by Richard Enos
June 04, 2018
from Collective-Evolution Website

If you have been following genetic and epigenetic studies conducted within the edifices of modern science over the past couple of decades, you likely have suspected what I am about to tell you:

Mr. Darwin has already left the building, his disheveled 'Theory of Evolution' in tow.

A massive new genetic study by Mark Stoeckle from The Rockefeller University in New York and David Thaler at the University of Basel in Switzerland puts a few more nails into an already-rotting coffin, opening the door for new theories about our origins and the mechanisms behind the evolution of species on our planet.

Challenges to Convention

In the conventional narrative of how evolution proceeds through survival-of-the-fittest and adaptation to new environments based on random genetic mutations, it is natural to expect that species with large, far-flung populations like ants and humans will become more genetically diverse over time than species who remain in one milieu.

But is it true?

"The answer is no," said Stoeckle, lead author of the study, published in the journal Human Evolution.

In fact, the genetic diversity of most species on the planet "is about the same", no matter their history of migration, relocation or proliferation.

The study's most startling result, perhaps, is that nine out of 10 species on Earth today, including humans, came into being 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.

"This conclusion is very surprising, and I fought against it as hard as I could," said David Thaler.

Indeed it is surprising - since it presents a stunning invalidation of the commonplace notion that evolution on the planet has been slow, linear, progressive, and unbroken.

Previous challenges to this notion in the form of 'missing links' could be perceived as grounded in a lack of physical evidence which one day would be resolved.

Now, we are really forced to start looking at things in a completely new way.
 

Study Methods

The study relies not on an examination of regular 'nuclear' DNA, but rather mitochondrial DNA.

As this article in AFP explains,

All animals also have DNA in their mitochondria, which are the tiny structures inside each cell that convert energy from food into a form that cells can use. 

 

Mitochondria contain 37 genes, and one of them, known as COI, is used to do DNA barcoding.

 

Unlike the genes in nuclear DNA, which can differ greatly from species to species, all animals have the same set of mitochondrial DNA, providing a common basis for comparison. 

 

Around 2002, Canadian molecular biologist Paul Hebert - who coined the term "DNA barcode" - figured out a way to identify species by analyzing the COI gene.

"The mitochondrial sequence has proved perfect for this all-animal approach because it has just the right balance of two conflicting properties," said Thaler. 

On the one hand, the COI gene sequence is similar across all animals, making it easy to pick out and compare. On the other hand, these mitochondrial snippets are different enough to be able to distinguish between each species.

 

In analyzing the barcodes across 100,000 species, the researchers found a telltale sign showing that almost all the animals emerged about the same time as humans. 

 

What they saw was a lack of variation in so-called "neutral" mutations, which are the slight changes in DNA across generations that neither help nor hurt an individual's chances of survival. 

 

In other words, they were irrelevant in terms of the natural and sexual drivers of evolution. 

 

How similar or not these "neutral" mutations are to each other is like tree rings - they reveal the approximate age of a species.

Alternative Theory of How We Evolve

Let's look at the implications of the study (Why Should Mitochondria define Species?).

A few points made in the conclusion are of interest.

The same explanation offered for the sequence variation found among modern humans applies equally to the modern populations of essentially all other animal species.

 

Namely that the extant population, no matter what its current size or similarity to fossils of any age, has expanded from mitochondrial uniformity within the past 200,000 years.

Nonhuman animals, as well as bacteria and yeast, are often considered "model systems" whose results can be extrapolated to humans.

 

The direction of inference is reversible.

 

Fossil evidence for mammalian evolution in Africa implies that most species started with small founding populations and later expanded [157] and sequence analysis has been interpreted to suggest that the last ice age created widespread conditions for a subsequent expansion [158].

The picture we get here is that somewhere in the past, no farther back than 200,000 years ago, most or all animal species 'got started,' with a mitochondrial clock set to 0.

There is evidence that these species 'started with small founding populations and later expanded,' and that extreme conditions - like the last ice age - can give rise to a subsequent expansion.

It almost resembles the Noah's Ark scenario, doesn't it?

A cataclysmic flood wipes out all humans and animals on the planet except a small few of each species, who begin again to proliferate anew once the flood ends and the Earth becomes habitable.

Extraterrestrial Intervention

But to really make this idea fit, we would not be taking species from the previous world before the catastrophe, because their mitochondrial clocks would not be set to 0.

Rather, we have to see it as a new 'seeding' of species on the planet after a catastrophe wipes out most or all of the species that were there before.

And who would be the ones doing the seeding? You guessed it. One or more advanced extraterrestrial races...

It was back in my grade 8 history class that I first came across claims that extraterrestrial races were prevalent in molding the history of the planet, as we were all asked to do a critical analysis of Erich Von Daniken's 'Chariots of the Gods.'

I recall being perplexed that we were actually reading this in school, and I certainly didn't have the discernment at the time to notice that it was part of a campaign to make us all work on discrediting Von Daniken's claims based on a lack of scientific evidence.

I remember being not-so-subtly persuaded by the teacher that this was 'the only' reasonable line of analysis, but given that at the time I would write whatever would give me the best mark, I followed suit.

It seems to me that this was an experimental 'pre-emptive strike' on our minds by the scientific establishment. Whether or not this actually succeeded in making people have a more skeptical bent about such matters, I'm not sure.

Today, the idea that extraterrestrial civilizations are and have always been involved in our physical, mental/emotional and spiritual evolution is quite common within the awakening community.

More highly evolved beings are seen to be able to work directly in the genetic manipulation of species...

For example, the idea that we are part of a 'Grand Experiment' has been proposed by whistleblower/speaker Corey Goode, who says that a 'Super Federation' of extraterrestrial beings are conducting 22 genetic experiments on the Earth that are purportedly designed to enhance humanity's evolution.

Is it possible that the evolution of the human race has been fostered in part by the genetic seeding of today's human and animal kingdom by advanced extraterrestrial civilizations almost 200,000 years ago?

Well, at least there is some new scientific evidence that leads us to ponder this possibility.