Welcome To Your Very Distant Cousin The 1st Microbe 3 Billions + Years Back. -------

[TheMastersNemesis]

In the Nova program a few years ago "What Darwin Did Not Know" there is a new tree of life based on DNA. It, in a way, redefines the older phylum system. As it turns out all life is related directly through DNA in some way. Every living organism shares some common no matter how small pieces of DNA.

If you look at life as a huge symphony based on millions of notes every living thing and every living thing that ever lives we all share most or small parts of the same DNA. Even in human beings there is a small number of notes of DNA that exactly match that same 1st microbe.

We share parts of the same DNA of ANYTHING ALIVE OR THAT LIFE THAT HAD LIVED AND IS NO EXTINCT. Even T-Rex is a very distant cousin. Even plants have some of the same DNA that we possess. We share 98% of the same DNA with chimps.

Astonishingly anywhere we look where there is life we have some of the exact same DNA. It ls like in the symphony we share a few notes, melodies, themes or even entire movements with other life.

So when you cut your grass you are cutting a relative of sorts. Even bacteria and microbes and viruses that infect us have some of our exact DNA code.

Ironically, our supposed racial differences are defined by very extremely minuscule differences in DNA

[jberryhill]

1. Ancestry.com said I am 23% Maple!

I made this point on a recent thread about the DNA testing fad. Every living thing is related to every other living thing, so even bothering with "which humans am I most closely related to" strikes me as sort of a dumb question.

[Sophia4]

3. Yes. We are all connected, all related to each other and even to animals and plants.

The universe is one.

I find this thought very reassuring.

Many of my ancestors came to the US very early on, so we are fascinated at the discoveries about our past, where we really came from, things we never imagined could be true, as our DNA uncovers it all.

If you know where you came from, for example, England or Sweden, DNA studies probably don't seem so important. But if your heritage is obscure or forgotten, it is very interesting.

[vlyons]

2. "Race" is not determined by biology

"Race" is a cultural set of traditions

[zipplewrath]

4. Biology is about to undermine much of that

DNA tracing is going to radically change much of what we believed we knew about our anthropological past. Migration patterns and even any attempt to define various tribes and peoples will be exposed for just how arbitrary and difficult it is. Without naming them, there are many cultures with very strong connections to their own cultural histories which are often reliant upon a great amount of "oral history". Unfortunately over time we've found much of that to be fraught with inaccuracies and misconceptions.

[marylandblue]

5. I do not believe I am related to Donald Trump

It's Fake News! IT'S PROVEN we have no common anscestors! He really came from Denebian slime molds. Disgusting!

[NCTraveler]

6. Can I borrow ten bucks?

If you can’t ask family....