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Genetic studies on Andamanese reveals new ancestor of humans
Kolkata:Genomic analysis of the Jarawas and Onge tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar islands has yielded “strong” evidence of existence of a new ancestor of humans, according to an international team of researchers.
In addition, the scientists have also shed light on the mystery of the short height of the Andamanese ethnic tribes.
“People have speculated that there could be more ancestors to the human and these ancestors are offshoots of the Heidelberg man,” Partha Majumder, director National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), told IANS.
Neanderthals, Denisovans, and modern humans are all considered to have descended from Homo heidelbergensis (the Heidelberg man) that appeared around 600,000 years ago in Ethiopia.
“What we have been able to show is that there is strong possibility that there is at least one more ancestor and we have found the segments of this new ancestor, not found in either the Neanderthal or the Denisovan,” Majumder said.
Published in the Nature Genetics journal on July 25, the work is a collaborative effort between the NIBMG Kalyani, an autonomous institution of India’s Department of Biotechnology, and Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), a joint centre of Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
Majumder stressed: “Remains of this extinct hominid have not yet been recovered, but our results provide definitive evidence that Homo heidelbergensis had given rise to multiple lineages, not just the Neanderthal and the Denisovan.”
“And we have dated the segments of the genome and it goes back to about 40,000 years ago. That’s the third group of ancestors from whom we have descended.”
The current view of human evolution is that about 2 million years ago Homo erectus evolved in Africa. This species gave rise to a new species – Homo heidelbergensis. About 400,000 years ago, Homo heidelbergensis came out of Africa, and split into two lineages.
One of these lineages gave rise to Neanderthals after moving to Europe from Africa, through the Middle East. The other lineage gave rise to the Denisovans (a finger bone of this species was recovered from the Denisova cave in Russia).
Homo heidelbergensis also evolved into Homo sapiens in Africa about 200,000 years ago. Modern humans, Homo sapiens sapiens, evolved in Africa about 80,000 years ago.
“When comparing the DNA sequences of the Jarawas and the Onges with those of Neanderthals and Denisovans, we have found some notable differences. By exploring various possibilities that could have given rise to these differences, we have concluded that these DNA fragments belong to an extinct hominid that shares a common ancestor with the Neanderthal and the Denisovan but has a different history.”
Further, the team sought to understand and identify the ancestral components in the genomes of the Andamanese by sequencing whole genomes of 60 individuals drawn from a carefully sampled set of diverse ethnic groups of mainland India and 10 Jarawas and Onges.
“For comparative purposes and for drawing more robust inferences, we also downloaded data available in the public domain pertaining to diverse human groups as also to primates. We have concluded that natural selection has favoured the retention of short height among the Jarawas and Onges,” Majumder said.
The other authors of the paper are Mayukh Mondal (lead author), F. Casals, H. Zheng, GM Dall’Olio, M Pybus, Netea MG, D Comas, H Laayouni, Li Q, and J Bertranpetit.A
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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