• wonderer1
    2.2k
    Do you think the genes for wings in bats is similar to those for birds, is similar to those for flying insects?

    They're not.
    flannel jesus

    That's a bit simplistic. True, insects are quite distant and the genetic distance is going to be relatively large for them. However the four animals in Frank's picture are all tetrapods:

    Tetrapods (/ˈtɛtrəˌpɒdz/;[5] from Ancient Greek τετρα- (tetra-) 'four', and πούς (poús) 'foot') are four-limbed vertebrate animals constituting the superclass Tetrapoda (/tɛˈtræpədə/).[6] It includes all extant and extinct amphibians, and the amniotes which in turn evolved into the sauropsids (reptiles, including dinosaurs and therefore birds) and synapsids (extinct pelycosaurs, therapsids and all extant mammals). Some tetrapods such as snakes, legless lizards and caecilians had evolved to become limbless via mutations of the Hox gene,[7] although some do still have a pair of vestigial spurs that are remnants of the hindlimbs.

    Note the mention of Hox genes. All of the tetrapod species in Frank's picture have Hox genes playing a strong role in determing much about the body plan, and constraining the course that tetrapod evolution could take.
  • wonderer1
    2.2k
    In addition, what's interesting about the genes of life on earth is that a lot of it is junk. A lot of it doesn't do anything. It's vestigial. If we share 70% of DNA with this alien, that means we share a hell of a lot of vestigal DNA - that's actually a pretty big problem.flannel jesus

    Good point, although I'm assuming that if there was DNA testing, it wasn't a whole genome sequencing of whatever DNA there was to test. A test that only looked for 100 genes might find 70 matches, while ignoring non-coding DNA.

    I'm guessing the 'researchers' won't be releasing any details of any DNA testing.
  • hypericin
    1.6k
    Regarding the positioning I doubt that is considered. Remember that even closely related species can have very different numbers of chromosomes, let alone genes. What must count is the number of matching protein-encoding genes.
  • Merkwurdichliebe
    2.6k
    I think it's very very unlikely, astronomically unlikely, to be extra terrestrial.flannel jesus

    Personally, I am a big fan of the interdimensional and the illegal types
  • L'éléphant
    1.6k
    Questions like, should this footage elicit a change in beliefs at all?flannel jesus
    No. It doesn't make me change my mind. If there are evidence of alien life forms, and they've reached the Earth, and caught on camera, then they should be here. Man-made space debris fall on Earth in minute particles undetectable by our existing technology. If you found something at the bottom of the ocean that's "strange", most likely it's our own space debris.

    If there are other life forms, and they're too far away to reach the Earth, then all we have are speculations.
  • jgill
    3.9k
    Apart from the intelligent comments made here there is the fact that on television the creatures appear to be made of clay. Anything to distract from serious issues.
  • Tom Storm
    9.1k
    here is the fact that on television the creatures appear to be made of clay.jgill

    Perhaps they are golems and someone has removed their 'shem'. :wink:
  • wonderer1
    2.2k
    NYTimes article:

    The university lab which did the testing “disassociates itself from any use, interpretation, or subsequent misrepresentation of the results it provides,” the institute said. “In no case do we draw conclusions about the origin of these samples.”

    Similarly, Antígona Segura, one of Mexico’s top astrobiologists, questioned Mr. Maussan’s contentions. “These conclusions are simply not backed up by evidence,” said Dr. Segura, who collaborates with the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, a NASA initiative to search for life on distant worlds. “The whole thing is very shameful.”
  • Agree-to-Disagree
    468
    This same exoplanet has methane and CO2, ...frank

    Global-warming and Climate-change ???
  • Agree-to-Disagree
    468
    A 30% genetic difference is HUGE. No mammal is so genetically remote from humans. This number is closer to the difference between humans and reptiles.hypericin

    Humans and bananas share 50 to 60 percent of the same DNA. So there is a 40 to 50 percent genetic difference between humans and bananas. :nerd:
  • Merkwurdichliebe
    2.6k
    Humans and bananas share 50 to 60 percent of the same DNA. So there is a 40 to 50 percent genetic difference between humans and bananas. :nerd:Agree-to-Disagree

    Someday humans and bananas will be hybridized and will share 100 percent dna.
  • frank
    15.8k
    Global-warming and Climate-change ???Agree-to-Disagree

    :razz:
  • Agree-to-Disagree
    468
    Someday humans and bananas will be hybridized and will share 100 percent dna.Merkwurdichliebe

    Will they be called "humananas", "hananas", or "bahumans", or "bahanas" ?
  • Janus
    16.3k
    I think it would be huge philosophically.frank

    What difference would it make to philosophy in your view?

    Someday humans and bananas will be hybridized and will share 100 percent dna.Merkwurdichliebe

    I believe it has already happened in some enclaves.
  • wonderer1
    2.2k
    I believe it has already happened in some enclaves.Janus

    :rofl:
  • Vera Mont
    4.3k
    I wonder whether it was natural selection.
  • Merkwurdichliebe
    2.6k
    Will they be called "humananas", "hananas", or "bahumans", or "bahanas" ?Agree-to-Disagree

    Homo sapiarnadisiaca
  • Merkwurdichliebe
    2.6k
    I believe it has already happened in some enclaves.Janus

    It is an oppressed and marginalized demographic
  • ssu
    8.6k
    Do notice that there has already been a discussion on the PF in the thread UFO's by @Michael after the Senate inquiry into the subject just two months ago.

    I think that the Mexican government saw this and wanted also to discuss such interestingly exotic subjects. So now you have TWO parliamentary institutions that have discussed UFO's and alien life. That's very, very interesting. That's how it would go...

    Anyway, I think there's been extensive discussion about the sightings especially after the US armed forces did release footage and the fighter pilots were interviewed (and weren't kicked out of their jobs and downplayed). Mr David Grusch just put it a little bit more to tinfoil hat territory, but then was the also the Mexican Congress also.

    First it's laugh, then it's simply silence, then it's already old news as things were revealed / discovered years ago...

    (I think the threads should be joined...)
  • Tzeentch
    3.8k
    If there was any chance aliens had visited Earth, don't you think the other nations would be a little more interested in this?

    Why do you think literally no one outside the US cares about this at all?
  • RogueAI
    2.8k
    What to make of the UAP phenomena?

    "The NASA independent study team did not find any evidence that UAP have an extraterrestrial origin," NASA administrator Bill Nelson said during a press conference announcing the release of the study. "But we don't know what these UAP are."
    https://www.axios.com/2023/09/14/nasa-uap-report-release

    So, what are they/is it?
  • ssu
    8.6k
    I think now it's politically correct for authorities to remind that we don't know. Like not jumping to conclusions or so.
  • RogueAI
    2.8k
    I think now it's politically correct for authorities to remind that we don't know. Like not jumping to conclusions or so.ssu

    That they couldn't nail down a conventional explanation is a conclusion, in a way. Weren't the skeptics at first saying the UAP's were image artifacts?
  • jgill
    3.9k
    So, what are they/is it?RogueAI

    Dark splotches on a computer screen that appear to move. Amazing evidence. :roll:
  • frank
    15.8k
    I think it would be huge philosophically.
    — frank

    What difference would it make to philosophy in your view?
    Janus

    What do you think I was referring to there?
  • Janus
    16.3k
    You don't have to answer the question if you don't want to or can't find anything to say.
  • frank
    15.8k
    You don't have to answer the question if you don't want to or can't find anything to say.Janus

    Darn tootin'
  • RogueAI
    2.8k
    Dark splotches on a computer screen that appear to move. Amazing evidence.jgill

    If that was what it was, wouldn't NASA have figured that out?
  • ssu
    8.6k
    If that was what it was, wouldn't NASA have figured that out?RogueAI
    And then, of course, you have the actual witnesses, the pilots. But what do they know about encounters in the air. :snicker:

    The pilots btw. said that the biggest obstacle was simply to report the fact in fear that they would be laughed upon or at worst grounded.
  • jgill
    3.9k
    If that was what it was, wouldn't NASA have figured that out? — RogueAI

    And then, of course, you have the actual witnesses, the pilots. But what do they know about encounters in the air. :snicker:
    ssu

    You would think. But anything to take the public focus off our senile president. I used to trust most government agencies, but I withhold judgement now. Those little dots that seemed to run alongside the aircraft are not convincing. Just me.
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