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Are You Man or Mouse?

fygment writes "... according to recent studies. It seems were more closely related to rodents than the carnivores i.e. the primates didn't evolve from the noble jungle cats, wolves, etc. Were closer to rats. Of course this has long been suspected in lawyers and SCO execs ..."

72 comments

  1. mouse are humans too.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    so watch your tounge when you are saying they are lawyers.. or even SCO execs.. you insensitive clod!

    1. Re:mouse are humans too.. by BrokenHalo · · Score: 4, Funny

      I thought they had been using lawyers for laboratory experiments for some time. They're more plentiful than mice or rats. The only trouble they've had is reproducing the results in humans.

    2. Re:mouse are humans too.. by blancolioni · · Score: 1

      And there's some things a rat just won't do.

  2. Biology I by InsaneCreator · · Score: 4, Funny

    Of course this has long been suspected in lawyers and SCO execs ...

    I believe you are having trouble telling the difference between rodents and dung beetles.

    1. Re:Biology I by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How dare you insult dung beetles!

      They perform useful work by burying shit in the soil so it can nurture plants rather than just sitting on the surface attracting flies!

      Unlike lawyers and SCO execs who just seem to wallow in shit and fling it at whoever is the enemy-de-jour of whoever's paying them...

    2. Re:Biology I by __seeker_h__ · · Score: 2, Funny

      According to my Monstrous Manual, beetles and rodents are both vermin. So there can't be too much of a difference...

      --
      "Did you know you can do calculus without a calculator?"
    3. Re:Biology I by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Is "vermin" a Family or Genus in the philogeny?

      Inquiring minds want to know...

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
  3. Recent? by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 4, Informative
    I believe that this "news" has been known for nearly all of the 20th century. I'm not sure where the article gets off talking about:
    recently proposed trees of mammalian evolution indicating that primates (human, chimpanzee, baboon) are more closely related to rodents (mouse, rat) than to carnivores (cat, dog) or artiodactyls (cow, pig).
    1. Re:Recent? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      You .sig is interesting. Thanks to some sort of fundie science, we can replace the act of destroying a non-thinking non-sentient bundle of cells with a non-stop baby factory, a steady stream of unwanted people being spat out of batteries of artificial wombs. And whereas there are deep moral issues that deter most women from using abortion as a standard contraceptive at present, this "replacement" has no such deterence.

      I'm really not sure that this is an improvement. I wonder if the people cheering this on as a way of over turning Roe vs Wade have seriously considered the consequences.

    2. Re:Recent? by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      If you'd like to discuss this, we can do it in the comments section of my site.

    3. Re:Recent? by kramer2718 · · Score: 4, Informative

      According to the Tree of Life Web Project, all the animals mentioned (rodents, felines, humans) belong to the infraclass Eutheria (placental mammals).

      If you look closely at the tree, you will see that the Tree of Life does indeed have order Rodentia closer to the order Primates. I recall learning this in high-school biology, also.

      Yes this does seem to be a bit of old news.

    4. Re:Recent? by RobotWisdom · · Score: 2, Insightful
      The interesting point is that junk DNA has some still-unknown function, so the disappointing figure of 30,000 genes isn't as bad as we feared.

      Regarding mice-etc, primates began as shrews who climbed trees and developed their eyesight, mammalian carnivores like cats evolved much later from the shrews that stayed on the ground.

  4. Prevalent beneficial mutation is evolution.. by E_elven · · Score: 3, Funny

    ..but that doesn't explain why my tail is on the front side.

    --
    Marxist evolution is just N generations away!
  5. This story writeup by skookum · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The blurb from "fygment" must have been written by a mouse, as there's hardly a complete sentence in that jumble of incoherent fragments. I find this situation has become all too common on slashdot recently. If you can't be bothered to write a cohesive paragraph with complete sentences, then stop submitting to slashdot. You may not think it's important, but when you write things that will be read by a number of people it is essential. Use whatever style you want in email or IM but if you're going to submit something for public consumption you should take the time to learn how to use English, otherwise you just come off looking like a rambling idiot.

    1. Re:This story writeup by Associate · · Score: 1, Offtopic
      Could be worse. I work with people who can't conjugate verbs, use the wrong 'to' and just can't speak English. They send countless internal documents based on previous mail messages where they cut and paste the same piss-poor spelling and grammar.
      Example:
      Would you have someone from your team to look for part number XXXXXXX?

      They make ol' fygments (sic) look like a Pulitzer.
      --
      Someone hates these cans.
    2. Re:This story writeup by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seems we forgot the apostrophe's, thus confirming our mouse status. Should read: "... according to recent studies, it seems we're more closely related to rodents than the carnivores i.e. the primates didn't evolve from the noble jungle cats, wolves, etc. We're closer to rats. Of course this has long been suspected in lawyers and SCO execs ..."

    3. Re:This story writeup by RobertB-DC · · Score: 1

      I don't play Grammarian very often, but you've got a valid (if offtopic) point. But you really don't go far enough:

      Use whatever style you want in email or IM...

      I disagree with this premise, because "practice makes perfect" only works if you're practicing perfectly (you can thank my daughter's piano teacher for that one). I don't care if it's email, IM, or a sticky-note on your monitor... what's it going to hurt to do it right?

      Of course, my 12-year-old just rolls her eyes when I tell her to write her emails in complete sentences. I ph33r for the fate of the next generation.

      --
      Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
    4. Re:This story writeup by RobertB-DC · · Score: 1

      Example:
      Would you have someone from your team to look for part number XXXXXXX?


      Bad example. In defense of "effective-enough communications", I'd like to point out that the error you highlighted didn't detract from my understanding of the message.

      I can understand how someone in a hurry (or without a college-level education) could add the "to" and put "look" in the infinitive. In fact, if I go to look at the sentence long enough, it looks just fine!

      --
      Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
  6. were by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    were rats are awesome!

    Oh you meant we're rats...

  7. Qickie? by Associate · · Score: 1

    Does this explain pack rats?

    --
    Someone hates these cans.
  8. 42 by Hungus · · Score: 4, Funny

    But we knew this all along after all the mice built this planet

    "Mice are not, as is commonly assumed on Earth, small white squeaking animals who spend a lot of time being experimented on.

    In fact, they are the protrusions into our dimension of hyper-intellegent pan-dimensional beings. These beings are in fact responsible for the creation of the Earth."

    See the video here waning its real media

    --
    Bad Panda! No Bamboo for you! In matters of importance ACs will not be responded to. Want to say something critical,OK
    1. Re:42 by ratfynk · · Score: 1

      We really are coming to the end of the epoc, there is a Vogon Constructor just outside the orbit of the Sun. Doe was right he just went to early, get the pills Doe here I come........

      --
      OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
  9. wha...? by Tumbleweed · · Score: 2, Funny

    > i.e. the primates didn't evolve from the noble jungle cats, wolves, etc.

    And just who the hell ever thought they _had_? This is hardly news for anyone who went through public school in the U.S. in the last, oh, 25 years or so. This is analogous to saying, "It turns out the Moon isn't made of recycled condoms." Okay, I think we already knew that.

    1. Re:wha...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It turns out the moon is actually made out of dickcheese collected from insides of recycled condoms.

  10. Re:Uhh by DeltaHat · · Score: 2, Funny

    And what your proof against evolution?

  11. Re:Uhh by keesh · · Score: 0, Troll

    What did trolls evolve from?

  12. common knowledge by 2057 · · Score: 1

    wasnt this found out like years ago, i thought it was common knowledge..

    --
    For The Best Jazz/Hip-hop fusion > COlD DUCK
  13. MAll rats by schnits0r · · Score: 1

    Does this explain the Mallrats?

  14. The best laid plans of mice... by quinkin · · Score: 4, Funny
    The best laid plans of mice...

    And men.

    What have men got to do with this?

    Q.

    --
    Insert Signature Here
  15. Tree of life online by njchick · · Score: 4, Informative
    You can browse the tree of life starting from its root. If we descend to mammals, we'll see that lines that lead to rodents, primates and carnivors all start in the same point. Of course, it's unlikely that several branches start in the same point of evolution. It's more likely that the tree divides into two branches and then divides again.

    Perhaps this research will allow to make some adjustments to the tree. However, there are already interesting facts in the current version. For example, bats are closer to primates than most other mammals. On the other hand, armadillos must have branched very early, although they did it after opossums.

    1. Re:Tree of life online by axolotl_farmer · · Score: 1

      The multiple branches reflect an unresolved relationship or an uncertainty. See my other post for more info.

  16. This has been a well known fact by mnmn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The mammalian line forks into one group that goes on to split into felines and canines, and another that further splits into rodents and primates.

    Next this poster will post an article that says Birds are closer to reptiles than to humans. I'm no biologist but I can tell when someone tries to pass an encyclopaedia fact for a breakthrough news.

    --
    "Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
  17. Zuh? by Syncdata · · Score: 1

    That same bit of text jumped out at me as well. This article is hyped as saying we're closer to rats then anything else, but really, it's still just saying that primates (human, chimpanzee, baboon) are closer to rats then we are to cats, dogs, cows, and pigs.
    Thanks, I couldn't have figured that myself. I suppose the follow up article is that cats, dogs, cows and pigs are closer to rats then they are to fish.
    What a non story.

    --
    "Inattention makes clowns of us all" -Bean
  18. What about chickens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    What about chickens?

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/535945.stm

  19. And if your a mouse... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Do you only have one button?

  20. Great now they think we evolved from rats! by Eat+Shit+A-Hole · · Score: 0

    This is just fucking great. Were all rats now jesus christ what will they think of next? we are really related to some dolphin beacuse they are so smart?

    --
    Sorry was in bad mood when made account :)
  21. summary by gooru · · Score: 2, Informative

    In case you have no idea what the submission actually says (I must've read it ten times over before giving up), this is the one from the top of the article:

    Summary: A pioneering study comparing the genes of 13 species has uncovered clues to how the vertebrate family tree might have evolved. One intriguing result is that primates, including humans, are closer to rodents than carnivores or cows and pigs. Many pieces of DNA that don't even code for proteins in all these species however are conserved, suggesting that even so-called 'junk' DNA may have an important role in biology.

  22. Steinbeck by gooru · · Score: 5, Funny

    So, I suppose this means the title of Steinbeck's book Of Mice and Men is redundant.

  23. Explain why this was posted... by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    ... or do the decent thing and pull it off the site.

    Editors need some basic depth in the fields discussed at least to ensure they don't make a mockery target of themselves and the site in general.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
    1. Re:Explain why this was posted... by ratfynk · · Score: 1

      Go play quake three and wonder why genetics stories make it to a post about science. This is a hell of a to the point scientific post. Grow TFU, or only use your computer to play games, and be another /. lame brain.

      --
      OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
    2. Re:Explain why this was posted... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You uncomprimising defense of abject mediocrity has not gone unnoticed citizen. Great leader is pleased. When the revolotion comes, your efforts will be rewarded with additional nutra-packs for you and your spawn.

    3. Re:Explain why this was posted... by ratfynk · · Score: 1

      I quake in fear....like the little mouse over there who actually started the story. Give Michel due credit for not being an anon poster. Further the ability to use the area on the genome (once thought to be fluff) to help understand the tree of life is something very contraversial and very much a good slashdot science topic. If you are involved in genetics at all you need to have your head read now, stop your research and go see a shrink before continuing!

      --
      OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
  24. Well Dah??? by ratfynk · · Score: 1, Troll

    We are closely related to creatures that climb trees to escape preditors, we have been known to do the same. I was once treed by a Grizzly myself. Humans have been on the carnivor diner list in the past and in some situations they still are. It should come as no suprise that we are closer in genetics to rats than cats. Rodents can be very preditory in the right situation. I am not at all suprised by these findings. Unfortunately the ignorant religous fundimentalists are going to have another reason to bash genetic science. I would not be suprised if these scientific result are not at all popular. You can bet some scientists will be hired to repute them the same way they did with Darwin.

    --
    OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
  25. Not news by ralphclark · · Score: 1

    I believe it has already been the consensus for many years that primates and rodents had a common rodent-like ancestor. So all this really does is confirm what we already knew, in the face of some minor wacko fringe theory about cat ancestors that nobody paid any attention to anyway.

  26. No by axolotl_farmer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Tha part of the tree you refer to is unresolved , a polytomy.

    What is important in a phylogenetic tree is branching order. When the branching order is uncertain or ambiguous, a polytomy is put in place. The placement of the branches in a polytomy are usually arbitrary, or in alphabetical order.

    From the tree, you can tell that primates are most closely related to tree shrews, and that the group (primates + tree shrews) in turn is most closely related to bats and colugos.

  27. I call troll. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are aware that bears can climb trees, aren't you?

    1. Re:I call troll. by ratfynk · · Score: 1

      Troll away but a 500-700lb grizz finds going up a thin branched skinny tree a little difficult and usually has trouble getting up trees in general. Claws can't quite hold the weight. A 400 lb black bear is a different story. You get out of the way of a snorting, barking Grizz and they will usually leave you be. Just kind of stamp off knowing they are boss, if they are just trying to tell you to fuck off. If the Grizzly is thinking you are food though you are toast. Blacks are a different story if they think you are dinner then you had better make them hesitate by whacking them hard with a stick. In my case the Grizzly hesitated to climb the tree and really was not sure if I was edible or not, I smelled funny too as insect repelant and a guy who is fishing and hasn't washed for a week gets a little high. Anyway the guys who I was with could hear me yellin' and came running with a bear banger. That put the bear off real quick. He dicided to go look for lunch somewhere else. I was happy with his choice and did not hold a grudge. Afterall we were both after fish him anything that swims me steelhead to shake hands with.

      --
      OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
  28. Re: Uhh by Black+Parrot · · Score: 3, Insightful


    > That is, of course, if you buy into the farce of evolution. I've never seen a generation so inclinced to believe a lie without proof. If you'd think for yourself, and not read the textbooks, you might realize that evolution isn't even an option.

    Not read the textbooks? Sounds like "stay ignorant" is the key to your plan for understanding the universe.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  29. Re:I am amazed by magores · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I noticed that I got modded as off-topic my posting above.

    In my own defense, if you take a look at the post that I was replying to, it is actually on the topic of THAT post.

    Of course, that post was probably off-topic, so by extension, mine is as well.

    Oh well, I'll take my lashings in good humor.

  30. That's old news!! by Gamasta · · Score: 0, Troll

    These pictures will explain it all (the girl in red)

    Pic #1
    Pic #2

    A very funny Brazilian comic.

    --
    reason defies logic
  31. 42 by Sleepindog · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, i guess you could argue that we are descended from mice, in that we are their creation (to find the ultimate question)

    PS Unless I'm one of the inferior parts of this computer and didn't see it, I'm surprised there was no D.Adams reference before.

  32. I, for one, by QEDog · · Score: 3, Funny

    I, for one, welcome our new rodent overlords!

    --
    "There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
  33. This comes as no surprise to me by tsa · · Score: 1

    I often heard that rats are used so much as test animals in laboratories because they react similarly to humans when you expose them to chemicals, lack or abundance of food etc.

    --

    -- Cheers!

  34. Re:Uhh by DeltaSigma · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is still the center of a heated debate. With modern genetic science we've determined that trolls lay somewhere between the rodent and the lawyer ( with SCO executives up next). Yet there's clearly still a large difference between rodents and trolls, and many scientists feel that the only way to settle the debate will be to find a half-rodent half-troll step. The deep jungles of Africa and Redmond, WA are focal points for this search currently.

    One thing remains clear, your modern homosapien very clearly branches off from the modern SCO executive at the rodent.

  35. Species habits by phorm · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As an owner of pet rats, one thing I've noticed is their sometimes disturbing similarities to humans in habit.

    At one point, my two female rats were constantly squeeking and making noise at night. No problem, nocturnal animals, they're just more active in the dark. However, I also noticed that oftimes when I turned on the lights, that the rodents were "cleaning each other" in a position often labelled as a number just shy of seventy.
    Now, at first I dismissed this, thinking that I was imagining things. However, after talking to several rat owners and a few petshops, I have garnered that this can indeed be more than simply a hygienic practice.

    Afterwards, I'd throw things at the cage when they made too much noise to shut them up. At least until one morning after I found they'd dragged in the shirt I'd thrown and perforated it for nesting material. I liked that shirt too.

    Now, I've got two new rats. They don't often exhibit the same behavior as the old ones, but sometimes they will. I'm considering breeding one of them (baby rodents being quite cute 'n all), and I wonder if this will change their behavior towards each other after the babies have grown (and one rat has had an encounter of the opposite sex as opposed to the same). And of course, if I got enough rats perhaps I could make some of this

  36. Legend of The Slashdot Overfiend: Now Casting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Is it prehensile? I've always had this dream of making a live action version of La Blue Girl, and you might have just what I've been looking for in a leading man.

  37. Lawyers for experiments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...yeah but the researchers don't get as attached to the lawyers as they do to the mice.

  38. No... by The+Lynxpro · · Score: 1

    We are DEVO!

    --
    "Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
  39. these people just don't get it by SHEENmaster · · Score: 1

    according to the great guide, mice made the Earth. Humans such as ourselves evolved from the useless third of a lost civilization that was wiped out by a payphone-spread virus.

    --
    You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
  40. Obligatory furry reference by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why, neither, of course.

    I'm a fox, you insensitive clod!

  41. Re:Uhh by danny256 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I'm a troll, and I'll tell you. The reason I troll is because I'm forced to read slashdot because its a good tech news website, but I also use windows and hate open source and linux and in general disagree with most of the agendas being pushed on slashdot. So I troll as an AC as a way to vent my rage. If you want to reduce the number of trolls of slashdot, fix the corrupt moderation system so that my pro MS comments have a chance of not being modded troll. I think the first step would be to remove unlimited mod points from the editors (Michael).

    One more thing, the grandparent was not a troll, but a flamebait.

  42. Re: Uhh by Copid · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Exactly. My favorite thing about this debate is people who think that the textbooks and established science are a bad way to go. "Use common sense," they say. If science were all just common sense, people wouldn't devote their lives to scientific study. Quantum mechanics isn't common sense. Relativity is not common sense. Lay people generally accept those ideas because they see generations of physicists who have spent their lives in intensive study of those subjects, and they see the results of the work. Suddenly, when it comes to biology, everybody is enough of an expert to laugh at those silly academics.

    Why people think that the core ideas of biology should be something you can accept or reject after a few minutes of armchair quarterback thought without so much as a textbook is beyond me. The arrogance is astounding.

    --
    An interesting anagram of "BANACH TARSKI" is "BANACH TARSKI BANACH TARSKI"
  43. Re: Uhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    Black Parrot squawked:
    Not read the textbooks? Sounds like "stay ignorant" is the key to your plan for understanding the universe.
    Reading the textbooks is the best way to stay ignorant. They have lies in them like Haeckel's embryos, Miller-Urey as proving abiogenesis, and peppered moths as proof of evolution. Pick up any intro bio textbook and you'll see some of those in there.

    Nah, the textbooks have too much junque in them. Get rid of the "must prove evolution even if we have to use arguments proven wrong 125 years ago" approach and maybe you'd get some respect.

    Get rid of the "fossils date the rocks, but the rocks date the fossils more accurately" circular logic.

    Deal with hard science, not speculation. Then textbooks and science would gain more respect.
  44. not surprising... by ravenousbugblatter · · Score: 1

    There's a reason most reseachers use mice and rats, and it's not just because of size. Scientists have known for some time that we are most similar to mice in some respects, escpecially in how our immune systems function.

  45. Re: Uhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, because the bible is the ultimate source for factual information. God is infallible, so it has to be true.