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DIVINITY TO DNA : COULD OUR RELIGIOUS MYTHS BE A MIRROR TO ANCIENT SPECIES & EVOLUTION

In 2008, deep within a cave in Siberia, a group of Russian paleontologists made a surprising discovery: a tooth and a bone that initially appeared to belong to a bear. However, DNA analysis revealed something remarkable-it was not a bear, but a previously unknown relative of humans and Neanderthals. This mysterious hominin, now known as the Denisovan, turned out to be a "sister group" to Neanderthals, having lived roughly 75,000 years ago.

What made the discovery particularly fascinating was the size of the remains. A bone from a Denisovan’s little finger, typically a small structure in modern humans, was unusually large. The molar discovered in the same cave was also much bigger than a modern human tooth. Then in 2019, researchers found a palm-sized Denisovan braincase, further suggesting that Denisovans were significantly larger than either modern humans or Neanderthals.

Genetic studies have since shown that humans and Denisovans interbred as recently as 15,000 years ago. Strikingly, populations in regions like Papua New Guinea and Australia carry the highest percentages of Denisovan DNA up to 5% or more. Recent research by an Indian scientist, published in Nature, found that several tribal groups in India also have higher Denisovan genetic traces than other South Asian populations.

This scientific evidence raises intriguing questions—could our ancient epics be more than just stories? Take the Mahabharat, for instance. In the text, Bhima, a human warrior, marries Hidimba, described as a rakshasi or giantess. Their son, Ghatotkacha, is portrayed as a fearsome, powerful warrior who wreaked havoc during the Kurukshetra war. Could this be a mythologized account of interbreeding between early humans and Denisovans?

Looking even further back, the Ramayana features an even larger presence of such "giant" beings. Ravana and his kin are labelled as rakshasas, a race of giants, and the Vanaras, such as Hanuman and Sugreeva, are described as intelligent, monkey-like beings with great strength. Interestingly, Vanaras are not presented as mere monkeys, they had sloping foreheads, protruding jaws, and lived in cave networks, characteristics strikingly similar to modern reconstructions of Neanderthals and other archaic humans.

Some anthropologists argue that the Vanaras may have been inspired by hominin species like Homo erectus or even a separate, now-extinct lineage. Skeptics often dismiss these links due to the lack of direct fossil evidence for “Vanaras,” but if we consider that their features, like boneless tails, wouldn’t fossilize, and that they lived in dense forests and caves, perhaps the archaeological evidence has simply eroded over time or lies undiscovered.

The Ramayana may date back millions of years if taken at face value, perhaps even to a time when early hominins coexisted with anatomically modern humans. Descriptions of Kishkindha, the Vanara kingdom (located near modern-day Hampi in Karnataka), echo the settings of ancient cave dwellings. Valmiki mentioned that Vanaras were not like normal small monkeys but a different species of monkey, having a strong physique and traits of monkeys like Neanderthal man. Valmiki also gives detailed genealogies, listing 73 generations before Rama, a detail that suggests he was recording events with historical intent rather than creating pure mythology.

There’s also a fascinating note from the Mahabharata: when Krishna meets Jambavan, the wise bear-man from the Ramayana, he acknowledges him as one of the last surviving of his species. Krishna makes a similar remark to Hanuman, who, according to the texts, was granted immortality by Rama. These statements suggest that by the time of the Mahabharata, the beings like Vanaras and other ancient species were nearly extinct, remembered only through stories and revered as legends.

Modern paleontology often confines itself to fossil records and genetic evidence, but perhaps mythology holds fragments of forgotten history. The Vanaras may not have been monkeys, but rather an entirely separate humanoid species—intelligent, strong, and now lost to time. By re-examining ancient epics through the lens of genetics and archaeology, we may slowly uncover a deeper understanding of humanity's tangled family tree.

References:

http://shastram.weebly.com/neanderthal-man-and-hominid-species-in-ramayana.html

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ARTHROPOD SURGEONS: AMPUTATION BY FLORIDAN ANTS

It seems like a scene from an adventurous film: an injured worker performs an emergency amputation on one of his colleagues. But this is not about human beings – it is a behaviour seen in ants.

        Florida carpenter ants, scientifically known as Camponotus floridanus displays a phenomenal skill of life-saving amputation on their injured nestmates. This is a remarkable behaviour, as the first known instance of non-human animals showing amputations to increase the survival of others.

           Researchers found that different ant species secrete antimicrobial substance through their mouth to cleanse injuries and prevent potential infections. The compounds are produced by metapleural glands. Metapleural glands are the glandular structures exclusively present in ants which sanitize the ants by secreting the chemical compound which prevents the bacterial & fungal growth on ants. But over time, some species including Camponotus floridanus, have evolutionarily lost them. Hence, an experiment was conducted on how an ant species that lack the ability to produce the anti-microbial compound for treating battle-field injuries, would care for their wounded mates & they were amazed on what they observed: a kind of surgical mediated response formerly only displayed by humans.

       The process of amputation involves one ant gnawing off the affected leg of a nestmate, which typically takes about 40 minutes to complete. The procedure begins with the healthy ant licking the wound before moving up the leg to bite off the limb at the joint. Studies have shown that ants perform amputations selectively, primarily focusing on injuries located on the upper part of the leg, such as the femur as these have muscles in the femur, that keep haemolymph flowing. When they sustain a femur or upper leg injury, the flow of haemolymph is reduced. Thereby, bacteria find it difficult to move from the wound into the body. In such cases, the possibility of infection is very low if the entire leg is amputated instantly. When the injuries are sustained in lower legs such as tibia, bacteria can easily enter its body rapidly. As a result, the chance of amputation being successful is narrow. Thus, tibial injuries only receive basic wound care. The ants, on some level, seem to assess the severity of injuries to perform the potent course of treatment.

         Experimental findings reveal that ants undergoing this intervention showed an impressive survival rate of approximately 90-95% when treated for upper leg injuries while untreated injuries had lower survival rate, establishing this as a significant behaviour for maintaining ant colony.

    The behaviour of amputation leads to various intriguing queries related to cognitive capabilities within ant colonies. Ongoing investigations intend to study similar surgical actions in other species & the underlying mechanisms through which Floridan carpenter ants demonstrate this intricate wound care. 

References – Frank, E.T., Kesner, L., Liberti, J. et al. Targeted treatment of injured nestmates with antimicrobial compounds in an ant society. Nat Commun 14, 8446 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43885-w

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Immortal Invades Insidious: Naked mole rats live long, cancer-free lives.

Naked mole rats seem quite unappealing visually with their long bunny teeth and wrinkled skin. Other rodents might be kept in the adorable category, if we say so! However, their life span compared to other rodents and their way of resistance to age-related diseases could open new doors to Cancer and its treatment.

Naked mole rats are special for some fascinating facts:

Only cold-blooded mammal

Cannot feel pain through its skin

Eusocial like a couple of arthropods, one of only two mammals

can live in extremely oxygen-deprived conditions

Most importantly, IT NEVER GETS AFFECTED WITH CANCER.

Several studies were conducted on naked mole rats to find that a kind of "claustrophobia-induced gene" called p16 was activated in naked mole rats to stop the growth of cells if they become too tightly packed. This process can also be termed as contact inhibition which happens in other animals including us, humans. Contact inhibition is a phenomena which is anti-cancer and prevents abnormal growth and division of cells. In their case, contact inhibition is exhibited stronger by p16. But what is the reason behind this over sensitivity?

Recent findings suggest an answer in the form of a molecule secreted by the cells of naked moles called Hyaluronan. Hyaluronan is a polysaccharide (long beads of sugar) or glycosaminoglycan (GAGs) which are found in our extracellular matrix and this gluey substance is somehow, responsible for contact inhibition in naked moles so strongly.

But what made their hyaluronan different from ours?

Well, when the researchers analyzed, they found out that their hyaluronan is five times bigger than human's. This massive gooey chain of sugar inhibits the processes like division and inflammation which can be attributed to cancer.

Could cutting down the levels of Hyaluronan induce cancer?

Rats' cells were engineered by switching off a gene called p53 and switching on Ras gene, to make these affected by cancer. Cells with Hyaluronan repeatedly resisted while those whose Hyaluronan was ceased from being produced by gene manipulation of the enzyme Hyaluronidase, cells showed signs of tumour. Hence, it was concluded that this polysaccharide plays a key role in preventing Cancer in Naked mole rats.

This marvel can prove to be a breakthrough path in Oncology and Cancer Research.

Reference: https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2013/06/20/another-clue-to-how-the-naked-mole-rat-stays-cancer-free/