Showing posts with label european. Show all posts
Showing posts with label european. Show all posts

Genetic Resistance by Tasmanian Devils to Facial Disease (DFTD) - Biology

Biological research shows genetic resistance to Tasmanian devil disease.
The Tasmanian devil is an animal unique to Australia. It Once resided all over the continent. Perhaps is was easy for Aboriginals to catch for food. It cannot run very fast. It could just have died out due to a warming of the country. Tasmania is its only natural home today.
Tasmanian devil facial tumor disease (DFTD
Their raucous cries led to them being named devils by European settlers. They are violent to each other though attacks on humans are virtually non-existent. Scavenging for food is their number one priority.

A facial disease began in the species in 1996. It was unusual in that it is the only known cancer transmitted from animal to animal. Tasmanian devil numbers fell by 80 per cent in twenty years due to Tasmanian devil facial tumor disease (DFTD).

Extinction was predicted. However, it was noticed that some animals survived without getting the disease. Genes were examined and these devils had five genes not present in their brothers who succumbed. This shows that all animals currently living are unlike their ancestors who dominated even a hundred years ago.
 
tasmanian, devil, disease, facial, european, settlement, dftd, extinction, survice, dnd, genes, resistance
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European Skull Found In New Zealand Dating before British Arrival

Captain Cook discovered Australia in 1770. If you believe this you are living in dreamland. The Portuguese took Malacca, a small Malaysian state, in 1511. Spain controlled part of the Philippines from 1521. Indonesia "welcomed" the Netherlands from 1596 and the Southeast Asian country was later ruled by the Dutch from 1825. France sent emissaries to Siam in 1600.

The question is did any of the sailors from these countries land in Australia before the British arrived in Singapore in 1819: note Britain had been around in India since 1612. It is obvious that Dutch sailors landed on the north coast of Australia because Indonesia is just next door. Why didn't they claim it? Why didn't Portugal claim it? The Portuguese colonized East Timor from 1613 and that is even closer. The truth is they didn't want it because they couldn't find any advanced societies there. No trade was on offer. In those days trade was everything. There was no welfare state in those days. You had to earn or starve. Seeing a few Aboriginals along the beaches and cliffs, they took on water and left.

What is surprising it that no real evidence of Europeans being in the Antipodes has been found - until now. The skull of a European woman has been found in Wellington, New Zealand. Carbon dating shows she was alive there in 1742. Dating is now very accurate.

So Europeans had visited New Zealand before Captain Cook "discovered" it in 1769. It was claimed for Britain in 1839, first being ruled from New South Wales. Then the whole country was claimed by Britain in 1840.

Getting back to the skull. When first found police thought they had a murder on their hands when they saw puncture wounds. The woman must have arrived there by "independent' means, probably by a European ship sailing at the captain's whim. Abel Tasman saw the shore of New Zealand in 1642 but had no women aboard his ship. Why did it take Europeans another century to search for the great southern land again?  There is another issue: evidence of a pre-Maori red haired white race living in New Zealand.
Evolution by Ty Buchanan
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Africans May Have Visited Australia 1,000 Years Ago

When Captain Cook "discovered" Australia in 1770 it was known that Southeast Asians and even Chinese seafarers had landed in Australia. Portuguese and Dutch ships had also stopped to replenish water supplies. It was not considered possible that people had landed in Australia from another continent.

In the 1940s mysterious coins were discovered. While some were coins used by the Dutch East India Company others were identified as coming from the Kilwas Sultanate of Tanzania in Africa. They were used in the prominent trading center 1,000 years ago.

If Africa was trading using Australia as a location en route Aboriginals could have come into contact with African merchants. Though the coins were found on the fringe of the Australian north coast, getting fresh water would have been important for ships traveling through the waters of the Wessel Islands.

Aboriginals would have been curious about any "strange" looking new people. Africans would certainly have been different. Drawings of European ships have been found on cave walls. They were drawn by Aboriginals after contact with Europeans. Perhaps evidence of African visitations can be located.
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History
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Aboriginals Are Not Genetically Susceptible to Alcohol

Like the native Indians of North America, Australian Aboriginals have taken solace in alcohol. Since the Europeans arrived, discrimination has been part of their daily lives. Europeans immured in stratified society with strong class divisions treated Aboriginals as less than human.

City white people have the same alcohol problems as Aboriginals, but society accepts this as normal. Many Australians of European descent believe that there is a genetics predisposition in Aboriginals. There is no foundation to this.

When white people get drunk they fight, steal, and lose control. Aboriginal communities have alcohol prohibition supported by government legislation. If this was to be applied to white citizens there would be a public outcry. The current interference in unemployment payments to Aboriginals in the Northern Territory is definitely unlawful. This is why the board that polices human rights in Australia was suspended.

Life is so frustrating for Australian Aboriginals that they are trying to kill themselves with alcohol. Enquiries into the problem always ignore this. Alcoholism is more a sociocultural issue than a physical one.
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Australian Truffle Industry at Risk

It may be hard to believe, but Tasmania has a thriving truffle industry.  Perigord, the company that began truffle growing in Australia, has a trained team of dogs to search out the valuable product.

Something is damaging the crop.  A beetle related to the European truffle beetle has appeared.  Truffle beetles have not been studied to a great extent.  Until now the fungus has been pest free.  In Europe they are also destroyed by flies, gnats, and larvae.  Because the European truffle has only been here for about thirty years, growing them was easy.  The pests have found them and are attacking.  It seems the local beetle likes them too.  Moreover, the European snail has inadvertently been imported.

There is a problem in doing research to identify the culprits.  Truffles must be dug up to be examined before they ripen.  Once brought into the light at this early stage they are no good for the market. Using pesticides as is done in Europe would be very expensive.  Few Australian producers are willing to come forward to assist the study, fearing financial loss.
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Agriculture
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Agriculture Was Brought into Western Europe by Southern European Males

Learning has not been linear for human beings. Advancement can be different from one place to another. It is now known from DNA analysis of 5,000 year old skeletons in a French cave that women did not travel into western Europe. Mitochondrial DNA is passed down only from the mother which shows that European women had local ancestry. On the other hand the Y chromosome passed down through males shows movement of males into new European regions. Knowledge of farming came into new areas when the males moved in and mated with local females.

Analysis of DNA from 29 skeletons found in France, highlighted this difference between the mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome. Males had moved from the Mediterranean to western Europe. Most of the males in the 29 skeleton group were related, so when the males arrived they stayed on the land with their new hunter gatherer wives.

The southern males had a problem: they did not have the lactose tolerant gene of central Europeans. They had to drink fermented milk from sheep and goats. Adult central European males could easily digest milk from cows.

More work is being done to further clarify how and when agriculture spread across Europe.
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History
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