With dinosaur DNA !
Where do we get dinosaur dna ?
From dinosaur blood !
Where do we get dinosaur blood ?
Prehistoric mosquitoes !
Now where are we supposed to get those ?
They're "trapped" in sticky sap that hardens, called Amber !
How do you make a caveman ?
This guy was using his hand ax on some wood when he cut his hand. He kept working, but when he was finished, he threw the darn thing away.
One hundred thousand years ago.
Here is a photo of this guy's blood.
Now this is the neat part -- very very old dried blood is STILL blood. We can sample it, test it, analyze it. And, we did: the hemoglobin, serum albumin and immunoglobin G (don't you love this) all show that the little bleeder was human. The wood fragments were found preserved in the blood film as it dried. They found some nice DNA in the white blood cells that they are having a very good time with, but we don't have those results.
This rock was used to hit bison with and we've got some nice hairs and 30,000 year old bison DNA stuck to the blood residue. Below is a photomicrograph of the hairy rock.
forensic bonus: this is a skull of controversy.
it was thought that perhaps this child was hit on the head with a really pointy club. or maybe this skull was a very early example of brain surgery. now we have a new theory involving a sabre tooth tiger. what do you think ?
coming soon, because we don't know yet:
the neanderthal, where did he go (wrong) ?
As long as we're playing with forensics --there is no such evidence for our Neanderthal Man.
Why did he die out? Iron poor tired blood?
For a while, "he" coexisted with Our Guys.
(remember now, we are NOT related to the Neanderthal. everybody on the planet shares a little bit of the same DNA, but we do not have any Neanderthal DNA.)There are only theories. If we had a big war, there are no skulls lying around with club holes in them. No battle of gettysburg type playground for the forensic anthropologists.
So we probably didn't do it.
Although perhaps they expired by inadvertently inhaling the fumes from our cave paintings.
oops.
Did you See THIS? GoTo
Look, I'm a Hand!
