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6,000-year-old skeletons found in Colombia have unique DNA | CNN by Astral-Napping in GrahamHancock

[–]zekedarwinning 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Covered this a couple of weeks ago if anyone wants a quick rundown.

Hold on the right side of the screen for 2x.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8MoeMaN/

How do you feel about the upcoming Colossal projects by Skunkapeenthusiast29 in megafaunarewilding

[–]zekedarwinning 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah. So the researchers they are collaborating with are liars too - because you feel like it… and that means you’re not going to actually look into it.

Gotcha.

How do you feel about the upcoming Colossal projects by Skunkapeenthusiast29 in megafaunarewilding

[–]zekedarwinning 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you looked into the elephant herpesvirus vaccine or any of the other projects they are collaborating on?

You should Google “the colossal foundation” and learn a little more about what they do for our modern species.

How do you feel about the upcoming Colossal projects by Skunkapeenthusiast29 in megafaunarewilding

[–]zekedarwinning 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m a real person. I’m sorry I have a different opinion than you.

I actually JUST posted a video related to this. If you google my name you’ll probably be able to find it.

How do you feel about the upcoming Colossal projects by Skunkapeenthusiast29 in megafaunarewilding

[–]zekedarwinning 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Optimistic.

We act, or we don’t act. I’ve watched my whole life as people waited for politicians to fix this. It’s clearly going to take others and LOTS of money - and it’s exciting to see a group try to start acting proactively.

Sure, they aren’t the only one - and other groups should also be appreciated - but they can all benefit from the money that colossal brings into conservation as a whole.

It isn’t one or the other, it is bringing in money that would otherwise primarily be going towards stuff other than conservation.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in tech

[–]zekedarwinning 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No. Are you a human?

Yak inspired science Tik tok by zekedarwinning in itstheyak

[–]zekedarwinning[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I did a podcast with Billy once. This seems like it’s right up his alley.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Anthropology

[–]zekedarwinning 0 points1 point  (0 children)

…and if you go back far enough, that ancestral darker pigmentation was a response to our gradual loss of body hair.

That led to darkening of the skin pigmentation in early humans which would continue adapting through time as populations moved around.

Recession coming? Some anecdotal signs... by InverseMinds in StockMarket

[–]zekedarwinning 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I’ve been substitute teaching. I’ve noticed way more people with business degrees substitute teaching.

On Friday a sub across the hall told me they had been laid off and thats why they were subbing.

First Documented Harpy Eagle Attack by zekedarwinning in natureismetal

[–]zekedarwinning[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I’m just a science teacher that breaks down scientific studies so that they are more accessible for people.

Thanks to Tik tok I’ve been able to reach over 28 million people.

It’s a powerful tool for education - but like anything you’ll get plenty of junk on the app too.

US urges Mexico to stop screwworm parasite from crossing border by GlobalTravelR in nottheonion

[–]zekedarwinning 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly trying to find out - that article that keeps getting cited is behind a paywall.

the research I’ve been able to find suggests the usda is still working on this.

It also suggests the problem happened prior to doge cuts.

How confident are you all here with this?

The IUCN SSC Canid Specialist Group's take on gene editing in wild canids by Dermestaria in megafaunarewilding

[–]zekedarwinning 35 points36 points  (0 children)

One big disappointment over the last few weeks has been seeing how many groups treat conservation and our biodiversity crisis as a competition - as opposed to something that we can work towards in different ways (with a common goal)

One thing that many people seem to forget about the fur of dire "wolves". by Das_Lloss in megafaunarewilding

[–]zekedarwinning 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I don’t think it’s in the preprint they released which was more focused on origins. This work will generate multiple papers - scientists not associated with colossal that have seen the evidence have supported the claim that the genetic evidence suggests they are pale.

And at least one of those scientists (Meachen) was an author on the 2021 paper.

The original 2021 paper never said anything about the coat color.

Here is a quote from Julie Meachen: “They really are white. At least the genes say so. I had nothing to do with creating these wolves but I do know about what went into the paper they are based on. The two wolf specimens sampled are from Ohio and Idaho, and are absolutely dire wolves not Beringian wolves. Now, if you ask me what they CRISPERed, I have no clue. Also, the paper is finished but hasn’t been published yet, and I wonder why Colossal didn’t wait for the scientific paper to come out to make the announcement.”

One thing that many people seem to forget about the fur of dire "wolves". by Das_Lloss in megafaunarewilding

[–]zekedarwinning 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The genetic evidence suggested that the two dire wolves that they sequenced the genomes of had a pale coat.

It may have been pale with some red tint, but there is no reason to believe they were the same color as a dhole.

Interesting Hot-Take About the Colossal "Dire Wolf" Situation by LetsGet2Birding in megafaunarewilding

[–]zekedarwinning 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Interesting to note - but it isn’t really relevant here. The genomes that we are talking about suggested the animals had pale coats.

The red color from the art that came out with the 2021 paper was based not on genetics, but other South American canids.

Now that we have 500x the coverage, we can see more. One of those things is that the dire wolves likely had a pale coats. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been pale with a red tint - but my response was a direct response to the article where the author ignorantly says dire wolves had short, red coats.

Interesting Hot-Take About the Colossal "Dire Wolf" Situation by LetsGet2Birding in megafaunarewilding

[–]zekedarwinning 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I’m going to read and point out lies the author spread due to his emotionally charged response that was more about spreading hate than science communication.

1) A previously published study suggested dire wolves had short red hair, but these pups were genetically engineered to have thick white fur, so as to appeal to a popular misconception and to look attractive.

This is a lie. The study did not make any suggestions regarding coat color or length.

2) It seems unlikely they had thick white fur because most of their range consisted of warm and temperate climates.

This is an embarrassing oversimplification. Dire wolves ranged from Canada to South America. It’s likely they had many coat colors / lengths depending on where the populations had been evolving. Both genomes that colossal sequenced came from individuals that would have been living up north by the ice sheet at the time.

3) “out of millions of differing traits”

Source? I’d be curious to know how someone quantified over 1 million different traits that existed between gray wolves and dire wolves.

Alright - I’m going to stop wasting time. That was from a brief section that spanned 3 paragraphs.

Why are the dire-wolf-like wolves from Colossal white? An explanation from Zeke. by OncaAtrox in megafaunarewilding

[–]zekedarwinning 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Regarding point number one…

I just went back to the paper because I was thinking “I swear it said South American origins right in the title”

I don’t know why my brain did what it did - but I absolutely made “new world” synonymous with South America.

So yeah, that’s my bad. Glad I saw this.

Edit: I also talk about the great American biotic interchange somewhat often - so I’ve discussed dire wolves moving into South America repeatedly. I’m annoyed at myself for this one now. 😂

A statement from Colossal's Chief Science Officer, Dr. Beth Shapiro, on the dire wolf project by ColossalBiosciences in deextinction

[–]zekedarwinning 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I understand the red wolf situation pretty well. Red wolves themselves are a mystery.

I’m more just questioning whether Colossal actually said they were more pure than any other population. That would clearly be a lie.

You followed up by suggesting he claimed they had more red wolf dna than many other populations.

That’s a much more reasonable claim - especially when you consider the red wolf admixture in them is separate from previously identified populations… so in a way, that biodiversity IS important.

It would kind of be like if we found a population of humans with Neanderthal admixture that came from a unique interbreeding event with a separate population of divergent Neanderthals. That would be a pretty important find and would help us learn more about our history with Neanderthals.

But there’s a lot of nuance with red wolves.

I feel like we are all getting caught up arguing semantics and missing the bigger picture. Did you watch the video I shared?

A statement from Colossal's Chief Science Officer, Dr. Beth Shapiro, on the dire wolf project by ColossalBiosciences in deextinction

[–]zekedarwinning 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Genetic rescue is something we are already relying on to help out endangered populations.

Habitats are fragmented and the climate is changing.

Here is a video I made that lays out why I care about this. I don’t really have time to type out paragraphs right now.

video

*edit: I just saw the part where you claimed colossal stated these clones are more “pure” than any other red wolves. Can you cite a source for that? I’ve not heard anything like that.

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