Apidima 1
Standing next to the President of the United States in April 2003, Dr. Francis Collins, lead scientist of the Human Genome Project, announced to the world the completion of the first draft of the human genome, the code for life carried within every cell. He said: “It is a happy day for the world. It is humbling for me, and awe-inspiring, to realize that we have caught the first glimpse of our own instruction book, previously known only to God.”
Life at the biologic level is highly complex. Figure 1 portrays an oversimplified picture of a few components of genetics. Appreciate that it took Dr. Collins, with a team of over 100 scientists utilizing the highest power computers, over a decade to reach just a first draft of a human genome.
Figure 1 Review of DNA (credit Shutterstock)
Humans are made up of trillions of cells. Each cell has a nucleus; DNA and proteins interact to make chromosomes. Each nucleus contains 46 (23 pairs) chromosomes; the 23rd pair are sex (XY) chromosomes (mitochondrial Eve X-chromosome plus Y-chromosome Adam). Inside each chromosome are long strands of intertwined DNA double helix. Making up the double helix DNA are the four nucleotides, also called base-pairs; they are Cytosine, Guanine, Adenine, and Thymine. One strand of human DNA contains 3.1 billion base-pairs. Genes are made up of various nucleotide sequences. Humans have about 25,000 genes that code for something, like the color of your eyes or the number and length of your fingers.
Humans. Homo sapiens. No matter where you go in the world – Australian aborigines, Native Americans, Africans, Mongols, Caucasians – we are truly all one genetic family, one species, one race. All human beings share DNA that is 99.9 percent related. Out of 3,100,000,000 possible letters (base pairs) that define the instructions for building a human, there is only a miniscule variance of 3,100,000 letters between you and the most different person in the world today or of hundreds of generations ago. There is no other species on the planet that even comes close; the DNA of the nearest species to us has a variation that is ten times greater. We are indeed unique and special!
Figure 2 Katerina Harvati (anthropologist) with skull of Apidima 1
Where and how did Homo sapiens, human beings, originate? Science and the Bible offer answers. Can each be right or is one forced to pick between science and faith? That’s a rhetorical question. The Bible (Genesis in particular) provides us with plenty of insight. There we learn about Paul who lived about 2000 years ago. 3000 years ago, King David reigned; everything we know about David comes from the Bible. 4000 years ago, the Bible tells us Abraham left the land of Ur and journeyed to Israel. 5000 years ago, Noah and his family were the only humans left on Earth following the Flood, according to some theologians. Then things begin to get murky. Prior to Noah human lifespans approached 1000 years, there was a race of giants called Nephilim, and ‘the sons of God married the daughters of men’. Further back yet – some “literalist” scholars calculate 6200 years ago - the Bible tells us of the beginning of mankind – a man named Adam, with his wife Eve, living in the Garden of Eden somewhere in the Middle East. But other Christian scholars prefer the teaching aspects of an allegorical interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2, dealing with topics such as God entering a covenantal relationship with mankind, or the Creator setting us apart as his “image bearers”.
Science paints a much different picture, based on archaeology, anthropology and genetics. Most scientists, many of whom are Christians, believe humans evolved from a common ancestor – Darwinian evolution. Atheist scientists believe no Creator was needed to initiate the evolution process; it all could happen by “chance”. Many Christians believe in Theistic Evolution, whereby God ordained evolution as his means of creation, as opposed to ‘Ex Nihilo” where God would create something from nothing – simply at his command.
Figure 3 Apidima 1 Human Skull (left) and Apidima 2 Neanderthal Skull (right); (credit: The Atlantic)
Advances in the human genome have been a ‘game changer’ for anthropologists and archaeologists, giving them additional tools to classify the caves, utensils, and bones they research. Recently, geneticists have characterized the genome of some of our nearest relatives such as Homo Neanderthal and Homo Denisovan, so they are able to discern some of the differences between sub-species within the genus Homo.
In 1978, in a cave called Apidima at the southern end of Greece, a group of anthropologists found a pair of human-like skulls (see Figure 3). Researchers (in 1978) guessed that they might be Neanderthals, since both skulls were entombed together. Decades went by until a team of anthropologists, led by Dr. Katerina Harvati from Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen, took a fresh look at the Apidima fossils, using more sophisticated scientific tools. Her findings were like an earthquake – paradigm changing.
First, the two skulls, Apidima 1 and Apidima 2 were different; only Adipima 2 was Neanderthal; Apidima 1 was a skull of Homo sapiens.
Second, the human skull is older than the Neanderthal skull next to it – 50,000 years older. The human was dated 210,000 years old, the Neanderthal 170,000 years old.
Third, Apidima 1 is considerably older than all other Homo sapiens fossils from Europe, all of which are 40,000 years old or younger.
Fourth, it pushes back the known presence of modern humans outside of Africa by some 30,000 years. The previous record belonged to a modern human jawbone, dated 180,000 years old, found at Misliya Cave on Mount Carmel in Israel.
Fifth, it brings more clarity to a couple of Neanderthal mysteries. Advanced stone tools have been found in caves with Neanderthal bones, presenting a problem. Either Neanderthals were more advanced and human-like, or the tools came from some unknown people-group. Now it is believed those tools were made by human beings, like Apidima 1. Scientists assumed that the extinction of Neanderthals some 30,000 years ago was due to the invasion of the much more advanced Homo sapiens sapiens into Europe from out of Africa. This theory is now in question since humans had been coexisting with Neanderthals in Europe some 190,000 years before their extinction. Furthermore, there is abundant genetic evidence that early Homo sapiens and Homo Neanderthal interbred*.
Figure 4 Map of Ancient Human Migration (credit: Nature)
Figure 4 provides an interesting picture of the migration of ancient humans. Most scientists would agree that modern man, Homo sapiens sapiens, had his earliest beginnings somewhere in Africa. Bones and skulls found at Florisbad, South Africa (260,000 years old) and at Jabel Irhoud, Morocco (315,000 years old) strengthen this theory. The surprise is just how early modern humans colonized the Middle East and Europe (210,000 years ago with Apidima 1). But the picture becomes muddled with genetics – modern humans possessing significant amounts of Neanderthal and Denisovan genes.
We are left with far more questions than answers. Is evolution the tool used by our Creator, or did he simply “speak” humans into existence? If it were possible to obtain a sample of Adam’s DNA, would it contain any Neanderthal or Denisovan genes? Was the Garden of Eden in Africa or in the Middle East? When God punished Cain and drove him to the land of Nod, who were those people Cain feared, and why was there even a city for Cain to live in? Was Apidima 1 a true modern human like us – genetically – perhaps we’ll know in a few years? Was Apidima 1 made in God’s image? Did Adam come from a genetic population of at least 10,000 individuals (as scientists estimate), or was he a single historical figure (a literal biblical position)?
Welcome to the ever-changing world of scientific discoveries. It certainly gives us much to ponder. Remember, God is the author of nature and the Bible; he is in perfect harmony with each.
*Neanderthal genes have been found in humans with Asian and European heritage; there are no Neanderthal genes in sub-Saharan Africans. Humans are generally classified Homo sapiens; Neanderthals are classified Homo Neanderthalensis. Mammals sharing the same genus, like Homo, can interbreed, but their offspring are infertile (exp. horse plus donkey produces a mule). Because Neanderthal genes are found in human populations, a more accurate classification would be Homo sapiens sapiens and Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, making both same genus and species but of different sub-species. The same can be said of the Denisovins living from Siberia to Australia – Homo sapiens denisovan.
An article was published in the April 22, 2020 issue of Nature Magazine regarding a human genome project conducted in Iceland called “deCODE”. The study used African sequences of the human genome as a baseline, because it had zero introgression (contamination) from Neanderthals. The Icelander genomes were analyzed for Neanderthal contribution, the result of ancient interbreeding with modern humans. The results were shocking! 14,400,000 fragments of Neanderthal were found in the Icelander genome; this established 112,709 unique sequences that collectively constituted 48 percent of the Neanderthal genome. 1% to 4% of Icelander genomes are Neanderthal! Since they exhibit no Neanderthal contamination, Africans represent the purist genetic example of modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens).
