charlie sheen that.


23 posted on 03/10/2011 2:03:27 PM PST by Christian Engineer Mass (25ish Cambridge MA grad student. Many younger conservative Christians out there? __ Click my name)
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To: freebilly

Does this help explain why so many liberals are spineless little pricks?


24 posted on 03/10/2011 2:03:27 PM PST by peeps36 (America is being destroyed by filthy traitors in the political establishment)
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To: paudio
So, those who have premature-ejaculation issue are more likely to live in promiscuity?

Well at least likekly to never make it past the first "date." ;~))

25 posted on 03/10/2011 2:04:17 PM PST by Ditto (Nov 2, 2010 -- Partial cleaning accomplished. More trash to remove in 2012)
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To: Jim 0216

Well, of course, everything we observe in the universe is moving from chaos to order, donchaknow.

Or perhaps, we’re just one of a “multiverse” in which a ton of TNT is thrown into a junkyard and in ONE of those universes, the Lexis dealership appears (with the RX 450 sitting at idle at the curbside).


26 posted on 03/10/2011 2:05:33 PM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: paudio
"Penile spines". Just seeing those two words juxtaposed like that gets me cringing.

This just proves how science can lose itself in the big picture of things at one time or another.

27 posted on 03/10/2011 2:05:36 PM PST by lbryce (BHO:Satan's Evil Twin)
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To: Palladin

Wasn’t that caused by a spider bite?


28 posted on 03/10/2011 2:06:21 PM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: Cardhu

Spiny Norman resents the implication that shedding spines makes you more evolved.

29 posted on 03/10/2011 2:06:28 PM PST by Snickering Hound
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To: paudio

It seems the females are the promiscuous ones, whereas, the male has to slam, bang, thank you ma’am so as not hold up the queue and get assaulted.


30 posted on 03/10/2011 2:06:31 PM PST by Cardhu
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To: frithguild

Yeah, that’s just about the size of it. (this article)


31 posted on 03/10/2011 2:06:43 PM PST by lbryce (BHO:Satan's Evil Twin)
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To: humblegunner

We’re still shaving, how come? Then too, we’ve been told that 80% of body heat goes out the head. Why are there bald people then? Shouldn’t all that evolution stuff taken care of that? Facial hair and no head hair. Good Grief.


32 posted on 03/10/2011 2:08:11 PM PST by ReverendJames (Only A Painter Or A Liberal Can Change Black To White.)
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To: Cardhu

Yeah, ‘penile spines’ brings out the best in us.


33 posted on 03/10/2011 2:09:08 PM PST by lbryce (BHO:Satan's Evil Twin)
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To: Cardhu

Either that or:

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Genesis 1:26-27

I will rest on the Word of God, not the word of man.


34 posted on 03/10/2011 2:09:24 PM PST by TheBattman (They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature...)
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To: humblegunner; Eaker; Squantos; sit-rep; shibumi; 50mm; Salamander; DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis

Who has the penis spine ping list? Or did we lose that too?


35 posted on 03/10/2011 2:09:24 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: ReverendJames

And the CS Lewis biggie(s):

why do we know how we ought to act,
know that we don’t act that way,
do it anyway,
and make excuses for not acting as we ought?


36 posted on 03/10/2011 2:11:32 PM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: Cardhu

Only applies to liberals....


37 posted on 03/10/2011 2:11:47 PM PST by G Larry
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To: Cardhu

Cats still have the spines. They are barbs, going the “wrong way” as it were, and only after the painful contact with these barbs will the female cat ovulate.

And not only these painful spines must be endured by the female cat, but the male will bite and hold her by the neck as well, often leaving “fang marks.”

Not only that, but she might be in heat for days, and many male cats might find her, so she has to go through this for Charlie-Sheen-like weekends!!

So I am personally glad we evolved...


38 posted on 03/10/2011 2:12:31 PM PST by Yaelle
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To: Christian Engineer Mass
Every day it’s penis spines this & charlie sheen that.

That's enough of the redundant posts! Charlie Sheen=penis spine...

39 posted on 03/10/2011 2:12:37 PM PST by TheBattman (They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature...)
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To: Cardhu

Now that we’ve answered that important question upon which the future of mankind was resting, maybe they can move on to what happened to the spines of libs and RINO’s.


40 posted on 03/10/2011 2:13:38 PM PST by jda ("Righteousness exalts a nation . . .")
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