We modern humans are smug about our progress through time. No longer do we hunt, kill, and build a fire to enjoy our dinner. We don’t make love in desperation and hope we live to see the sunrise; however, we have retained certain behavioral patterns and personality traits from those early days, and they remain ingrained in our personalities and cultures. Yes, we advanced and changed everything around us, making it possible for the weak and silliest among us to thrive. Yet, despite our advances and pretenses of modernity, we are the same basic creatures who sought shelter in caves and worried about having a meal the next day. These were our ancestors and it is who we are.
During a glacial maximum of a more recent Ice Age, fifty thousand years ago, there was massive drought throughout the world. The ice fields covering most of North America, Europe, and Asia, were a mile high, and had a great thirst for the earth’s water. Thus a large percentage of the world’s water was locked in ice. Oceans were one hundred and forty meters more shallow and the coastlines of the continents extended a hundred to three hundred kilometers farther out. The lush, green valleys of North Africa, home to many of the earth’s ten thousand people, were becoming deserts. Faced with migration or starvation, the human race was on the move.
There were rumors of great rivers with rich bounties of fish, vast sources of edible plants, and many animals to hunt on the Mammoth Steppe. One of the world’s greatest biomes, this vast grassland was south of the ice, for several hundred kilometers, and stretched from Spain to the Yukon. Many tribes had already left Africa; some of them were capable of hunting the mammoths and mastodons and other large dangerous animals that thrived on the Mammoth Steppe. Over generations, these hardy Stone Age people enjoyed a protein-rich diet, and became virtual giants. As dangerous as the animals they hunted, they were territorial and known to kill intruders. There were also Near People or Neanderthals, who could effortlessly crush a man’s chest with beastly power. Water and life was near the ice; to survive the changing climate of a harsher, colder world, people had to adapt or die.
This story follows the migration of a family through the maternal line, by tracing a strain of mitochondrial DNA. This particular strain of DNA was unique because it gave a few women uncommon intellect and creative abilities, beginning with the skill to sculpt magnificent tools from flint. These well-made tools became valuable trade items and often kept tribal members from starving, by trading tools for meat with the unpredictable mammoth hunters. These gifted women also provided ideas and creative solutions during times of crisis. We, the readers, get a realistic view of life during the primitive eras and an appreciation of how fragile our veil of civilization is.
Our ancestors explored the earth, in a desperate search to find reliable sources of food. To eat, make love, have children, and watch them mature—these were measures of success, in a world of frequent tragedies and brief moments of joy. The story of survival begins 50,000 years ago and we can follow these women as they walk through time, and into the modern era, facing adversity and reality as providers and problem solvers.
Fifty Thousand Years is available as an ebook with Amazon. It is supposed to be out in paperback at any time. Of course it raises many controversial issues and will hopefully cause the PC crowd to regroup. If you aren’t involved in controversy, it’s a great story with many themes and twists of plot.
If you buy it, please write a commentary on Amazon
I will be back to my old haunt, here FA, but with wild ideas and stories. I have too many stories and not enough time to write them down.
Dylan Casa del Lobos is a pen name and an old family name.
A professional horseman for over 50 years, Skook continues to work with horses. Skook has finished an historical novel, Fifty Thousand Years, that traces a mitochondrial line of DNA from 50,000 years ago to the present. The story follows a line of courageous women, from the Ice Ages to the present, as they meet the challenges of survival with grit and creativity. These are not women who whimper of being victims, they meet the challenges of survival as women who use their abilities without excuses or remorse, these women are winners, they are our ancestors.
Fifty Thousand Years is available in paperback and e-book, it is getting great reviews. You can purchase a copy here; Visit me on Facebook.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dylantheauthor
Skook- Good to see you back. I was wondering where you have been.
Howdy AV, it’s good to be back, thank you.
I was determined to see this project through to the conclusion. The writing didn’t take that long, but the rest of it was time consuming.
given the way the X and Y chromosomes work..
there is a twist in here..
and no, Mitochondria do not only come from women
its called paternal mtDNA transmission
Paternal mtDNA inheritance is observed in a small proportion of species; in general, mtDNA is passed unchanged from a mother to her offspring, making it an example of non-Mendelian inheritance.
Since the father’s mtDNA is located in the sperm midpiece (the mitochondrial sheath), which is lost at fertilization, all children of the same mother are hemizygous for maternal mtDNA and are thus identical to each other and to their mother. Because of its cytoplasmic location in eukaryotes, mtDNA does not undergo meiosis and there is normally no crossing-over, hence there is no opportunity for introgression of the father’s mtDNA. All mtDNA is thus inherited maternally; mtDNA has been used to infer the pedigree of the well-known “mitochondrial Eve.”
It is now understood that the tail of the sperm, which contains additional mtDNA, may also enter the egg.
The controversy about human paternal leakage was summed up in the 1996 study Misconceptions about mitochondria and mammalian fertilization: Implications for theories on human evolution
we do not know if this mitochondria came from women, as it is a captured critter from way way back. and does not change very much… its the male that is the genetic experimentation (which is why the group of women is more homogeneous and the group of men have more mental cases and more geniuses… you cant have a one sided coin, so thats why the bs in feminism is the bs… they are the RESERVE of intelligence in the species, which we are now losing).
see Heteroplasmy…
Heteroplasmy is the presence of more than one type of organellar genome (mitochondrial DNA or plastid DNA) within a cell or individual. It is an important factor in considering the severity of mitochondrial diseases. Because most eukaryotic cells contain many hundreds of mitochondria with hundreds of copies of mitochondrial DNA, it is common for mutations to affect only some mitochondria, leaving most unaffected.
Although detrimental scenarios are well-studied, heteroplasmy can also be beneficial. For example, centenarians show a higher than average degree of heteroplasmy.
Microheteroplasmy is present in most individuals. This refers to hundreds of independent mutations in one organism, with each mutation found in about 1–2% of all mitochondrial genomes
@Skook:
You probably had to do some in depth research in order to make it historically accurate. Historical accuracy. What a novel idea in times of such creative geniuses as Oliver Stone, Robert Redford, Al Gore, and Michael Moore!
@another vet: I loved the research. There are some recent fascinating scientific finds that are changing our knowledge of early humans. There is just to much material to cover in one book.
My first manuscript was 154,000 words. I was told that no one will read such large book by an unknown; so I cut it down to a 100,000. The average novel is between 60,000 and 80,000. So I was still taking a gamble.
It is something I enjoy, and because of my age, I only have 10 or 15 years more with the horses. I’ve already outlasted nearly all of my compatriots and many of the younger ones. So this writing gig will be a good way to spend the rest of my life.
Back when some crack-pot scientists claims that Nebraskas Platt River would Dry Up and in 2011 some scientists claimed that kids would Never Know Snow anymore and still their predicting this poppycock. What they are is a bunch of False Prophets and Al Gore is their leader
@Skook: Live life to its fullest. What type of new finds have been made about early humans? That sounds like something I’d like to check out.
AV this is an interesting page that can lead to many more.
I am negotiating for audio and trying to get my tax papers correct for the paperback; gone are the days when the writer only needed a notebook and an ink pen.
I will get back with you on this.
Theorys evolve https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-out-of-africa-theory-out/
Just proves there is no such thing as settled science.
@kitt: That was a good find.
I used to read Scientific American, before it became a Liberal propaganda platform.
There were several other human species or “sub-human” species scattered around the world at the 50,000 BP mark. Classifying these people as sub-humans has been convenient for traditional thinking, but there are many secrets that are yet to be uncovered. The DNA of fossilized man is often recovered in the molar root stems and it is still viable after 10,000’s of years.
Studying the crowns of molars seems dubious to me, since early man’s teeth were usually worn out by forty years of age.
AV, I am sorry, I didn’t post the link.
Good to hear from you again Skook! I went to buy the book but only saw a kindle version…and I don’t have a Kindle. Will there be a hard copy?
P.S. Love the cover!
PoppaT, It will read on your computer, Kindle just manages the ebook. The paperback is being mailed to me to proofread one final time, after I give the go ahead it will be in print. It will probably be two or three weeks; since it is being mailed to my farm and I am working a thousand miles away.
The audio book is the the next stage. Each stage is a gigantic education for me, and all I want to do is write some more stories Thanks for your interest.
Let me know if you have problems, but I think the purchase and reading will go smoothly. I read the Kindle on my Apple with no problems.
@Skook: Please give us a heads up when it hits paperback!